drupal-testing

name	drupal-testing
description	Practical Drupal testing patterns using curl smoke tests, drush eval, and test scripts. Use when verifying Drupal implementations actually work - module enabled, service exists, page renders, config correct.

Drupal Testing Skill

Practical verification patterns for Drupal implementations.

Environment Detection

The testing patterns default to DDEV but support other environments. Detect and adapt:

# Auto-detect environment and set the execution prefix.
if command -v ddev >/dev/null 2>&1 && ddev describe >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  DRUSH="ddev drush"
  EXEC="ddev exec"
elif command -v lando >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  DRUSH="lando drush"
  EXEC="lando ssh -c"
else
  DRUSH="drush"
  EXEC="bash -c"
fi

All patterns below use ddev drush and ddev exec. Substitute with $DRUSH and $EXEC for non-DDEV environments.

Curl Smoke Test Patterns

Pattern 1: Status Code + Response Size (Same-Shell Auth)

The login URL and curl MUST run in the same shell so the session cookie is valid. Write a script file and run it inside ddev.

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/tests/verify-page-access.sh
# Run with: ddev exec bash scripts/tests/verify-page-access.sh
LOGIN_URL=$(drush uli --uid=1 --no-browser --uri=http://localhost 2>/dev/null)
COOKIE=$(curl -s -D - -o /dev/null -L "$LOGIN_URL" 2>/dev/null \
  | grep -i 'set-cookie' | head -1 \
  | sed 's/.*set-cookie: *//i' | cut -d';' -f1)

STATUS=$(curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" -b "$COOKIE" "http://localhost/TARGET_PATH")
echo "TARGET_PATH: $STATUS"

Why --uri=http://localhost: Without it, drush uli may generate a URL with a different domain (e.g., https://mysite.ddev.site), causing a cookie domain mismatch when curling http://localhost.

Pattern 2: Download Full HTML

ddev exec curl -s -b "$COOKIE_FILE" "http://localhost/TARGET_PATH" \
  > /tmp/claude/page-output.html
# Then read /tmp/claude/page-output.html to inspect content

Pattern 3: Extract Specific Content

# Check for specific text/element on page
ddev exec curl -s -b "$COOKIE_FILE" "http://localhost/TARGET_PATH" \
  | grep -o '<title>[^<]*</title>'

Reusable Template

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/tests/verify-PROJECT_NAME.sh
# Verify: DESCRIPTION
set -e

COOKIE_FILE="/tmp/cookies-$$.txt"
LOGIN_URL=$(ddev drush uli --uid=1 --no-browser 2>/dev/null)
ddev exec curl -s -c "$COOKIE_FILE" -L "$LOGIN_URL" -o /dev/null

STATUS=$(ddev exec curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" \
  -b "$COOKIE_FILE" "http://localhost/TARGET_PATH")

if [ "$STATUS" = "200" ]; then
  echo "PASS: TARGET_PATH returns 200"
else
  echo "FAIL: TARGET_PATH returns $STATUS (expected 200)"
  exit 1
fi

rm -f "$COOKIE_FILE"

DDEV Shell Gotchas

ddev exec passes commands through multiple shell layers, destroying pipes, variable expansion, nested quotes, and grep -P.

# BAD — variables get expanded/mangled by ddev exec shell layers
ddev exec "drush eval 'foreach ($groups as $g) { echo $g->id(); }'"

# GOOD — write a script file, run the file
cat > scripts/tests/my-check.php << 'EOF'
<?php
$groups = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('group')->loadMultiple();
foreach ($groups as $g) { echo $g->id() . "\n"; }
EOF
ddev exec drush scr scripts/tests/my-check.php

Rule: If the command has pipes (|), variables ($var), nested quotes, or multi-line PHP, write it to a file first.

