PortalTestCase

The PortalTestCase class is a close relative of the ZopeTestCase class. It was devised at the Plone Castle Sprint to form the base of an integration testing framework for Plone 2.0. Thanks to Gidon Friedman and Godefroid Chapelle for their collaboration.

Much of what is true for ZopeTestCase is true for PortalTestCase as well:

• PortalTestCase handles the ZODB connection, transaction, and application object; and it provides a REQUEST.
• PortalTestCase sets up a user folder and a user.
• PortalTestCase provides the same hooks as ZopeTestCase.
• PortalTestCase implements the same security interfaces as ZopeTestCase.

What's different?

• PortalTestCase is designed for testing CMF-based applications.
• The fixture is slightly more complex, consisting of a portal object, a userfolder + user, and the user's memberarea.
• For flexibility, the portal is not created by the base class but must be provided by the user (typically a derived !xTestCase) of the PortalTestCase base class.
• Subclasses will have to override getPortal to return the object serving as the portal.
• The portal will however be configured by the machinery which means creating a user and a fresh memberarea for every test.
• Subclasses may override createMemberarea to provide customized and/or more lightweight memberareas to the tests. This can improve performance quite significantly.

Feature Comparison:

ZopeTestCase

• 1 user + 1 role
• Folder contains user folder and role definition
• Folder also serves as workarea
• User is logged in
• Provides attributes:

            self.app
            self.app.REQUEST
            self.folder
            self.folder.acl_users
  

PortalTestCase

• 1 user + Member role
• Portal contains user folder and role definition
• User's home folder serves as workarea
• User is logged in
• Provides attributes:

            self.app
            self.app.REQUEST
            self.portal
            self.portal.acl_users
            self.folder
  

Read the Source

As always, I recommend to look at the source code of both ZopeTestCase.py and PortalTestCase.py for all the details you may need. Interface documentation can be found in interfaces.py.

The test framework shipping with Plone 2.0 is a good example of how the PortalTestCase class can be put to use.