EcomDev PHPUnit Tip #10

Tip #10: Broken Translations

It happens that translations are not working in unit tests if you replace a helper with a mocked helper, using mockHelper() and replaceByMock(), especially in developer mode where translations only work if defined for the right module.

The module name is determined in Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract by $this->_getModuleName(), so let’s look into this method:

/**
 * Retrieve helper module name
 *
 * @return string
 */
protected function _getModuleName()
{
    if (!$this->_moduleName) {
        $class = get_class($this);
        $this->_moduleName = substr($class, 0, strpos($class, '_Helper'));
    }
    return $this->_moduleName;
}

If your helper class is Your_Awesome_Helper_Data, the mocked helper class will actually be Mock_Your_Awesome_Helper_Data. As a module named Mock_Your_Awesome doesn’t exist, nothing can be translated.

Solution

To make your helpers unit test proof (and as a side effect also rewrite proof), define _moduleName explicitly:

class Your_Awesome_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract
{
    protected $_moduleName = 'Your_Awesome';
}

First described here: http://magento.stackexchange.com/questions/46255/ecomdev-phpunit-translation-not-working-with-mocked-helper