Drush Eval Patterns

CRITICAL escaping rules:

• Use Drupal:: not \Drupal:: (backslash gets eaten by shell)
• Use Exception not \Exception
• No use statements (not supported in eval context)
• Keep PHP on one line
• Complex logic → drush scr script.php instead
• Redirect stderr: 2>/dev/null
• Use single quotes around PHP code

Service Verification

ddev drush eval 'print json_encode(["exists" => Drupal::hasService("my_module.my_service")]);' 2>/dev/null

Module Enabled Check

ddev drush eval 'print json_encode(["enabled" => Drupal::moduleHandler()->moduleExists("my_module")]);' 2>/dev/null

Entity Field Check

ddev drush eval '$defs = Drupal::service("entity_field.manager")->getFieldDefinitions("node", "article"); print json_encode(["has_field" => isset($defs["field_custom"])]);' 2>/dev/null

Config Value Check

ddev drush eval 'print json_encode(Drupal::config("my_module.settings")->get());' 2>/dev/null

Permission Exists

ddev drush eval '$perms = Drupal::service("user.permissions")->getPermissions(); print json_encode(["exists" => isset($perms["administer my_module"])]);' 2>/dev/null

Route Exists

ddev drush eval 'try { $url = Drupal::service("url_generator")->generateFromRoute("my_module.page"); print json_encode(["route" => "exists", "url" => $url]); } catch (Exception $e) { print json_encode(["route" => "missing"]); }' 2>/dev/null

Test Script Creation

Directory Convention

scripts/tests/
  index.md            # Index of all test scripts
  verify-*.sh         # Feature verification scripts
  check-*.sh          # Quick check scripts
  smoke-*.sh          # Page smoke test scripts

Creating a Script

1. Write to scripts/tests/verify-<feature>.sh
2. Make executable: chmod +x scripts/tests/verify-<feature>.sh
3. Update scripts/tests/index.md with entry

Script Template

#!/bin/bash
# scripts/tests/verify-<feature>.sh
# Verifies: <what this tests>
# Created: <date>
set -e

echo "=== Verifying <feature> ==="

# Test 1: Check module enabled
RESULT=$(ddev drush eval 'print Drupal::moduleHandler()->moduleExists("my_module") ? "yes" : "no";' 2>/dev/null)
if [ "$RESULT" = "yes" ]; then
  echo "PASS: Module enabled"
else
  echo "FAIL: Module not enabled"
  exit 1
fi

# Test 2: Check service exists
RESULT=$(ddev drush eval 'print Drupal::hasService("my_module.service") ? "yes" : "no";' 2>/dev/null)
if [ "$RESULT" = "yes" ]; then
  echo "PASS: Service registered"
else
  echo "FAIL: Service not found"
  exit 1
fi

echo "=== All checks passed ==="

Common Verification Scenarios

What to Verify	Method	Command
Module enabled	drush eval	Drupal::moduleHandler()->moduleExists("x")
Service exists	drush eval	Drupal::hasService("x.y")
Field on bundle	drush eval	getFieldDefinitions("node", "article")
Route accessible	curl	Status code 200 check
Config value	drush eval	Drupal::config("x.settings")->get("key")
Permission defined	drush eval	getPermissions() check
Cache clear works	drush	ddev drush cr exits 0
Config imports	drush	ddev drush cim -y exits 0

Finding the Real File (Vendor vs Contrib)

Patched modules may live in both vendor/drupal/ (original) and web/modules/contrib/ (patched). Editing the wrong one has no effect.

// Find which file is actually loaded at runtime
$ref = new \ReflectionMethod($service, 'methodName');
echo $ref->getFileName();

Rule: When a patched module exists in both locations, use ReflectionMethod to find which file PHP actually loads. Edit that file, not the one you assume.

Role-Based Access Testing

Create dedicated test users rather than relying on existing users with unknown role combinations.

# Create test users
ddev drush user:create testauth --password=testauth123
ddev drush user:create testadmin --password=testadmin123
ddev drush user:role:add my_admin_role testadmin

Test matrix -- verify each user type against each resource state:

User type	Published resource	Unpublished resource
Anonymous	view only	403
Authenticated	view only	403
Role-based admin	view + edit	view + edit
uid 1	view + edit	view + edit (bypass)

Check content, not just status codes: Download the HTML and grep for Drupal form IDs (edit-*) to verify what users actually see -- presence of edit forms, workflow fields, and local task tabs.