cakephp: Cannot describe `tableName`. It has 0 columns

This is a (multiple allowed):

• bug

• enhancement

• feature-discussion (RFC)

• CakePHP Version: 3.4.11

• Platform and Target: PHPUnit 6.2.3 CLI runner vendor/bin/phpunit --filter=ExitLinksTableTest::testValidation

What you did

I wanted to test my tables validation method. So I created a new test case in /tests/TestCase/Model/ExitLinksTableTest.php.

<?php
namespace ExitLinks\Test\TestCase\Model;

use Cake\ORM\TableRegistry;
use Cake\TestSuite\TestCase;

class ExitLinksTableTest extends TestCase
{
    public $fixtures = ['plugin.exit_links.exit_links'];

    public function testValidation()
    {
        // Must define connectionName otherwise it tries to use 'default' datasource.
        $table = TableRegistry::get('ExitLinks.ExitLinks', ['connectionName' => 'test']);

        $entity = $table->newEntity();
        $requestData = [];
        $result = $table->patchEntity($entity, $requestData);

        $this->assertNotEmpty($entity->getErrors());
    }
}

I copied the SQLite DNS setup from here to my /tests/bootstrap.php.

What happened

PHPUnit 6.2.3 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

E                                                                   1 / 1 (100%)

Time: 109 ms, Memory: 8.00MB

There was 1 error:

1) ExitLinks\Test\TestCase\Model\ExitLinksTableTest::testValidation
Cake\Database\Exception: Cannot describe exit_links. It has 0 columns.

/Users/david/Sites/CakePHP-ExitLinks/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Database/Schema/Collection.php:99
/Users/david/Sites/CakePHP-ExitLinks/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/ORM/Table.php:531
/Users/david/Sites/CakePHP-ExitLinks/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/ORM/Marshaller.php:68
/Users/david/Sites/CakePHP-ExitLinks/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/ORM/Marshaller.php:547
/Users/david/Sites/CakePHP-ExitLinks/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/ORM/Table.php:2491
/Users/david/Sites/CakePHP-ExitLinks/tests/TestCase/Model/ExitLinksTableTest.php:32

ERRORS!
Tests: 1, Assertions: 0, Errors: 1.

What you expected to happen

I expected that the fixture would create the database table and populate it. I also expected that the fixture would create the relevant schema from the $fields array for the table instance. So that when I used the table in my test the schema would exist.

How did I sidestep this issue?

I have to manually create an instance with the schema and connection defined.

TableRegistry::set('Examples', new ExamplesTable([
    'connection' => ConnectionManager::get('test'),
    'schema' => new TableSchema([
        'id' => ['type' = 'int'],
        'title' => ['type' => 'string']
    ])
]);

/cc @lorenzo As you asked me to submit on IRC 😄