PHPUnit: How do I create a function to be called once for all the tests in a class?

Question

I have a PHPUnit test case class (consisting of some test functions). I would like to write a oneTimeSetUp() function to be called once for all my tests in the clas

Answer 1

setUpBeforeClass() is the way to do this if all of your tests are literally contained within a single class.

However, your question sort of implies that you may be using your test class as a base class for multiple test classes. In that case setUpBeforeClass will be run before each one. If you only want to run it once you could guard it with a static variable:

abstract class TestBase extends TestCase {

  protected static $initialized = FALSE;

  public function setUp() {
    if (!self::$initialized) {
      // Do something once here for _all_ test subclasses.
      self::$initialized = TRUE;
    }
  }

}

A final option might be a test listener.