That way we could see detailed exceptions on errors, have our tests run faster,

and check the database against predictable and expected results. That's what functional tests are for.

which returns the HTML response. Inside a test, you can make assertions about the response,

and you can check if the data was successfully stored in the database.

{% endhighlight %}

## Writing a Sample Scenario

By default tests are written as narrative scenarios. To make a PHP file a valid scenario, its name should have a `Cept` suffix.

* `generate:environment` *env* - Generates a sample Environment configuration

* `generate:groupobject` *group* - Generates a sample Group Extension

## Conclusion

We have taken a look into the Codeception structure. Most of the things you need were already generated by the `bootstrap` command.

## WebDriver

A nice feature of Codeception is that most scenarios are similar, no matter of how they are executed.

Selenium WebDriver can drive them so in our acceptance tests we can automate scenarios we used to test manually.

In such tests, we should concentrate more on **testing the UI** than on testing functionality.

"[WebDriver](https://www.w3.org/TR/webdriver/)" is the name of a protocol (specified by W3C)

Codeception uses [facebook/php-webdriver](https://github.com/facebook/php-webdriver) library from Facebook as PHP implementation of WebDriver protocol.

In the next section, we will overview the most popular solutions.

#### Selenium Server

It is a server that can launch and drive different browsers locally or remotely.

Selenium Server is also recommended by Codeception team.

To control browsers Selenium Server uses official tools maintained by browser vendors, like [ChromeDriver](https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver) for Chrome or [GeckoDriver](https://github.com/mozilla/geckodriver) for Firefox.

#### ChromeDriver

It can be paired with [Selenium Server](http://codeception.com/docs/03-AcceptanceTests#Selenium-Server) or used as a standalone tool to drive Chrome browser.

It is simpler to set up than Selenium Server, however, it has limited support for WebDriver protocol.

* Follow [Installation Instructions](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/WebDriver#ChromeDriver)

### Configuration

{% endhighlight %}

WebDriver also adds browser-specific functionality:

#### Wait

While testing web application, you may need to wait for JavaScript events to occur. Due to its asynchronous nature,

They can be used to specify what event you expect to occur on a page, before continuing the test.

For example:

{% endhighlight %}

In this case, we are waiting for the 'agree' button to appear and then click it. If it didn't appear after 30 seconds,

[waitForElementVisible](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/WebDriver#waitForElementVisible) and others.

If you don't know what exact element you need to wait for, you can simply pause execution with using `$I->wait()`

*since 2.3.4 version*

If a test uses element which is not on a page yet, Codeception will wait for few extra seconds before failing.

This feature is based on [Implicit Wait](http://www.seleniumhq.org/docs/04_webdriver_advanced.jsp#implicit-waits) of Selenium.

Codeception enables implicit wait only when searching for a specific element and disables in all other cases. Thus, the performance of a test is not affected.

{% highlight php %}

// $I->waitForElement(['css' => '#click-me'], 5);

// to wait for element on page

$I->click(['css' => '#click-me']);

#### Wait and Act

Let's see how you can perform some actions inside an HTML popup:

{% highlight php %}

* browser

* OS

We recommend using [params](http://codeception.com/docs/06-ModulesAndHelpers#Dynamic-Configuration-With-Params)

to provide authorization credentials.

It should be mentioned that Cloud Testing services are not free. You should investigate their pricing models

and choose one that fits your needs. They also may work painfully slowly if ping times between the local server

and the cloud is too high. This may lead to random failures in acceptance tests.

### AngularJS Testing

In the modern era of Single Page Applications, the browser replaces the server in creating the user interface.

* [pauseExecution](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/WebDriver#pauseExecution) method of WebDriver module allows pausing the test.

* [Recorder extension](http://codeception.com/addons#CodeceptionExtensionRecorder) allows to record tests step-by-steps and show them in slideshow

### Custom Browser Sessions

By default, WebDriver module is configured to automatically start browser before the test and stop afterward.

To start a browser you will need to write corresponding methods in Acceptance [Helper](http://codeception.com/docs/06-ModulesAndHelpers#Helpers).

WebDriver module provides advanced methods for the browser session, however, they can only be used from Helpers.

* [_initializeSession](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/WebDriver#_initializeSession) - starts a new browser session

* [_closeSession](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/WebDriver#_closeSession) - stops the browser session

* [_restart](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/WebDriver#_restart) - updates configuration and restarts browser

* [_capabilities](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/WebDriver#_capabilities) - set [desired capabilities](https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/wiki/DesiredCapabilities) programmatically.

## Conclusion

The [Laravel5](http://codeception.com/docs/modules/Laravel5) module is included and requires no configuration:

{% highlight yaml %}

# functional.suite.yml

{% endhighlight %}

### Yii2

Yii2 tests are included in [Basic](https://github.com/yiisoft/yii2-app-basic)