Run PHPUnit Tests On Lando In PHPStorm

Posted April 23, 2023 | Updated April 30, 2026

Lando makes it easy to set up local Drupal environments for development. A default installation will provide a webserver and database container, where you can install Drupal. The goal of this page is to explain how to configure Lando for testing Drupal, and connect it to PHPStorm.

Setup

core/phpunit.xml.dist
Configuration file for phpunit. Copy to phpunit.xml in your project root.
Set environment variables for phpunit in here. You can set them in the lando file, but they are easier to change here.

Environment variables
SIMPLETEST_BASE_URL=http://SITE.lndo.site <-- don't use https.
SIMPLETEST_DB=mysql://drupal10:drupal10@database/drupal10

PHPStorm configuration

Settings > Build, Execution, Deployment > Docker

Create a new Docker server, connect with unix socket.

Configure virtual machine path mapping (/app -> /home/USER/SITE/PATH/.

Settings > PHP

Select language level according to your project.

Add a new CLI Interpreter, Select "From Docker, Vagrant, WSL, etc."

Select Docker Compose, add configuration files for appserver from ~/.lando/compose/SITE.

Select appserver as the service, Connect to existing container (docker-compose exec).

Settings > PHP > Test Frameworks

Add a new Test Framework - PHPUnit by Remote Interpreter.

Select your CLI interpreter.

Set Default configuration file /app/phpunit.xml. Set SIMPLETEST variables in here.

Run > Edit Configurations

Edit configuration template for PHPUnit

Select your CLI interpreter.

Set Docker compose command and options exec -u www-data.

Unit tests

Minimal dependencies.

lando php /app/vendor/bin/phpunit -c /app/web/core/phpunit.xml.dist /app/web/core/tests/Drupal/Tests/Core/DrupalTest.php

Testing Drupal\Tests\Core\DrupalTest
..................................                                34 / 34 (100%)
Time: 00:00.067, Memory: 12.00 MB
OK (34 tests, 77 assertions)

Kernel tests

Bootstraps Drupal for database use.

SIMPLETEST_DB and SIMPLETEST_BASE_URL defaults are set correctly by lando.

See https://github.com/lando/core/blob/main/plugins/lando-recipes/types/drupaly/builder.js#L61

lando php /app/vendor/bin/phpunit -c /app/web/core/phpunit.xml.dist /app/web/core/tests/Drupal/KernelTests/Core/Entity/EntityFieldTest.php

Testing Drupal\KernelTests\Core\Entity\EntityFieldTest
.............                                                     13 / 13 (100%)

Time: 00:38.586, Memory: 10.00 MB

OK (13 tests, 1841 assertions)

Functional Tests

Load pages and check output.

lando php /app/vendor/bin/phpunit -c /app/phpunit.xml /app/web/core/tests/Drupal/FunctionalTests/Image/ToolkitSetupFormTest.php

Testing Drupal\FunctionalTests\Image\ToolkitSetupFormTest
..                                                                  2 / 2 (100%)
Time: 00:09.087, Memory: 8.00 MB
OK (2 tests, 33 assertions)

Functional Javascript Tests

Need chromedriver configured.

Nightwatch Tests

New Javascript Test format.

I'm not able to run these from PHPStorm. https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/WI-72409/Run-nightwatch-tests-in-d…

lando nightwatch tests/Drupal/Nightwatch/Tests/Olivero/oliveroColorTest.js

yarn run v1.22.19
$ node -r dotenv-safe/config ./node_modules/.bin/nightwatch --config ./tests/Drupal/Nightwatch/nightwatch.conf.js tests/Drupal/Nightwatch/Tests/Olivero/oliveroColorTest.js

[Olivero/Olivero Color Test] Test Suite
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
ℹ Connected to chrome on port 9515 (142ms).
  Using: chrome (106.0.5249.103) on LINUX.