Codeception Cept tests _bootstrap variables - codeception

Question

Codeception default _bootstrap.php file states:
<?php
// Here you can initialize variables that will be available to your tests
So I wanted to initialize a variable inside of it:
<?php
$a = 5;
However, when I use it my SomeAcceptanceCept:
<?php
// ....
$I->fillField('description', $a);
I get: ErrorException: Undefined variable: a
I did var_dump in _bootstrap.php and it indeed get's ran once before acceptance tests, but variables from it are not available in my tests.
I can't seem to find any documentation on this.
I'm actually trying to initialize Faker instance to use in my tests.

Answer 1

I find the documentation on this to be quite confusing. I was attempting to do the exact same thing to no avail. So I ended up using Fixtures by putting this in the _bootstrap.php file:
use Codeception\Util\Fixtures;
use Faker\Factory;
$fake = Factory::create();
Fixtures::add('fake', $fake);
(You could also use a separate fixtures.php file and include it in your test.)
Which allows you to get the faker object or anything else like this:
Fixtures::get('fake');
The strange thing is that if you look at the Fixtures docs it actually mentions using the Faker library to create tests data in the bootstrap file.

Answer 2

I do the following:
// _bootstrap.php
$GLOBALS['a'] = 5;
Then within my tests I call it like so:
// MyCest.php
public function testItWorks(\Tester $I)
{
global $a;
$I->fillField('description', $a);
}
I haven't done much work with Cept files but probably something similar will work.

Answer 3

Define it like this in your bootstrap.php :
<?php
// This is global bootstrap for autoloading
define("email", "someone#abc.com");
define("password", "my_secure_pass")
Use it like this:
public function testValidLogin(AcceptanceTester $I)
{
$I->fillField(loginPage::$username, email);
$I->fillField(loginPage::$password, password);
$I->click("LOG IN");
}
NOTE: no dollar signs. use as only as 'email' and 'password'

Answer 4

I dumped all PHP variables and confirmed that any variables set in the _bootstrap.php file do not exist and are not available in the MyCept.php file. So I resorted to adding the following at the top of MyCept.php:
include '_bootstrap.php';
This makes the variables set in _bootstrap.php available. Of course.