private or protected class properties

Question

I'm looking at a class in CRM_Utils_Cache here specificly and it looks exactly like what I need to write some unit tests against my extension.

The issue is that the $cache array is private rather than protected...

This means I can't extend this class into a test mock that allows my unit tests to manipulate and observe the cache state.

For this reason I'm wonder if there is a downside to changing this (and maybe other) properties to protected?

I see there is a get() and set() public function to store and retrieve values in _cache. Are you not able to use them ? — jitendra - fuzion, Commented Dec 28, 2016 at 13:19
Not to count the cache entries or inspect without knowing what the key is @jitendrapurohit — ErichBSchulz, Commented Dec 28, 2016 at 22:18

Coleman · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-01 03:44:35Z

3

I think submitting a PR to make this variable protected would be perfectly reasonable.

Alternatively, there is a way to access private properties in PHP for the sake of unit testing via Reflection. It's slightly cludgy but it does work.

answered Jan 1, 2017 at 3:44

Coleman

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mmm - hard to know which to prefer of those 2 methods - wasn't aware of reflection technique - it seems like a reasonable approach for unit testing where you're allowed to do naughty things with mocks?
– ErichBSchulz
Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 8:18
Yea but in this case I think making the variable protected really wouldn't hurt anything. Go ahead and submit the PR and save the Reflection in your back pocket, you'll probably find a use for it later.
– Coleman
Commented Jan 1, 2017 at 15:59
cool thanks for the advice! PR: here
– ErichBSchulz
Commented Jan 2, 2017 at 2:12

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