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swissspidy merged 1 commit into from
May 23, 2026
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Align plugin unit tests guide with current CI options #639

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16 changes: 10 additions & 6 deletions how-to/plugin-unit-tests.md
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# Plugin Integration Tests

This guide demonstrates how to run integration tests on both Travis CI and locally. The scaffolding uses the WordPress Core "unit tests" that serve to unit-test WordPress Core. Unit tests are useful for testing plugins and themes as well, but if they are used in that way, it turns those tests into "integration tests" - they test the integration between a plugin/theme and WordPress Core. Proper unit tests for a plugin or theme would not load WordPress.
This guide demonstrates how to run integration tests both in continuous integration and locally. The scaffolding uses the WordPress Core "unit tests" that serve to unit-test WordPress Core. Unit tests are useful for testing plugins and themes as well, but if they are used in that way, it turns those tests into "integration tests" - they test the integration between a plugin/theme and WordPress Core. Proper unit tests for a plugin or theme would not load WordPress.

## Running tests on Travis CI
## Running tests in continuous integration

If you host your plugin on GitHub and enable [Travis CI](https://docs.travis-ci.com/), the tests will be run automatically after every commit you make to the plugin.
The `wp scaffold plugin-tests` command generates a CircleCI configuration by default. Use `--ci=<provider>` to generate a configuration for a different supported provider, such as GitHub Actions:

```bash
wp scaffold plugin-tests my-plugin --ci=github
```

All you need to do to enable this is copy and then edit the following files from the [WP-CLI sample plugin](https://github.com/wp-cli/sample-plugin):

* `.travis.yml`, `phpunit.xml.dist` and `phpcs.ruleset.xml` files
* `.circleci/config.yml`, `phpunit.xml.dist` and `.phpcs.xml.dist` files
* `tests` folder

See the docs for an [explanation of what each file does](https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/scaffold/plugin-tests/). You will then need to specify your unit tests in the `tests/` folder.

## Running tests locally

Running tests locally can be beneficial during development as it is quicker than committing changes and waiting for Travis CI to run the tests.
Running tests locally can be beneficial during development as it is quicker than committing changes and waiting for CI to run the tests.

We're going to assume that:

Expand All @@ -35,7 +39,7 @@ See: [PHPUnit Compatibility and WordPress Versions – Make WordPress Core](http
wp scaffold plugin-tests my-plugin
```

This command will generate all the files needed for running tests, including a `.travis.yml` file.
This command will generate all the files needed for running tests, including a `.circleci/config.yml` file by default. Use `--ci=<provider>` to generate a configuration for a different supported CI provider.

### 3. Initialize the testing environment locally

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