Be Framework Blog

What Tests Don't Know

You write get after delete. Halfway through typing, you wonder why.

Asking Twice

$repo->delete($id);
$this->assertNull($repo->get($id));

find after save. get after update. The person who wrote it can’t quite explain why the second call is needed.

“Just to be sure,” they say. “For confirmation,” they say.

The Silence of void

delete($id): void. It deleted. It doesn’t say how many.

SQL knows. affected_rows = 1. But as long as the return is void, that number is born and dies inside the function.

A test sitting outside has no way to know what happened within. So it calls another witness. It asks get to answer “nothing.”

Indirect evidence. Not direct.

The Observer Is Outside

A test watches from outside. An observer.

The observer has two choices.

  • Expose the internal feedback so it can be seen — break encapsulation
  • Verify by other means — duplicate the test

The small contradiction TDD has carried. As long as the test is outside, what happened inside can only be written as hearsay.

Evidence Held Within

In Be Framework, deletion becomes one stage of metamorphosis.

#[Be([ArticleDeleted::class])]
final readonly class ArticleDeleteRequest
{
    public function __construct(
        #[Input] public string $id,
    ) {}
}

final readonly class ArticleDeleted
{
    public function __construct(
        #[Input] string $id,
        #[Inject] ArticleRepository $repo,
    ) {
        $affectedRows = $repo->delete($id);
        $this->been->with(new DeletedContext(id: $id, affectedRows: $affectedRows->count));
    }
}

Declare int as the interface return type, and Ray.MediaQuery returns affected_rows directly.

Nothing leaks outside. Inside, the fact affectedRows: 1 is written into $been.

$result = $becoming(new ArticleDeleteRequest($id));

$this->assertInstanceOf(ArticleDeleted::class, $result);
$this->assertSame(1, $result->been->last()->affectedRows);

No get call. The object itself holds the grounds for being ArticleDeleted.

Not a Record, a Condition

A log usually writes down what happened, after the fact.

$been is different. Without the trace, ArticleDeleted cannot exist. affectedRows: 1 is not an after-the-fact record. It is the condition of existence.

From outside, all you can do is ask twice.