How to write a test for bundle which it depends on some entity

Question

I've been working on a grid bundle for Symfony. The bundle receives a Symfony Entity and based on that, it renders a gridview.

something like this:

class IndexController extends AbstractController
{

    public function __construct(GridBuilder $grid, BookGrid $userGrid)
    {
        $this->grid = $grid;
        $this->userGrid = $userGrid;
    }

    /**
     * @Route("/")
     */
    public function index()
    {
        return $this->render('index.html.twig', [
            'grid' => $this->grid->build($this->userGrid),
        ]);
    }

}

BookGrid is a class extended from BaseGridConfigurator which it has to implement getEntity method:

class BookGrid extends BaseGridConfigurator
{

    public function getEntity()
    {
        return Book::class;
    }

}

The GridBuilder uses the EntityRepository (in this case BookRepository) to get the entity's metadata such as fields, Repository and QueryBuilder.

If I want to write unit test for the bundle, I need an entity class to pass it to GridBuilder. I think there are two approaches to solve this problem.

1. Create a mock Entity and Repository
2. Create a real Entity and Repository class inside my test directory

My question is which approach is correct? and is there any other way to test a bundle that it depends on an entity?

Thank you

Answer 1

Assuming getEntity (which perhaps should be renamed to getEntityClass) is used by GridBuilder to obtain the desired entity repository from the entity manager internally, wouldn't it be easier to have BaseGridConfigurator provide access to the entity repository directly? E.g. getEntityRepository(): EntityRepository instead of getEntity(): string. I can imagine this would significantly reduce the amount of mocking you would have to do if all you need is the entity repository.

In any case, the Symfony documentation on the subject of unit testing entity repositories advice against unit testing entity repository dependent implementations in general.

But if you have to, I would focus on a design where your implementation needs as few contact points with the entity repository as possible in order to minimize the amount of mocking that the test requires. But would still opt for mocking over stubbing regardless.