Don't deprecate `setExpectedException()`, this will cause issues.

[schlessera]

I just read the article https://thephp.cc/news/2016/02/questioning-phpunit-best-practices, and cannot really comprehend the conclusion.

I applaud the move to a better structure to test exceptions. And I have always used the setExpectedException() instead of the annotation, because of some of the reasons you have mentioned.

However, in the article, the conclusion is that setExpectedException() will be deprecated for PHPUnit 6, and the annotation will stay.

This means that I cannot use the new functions because of the PHP version requirements, and can't continue to use setExpectedException() because it will become deprecated... so you basically force me to instead use the annotation now for the foreseeable future.

I think that there's no harm in keeping the setExpectedException() method for now, and it can be rewritten as a simple stub that uses the new methods for better maintainability. So please don't deprecate it (just yet).

[sebastianbergmann]

The setExpectedException() method has already been deprecated and will be removed in PHPUnit 6.

[alexislefebvre]

@schlessera If I understood the article correctly, you have to replace setExpectedException() with expectException(), see the end of the article:

Hindsight is easier than foresight. I am not sure anymore that adding the @expectedException did more good than harm. I do not currently plan to remove it from PHPUnit, though. But going forward I will recommend using expectException() etc. for testing exceptions.

So the annotation will stay and Sebastian recommend to use expectException(), you're not forced to use the annotation.

[stof]

@schlessera deprecating a function means that it still works but you should consider migrating to the new way. So there is no harm there. You will simply need to migrate your tests to the new methods before upgrading to PHPUnit 6 in 2017

[schlessera]

@alexislefebvre Yes, thank you. I understood that. The issue for me is that the new expectException() is PHPUnit 5.2+, which makes it PHP5.6+.

A number of my clients are still on PHP 5.5, so I'm currently running all my code with PHPUnit 4.8. I would prefer to have all my code on PHP7, but I don't always control the hosting environment of my clients.

[schlessera]

@stof Yes, I will probably stay with setExpectedException() for now and keep the roadmap in mind for the future. Hopefully, PHP7 will bring new motivation to hosting companies to update their environment, as they can save resources.

[alexislefebvre]

@schlessera You can create a class which inherit from \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase and add a expectException() function which call setExpectedException(). Then use this class in your tests. This way you will write code ready for PHP7 and it will work on PHP 5.3 too. This is sort of backporting expectException to PHPUnit <5.2.

Example (not tested):

class MyTestCase extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
    public function expectException($exception)
    {
        self::setExpectedException($exception);
    }
}

In your tests:

class MyClassTest extends MyTestCase
{
    // ...
    // Call the alias function
    $this->expectException('Exception');
}