====Everything I Know About Getting Model Tests to Work Half-Way Rationally in CakePhp====

===My Sources===
http://github.com/mcurry/cakephp/tree/master/test_sample/tests
http://debuggable.com/posts/testing-models-in-cakephp---now-let's-get-rid-of-the-unnecessary-modeltest-classes-!:4890ed55-be28-4d4a-ba4c-7fd64834cda3#comment-492aedab-164c-421c-a1a8-4d854834cda3


===Some Caveats===
~- It's possible that this will not work depending on which release of CakePhp we have installed.  Testing seems to be a part of the codebase that is still in a bit of flux.

~- You'll want to set up a second empty database.  At home I have two databases set up for model testing:
db1 (database with all tables)
db1-fixture (empty database -- CakePhp creates tables here for test and truncates at end)

~- You need to have fixtures set up for the model you're testing and all associated models.  Fortunately, the fixtures are very simple.

~- Add a 'test_suite' option to config/database.php and set the db to your new empty database (e.g. db1-fixture).

~- If you run into db table not found errors, make sure your fixture db is completely empty.  If it has tables in it at the start of test, I would get this error for some reason.  Just truncate the db.

~- Start with a simple example from your project based on the sample code and build from there.


===Simple Examples===
%%(php)
<?php
 
	class ModelFixture extends CakeTestFixture
	{ 
	    var $name = 'Model';
	    var $import = array('table' => 'models', 'import' => false);
	    var $useDbConfig = 'test_suite';
	    
	    var $records = array(
	        array(
	            'id' => 1,
	            'etc' => 0,
	        )
	    );
	}
?> 
%%

%%(php)
<?php
/*
	Based on mcurry's template at
	http://github.com/mcurry/cakephp/tree/master/test_sample/tests
*/
 
class ExtagProofCase extends CakeTestCase {

	var $Model = null;
	var $fixtures = array(
	        'app.model',
	        'app.model1',
	        'app.model2',
	        );
 
	function start()
	{
	    parent::start();
	    $this->Model = ClassRegistry::init('Model');
	}
	
	function testInstance() {
	    $this->assertTrue(is_a($this->Model, 'Model'));
	}
}
?>
%%