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16.

When *I* do Something: Handling the Current User

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Time for a challenge! Whenever you have products in the admin area, it either shows the name of the user that created it - like admin - or anonymous if it was created via some other method without an author. Right now, our admin area lists "anonymous" next to every product. The reason is simple: we're not setting the author when we create the products in FeatureContext.

I want to test that this table does show the correct author when its set. Create a new scenario to describe this:

28 lines | features/web/product_admin.feature
// ... lines 1 - 12
Scenario: Products show owner
Given I am logged in as an admin
// ... lines 15 - 28

Instead of just saying there are five products I'll say:

28 lines | features/web/product_admin.feature
// ... lines 1 - 14
And I author 5 products
// ... lines 16 - 28

This is new language that will need a step definition. To save time, we can go directly to the products page:

28 lines | features/web/product_admin.feature
// ... lines 1 - 15
When I go to "/admin/products"
# no products will be anonymous
Then I should not see "Anonymous"
// ... lines 19 - 28

Since "I" - some admin user - will be the author of the products, they should all show "admin": none will say "Anonymous". And we will only have these 5 products because we're clearing the database between each scenario to keep things independent.

Run just this new scenario by using its line number:

./vendor/bin/behat features/web/product_admin.feature:13

Great - copy the iAuthorProducts() function code and paste it into our handy FeatureContext class - near the other product function:

160 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 85
/**
* @Given I author :count products
*/
public function iAuthorProducts($count)
{
// ... line 91
}
// ... lines 93 - 160

These two functions will be similar, so we should reuse the logic. Copy the internals of thereAreProducts, make a new private function createProducts(). Pass it $count as an argument and also an optional User object which will be the author for those products:

160 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 141
private function createProducts($count, User $author = null)
{
for ($i = 0; $i < $count; $i++) {
$product = new Product();
$product->setName('Product '.$i);
$product->setPrice(rand(10, 1000));
$product->setDescription('lorem');
// ... lines 149 - 153
$this->getEntityManager()->persist($product);
}
$this->getEntityManager()->flush();
}
// ... lines 159 - 160

Now, add an if statement that says, if $author is passed then, $product->setAuthor():

160 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 149
if ($author) {
$product->setAuthor($author);
}
// ... lines 153 - 160

I already have that relationship setup with in Doctrine. Great!

In thereAreProducts(), change the body of this function to $this->createProducts($count);:

160 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 80
public function thereAreProducts($count)
{
$this->createProducts($count);
}
// ... lines 85 - 160

Do the same thing in iAuthorProducts() for now:

160 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 88
public function iAuthorProducts($count)
{
$this->createProducts($count);
}
// ... lines 93 - 160

Clearly, this is still not setting the author. But I want to see if it executes first and then we'll worry about setting the author.

Who is "I" in a Scenario?

Cool! It runs... and fails because anonymous is still shown on the page. The question now is: how do we get the current user? The step says "I author". But who is "I" in this case? In product_admin.feature:

28 lines | features/web/product_admin.feature
// ... lines 1 - 5
Scenario: List available products
Given I am logged in as an admin
// ... lines 8 - 11
Scenario: Products show owner
Given I am logged in as an admin
// ... lines 15 - 28

You can see that "I" is whomever we logged in as. We didn't specify what the username should be for that user, but whoever is logged in is who "I" represents.

When we worked with the ls scenarios earlier, we needed to share the command output string between the steps of a scenario. In this case, we have a similar need: we need to share the user object from the step where we log in, with the step where "I" author some products. To share data between steps, create a new private $currentUser;:

164 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 16
class FeatureContext extends RawMinkContext implements Context, SnippetAcceptingContext
{
// ... lines 19 - 20
private $currentUser;
// ... lines 22 - 162
}

In iAmLoggedInAsAnAdmin(), add $this->currentUser = $this->thereIsAnAdminUserWithPassword():

164 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 119
public function iAmLoggedInAsAnAdmin()
{
$this->currentUser = $this->thereIsAUserWithPassword('admin', 'admin');
// ... lines 123 - 127
}
// ... lines 129 - 164

Click to open that function. It creates the User object of course, but now we need to also make sure it returns that:

164 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 42
/**
* @Given there is an admin user :username with password :password
*/
public function thereIsAnAdminUserWithPassword($username, $password)
{
// ... lines 48 - 56
return $user;
}
// ... lines 59 - 164

And that's it! This login step will cause the currentUser property to be set and in iAuthorProducts() we can access that and pass it into createProducts() so that each product us authored by us:

164 lines | features/bootstrap/FeatureContext.php
// ... lines 1 - 89
/**
* @Given I author :count products
*/
public function iAuthorProducts($count)
{
$this->createProducts($count, $this->currentUser);
}
// ... lines 97 - 164

It's pretty common to want to know who is logged in, so you'll likely want to use this in your project.

And hey it even passes! Now you can continue to write scenarios in terms of actions that "I" take and we will actually know who "I" is.