Codeception is a PHP testing framework designed specifically to perform tests at various levels of an application. It allows not only writing unit tests but also integration tests and acceptance tests. The main goal of Codeception is to make testing PHP applications more efficient and comfortable by providing a well-structured and easily understandable syntax for writing tests.
Compared to pure unit testing frameworks like PHPUnit, Codeception provides additional features and abstractions to support different types of tests:
Unit Tests: Just like PHPUnit, Codeception allows you to write unit tests to test individual components or classes in isolation.
Integration Tests: Codeception enables testing interactions between different components and parts of an application to ensure they work correctly together.
Acceptance Tests: These tests verify the application's behavior from a user's perspective. With Codeception, you can write tests that simulate user interface interactions.
Functional Tests: These are tests that examine the behavior and functionality of the application in various scenarios, often by interacting with APIs or backend services.
Codeception offers a simple and expressive syntax for writing tests, as well as integration with various PHP frameworks and technologies. It also supports the use of "test doubles" like mocks and stubs to isolate external dependencies and simplify testing.