# Testing Plugins There are any number of ways to unit test WordPress plugins, but the *right* way would be the *WordPress* way. For that, we're talking a simple 3 step process: 1. [Installing WP-CLI](/testing/testing_plugins.md#installing-wp-cli) 2. [Scaffolding your Plugin](/testing/testing_plugins.md#scaffolding-your-plugin) 3. [Writing your tests](/testing/testing_plugins.md#writing-your-tests) ## Installing WP-CLI [WP-CLI](https://wp-cli.org/) provides a command line interface for WordPress. It's a simple PHP Phar file which can be downloaded and installed on most *nix systems (with limited support for Windows). You can install it from terminal using the following commands. On Windows, you can perform all of these steps on WSL2-based* nix systems without issue. ```bash curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wp-cli/builds/gh-pages/phar/wp-cli.phar chmod +x wp-cli.phar sudo mv wp-cli.phar /usr/local/bin/wp ``` ## Install a local WordPress repository WP-CLI requires an installed WordPress repository to perform the next step. When working on developing WordPress plugins and themes, it's always best to have as many WordPress versions as possible. For that purpose, it's best to use the WordPress Git repository. ```bash git clone git@github.com:wordpress/wordpress ``` By using the above command to clone the WordPress Github repository, you will be able to run the bleeding edge version of WordPress locally, and test your plugins against *any* version of WordPress core. ## Scaffolding your Plugin Once WP-CLI and WordPress are installed, you will be able to use WP-CLI to scaffold your plugins. This scaffolding provides you with a base level for your plugins, including everything that you will need to get started with properly testing your plugins with phpunit. There are two main commands. The first is focused on scaffolding the entire plugin, while the second is focused on adding test scaffolding to existing plugins. ### Scaffolding a Brand New Plugin ```bash wp scaffold plugin ``` ### Scaffolding Plugin Tests to Existing Plugins ```bash wp scaffold plugin-tests ``` Both of these commands must be run from inside a WordPress repository. You can see the full list of options for the scaffold command on the [WP-CLI Docs](https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/scaffold/). ## Writing your tests By default, with the scaffolding, tests are assumed to be [unit tests](/testing/theory/unit_testing.md). Test files are stored inside the plugin directory in `/tests`. Test files bust be written with the file name format `test-.php`. WordPress tests are slightly different than regular PHPUnit tests, as the WordPress test class `WP_UnitTestCase` extends the PHPUnit class `PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase`. What that does mean, though, is that all of the PHPUnit Test Case methods are available, but so are a few others: ### Helper Methods * skipWithoutMultisite * skipWithMultisite * skipTestOnTimeout * expectDeprecated ### WordPress Assertions * assertPostConditions * assertWPError * assertIXRError * assertNotIXRError * assertDiscardWhitespace * assertSameIgnoreEOL * assertEqualsIgnoreEOL * assertSameSets * assertEqualSets * assertSameSetsWithIndex * assertEqualSetsWithIndex * assertNonEmptyMultidimensionalArray * assertQueryTrue ## Further Reading * --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://www.wptherightway.org/testing/testing_plugins.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.