In PHP5, the protected scope means only class itself and subclass can access it. PHPUnit (3.x) is extends from *PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase*, and PHP5 don’t support multi-inherited, therefore, there is not way to access test target directly.

The only way I know that can test protected scope method. That is used a adapter class that subclass the target class, and do re-publish protected methods as public.

I don’t how to test private method in PHP5. The mock object (stub , or whatever )don’t make sense in this case.

example

    class Foo {
        protected function bar() {
            return "bar";
            }
    }


    class FooAdapter extends Foo {
            // re-publish tested method as public scope for test purpose only
        public function bar() {
            // calling parent tested method
                    return parent::bar();
        }
    }
     
    class FooTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase {
            // testing the subclass FooAdapter of Foo class instead.
        private $foo;
        public function testFoo() {
            $foo = new FooAdapter;
            // now we can invoke bar() method. 
            $foo.bar();
        }
    }

The Adapter Class should put in test folder with other testcase, and never released as production.