PHPUnit

Overview Laravel continues to refine the developer experience by bridging the gap between high-level abstractions and low-level visibility. These updates focus on three critical areas: visualising raw database queries during failures, observing real outbound network traffic without mocks, and isolating specific validation errors in automated tests. These features reduce the friction between writing code and verifying its behavior in the real world. Prerequisites To follow this guide, you should be comfortable with: * PHP 8.2 or higher. * Basic Eloquent query building and the `HTTP` facade. * Writing feature tests using PHPUnit or Pest. Key Libraries & Tools * **Laravel Framework (v11.44 / v12.1)**: The core framework receiving these updates. * **Guzzle HTTP**: The underlying client used by Laravel's HTTP facade. * **Eloquent ORM**: Laravel's database abstraction layer. Code Walkthrough 1. Better SQL Debugging Previously, `toSql()` returned statements with `?` placeholders. The new `getRawSql()` method on query exceptions provides a fully-bound string ready for your SQL client. ```php try { User::where('status', 'active')->where('id', 1)->firstOrFail(); } catch (QueryException $e) { // Returns: select * from "users" where "status" = 'active' and "id" = 1 dump($e->getRawSql()); } ``` 2. Recording Real HTTP Traffic While faking is standard, sometimes you need to let a request hit a live sandbox while still asserting against it. Use `HTTP::record()` to capture traffic without intercepting it. ```php Http::record(); Http::get('https://api.github.com/users/taylorotwell'); Http::assertRecorded(function ($request, $response) { return $request->url() === 'https://api.github.com/users/taylorotwell' && $response->successful(); }); ``` 3. Isolated Validation Assertions Testing that a specific field failed while ensuring others passed used to require manual array checks. `assertOnlyInvalid` simplifies this logic. ```php $response = $this->post('/register', [ 'email' => '[email protected]', 'password' => 'secret' // 'name' is missing ]); // Checks that 'name' failed AND email/password passed $response->assertOnlyInvalid(['name']); ``` Syntax Notes * **Closure Context**: In `assertRecorded`, the closure provides both the `Request` and `Response` objects, allowing for comprehensive integration testing. * **Strictness**: `assertOnlyInvalid` is strict; if a field you didn't list also fails validation, the test will fail. Practical Examples * **Performance Tuning**: Use `getRawSql()` in your local logging to identify poorly indexed queries that Eloquent might hide behind abstractions. * **Third-Party Webhooks**: Use `record()` when testing integration with external APIs where you need to verify actual payload delivery to a staging environment. Tips & Gotchas * **Internal vs External**: `HTTP::record()` only tracks calls made via the Laravel `Http` facade. If you instantiate `GuzzleHttp\Client` directly, those requests stay invisible to the recorder. * **JSON Response Helper**: For API-only projects, use `assertOnlyJsonValidationErrors` to achieve the same isolation for JSON payloads.