Question

Possible Duplicate:
Best practices to test protected methods with PHPUnit

class Footer
{
  private $_isEnabled;

  public function __construct(){
    $this->_isEnabled = true;
  }

  public function disable(){
    $this->_isEnabled = false;
  }  
}

When I am writing a unit test for the disable function after I set _isEanabled to false, I want to assert whether or not it is false.

But how can I access $_isEnabled?

This is my test function:

public function testDisable(){
  $footer = new Footer();
  $footer->disable();
  $this->assertFalse($footer->_isEnable);
}

Answer 1

Short answer:

You cannot. That’s what PRIVATE means…

Long answer:

You can do it using reflection:

http://php.net/manual/en/book.reflection.php

It is a bit complicated, though, and adds another layer prone to fail so it is not the best way for testing…

I rather prefer to create a getter function:

public function getEnabled() {
   return $this->_isEnabled;
}

But if you have not done it as simple, I think you do not want to create it… but given the alternatives, you may reconsider it.