PHP TestFest 2017

--Apple-Mail=_35C55AFD-5F61-4068-9875-37E41495CAE2
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset=us-ascii

Hi, all!

Years ago, PHP user groups around the world banded together to hold a
yearly PHP TestFest. From my recollection, 2008 and 2009 were the
biggest years, with the most involvement, but some groups continued the
tradition for several more years.

So, what is the PHP TestFest?

Here's the old description from the original TestFest page at
https://qa.php.net/

> The TestFest is an event that aims at improving the code coverage of
> the test suite for the PHP language itself. As part of this event,
> local User Groups (UG) are invited to join the TestFest. These UGs
> can meet physically or come together virtually. The point however is
> that people network to learn together. Aside from being an
> opportunity for all of you to make friends with like minded people in
> your (virtual) community, it also will hopefully reduce the work load
> for the PHP.net mentors. All it takes is someone to organize a UG to
> spearhead the event and to get others involved in writing phpt tests.
> The submissions will then be reviewed by members of php.net before
> getting included in the official test suite.

At php[tek], Sammy Kaye Powers gave a great presentation on writing phpt
tests, and several folks began reminescing about the TestFest. One thing
led to another, and we decided it's time to bring it back.

So, let's bring it back!

Here are a few things we should discuss:

* When should we hold TestFest? The goal is for as many user groups as
  possible to take part, so we should pick a month that works for most
  groups. A group may participate at any time during that month.

* Resources? We used to have resources available at qa.php.net, but
  those resources seem to have disappeared (see below for archived
  links). I've set up a repository here, where we can start
  collaborating to assemble resources for the TestFest:
  <https://github.com/phpcommunity/testfest>

* Prizes? The first TestFest included an elePHPant raffle, where each
  good test submission received an entry to the raffle, and ten plush
  elePHPants were raffled off to submitters. Should we do prizes? If so,
  how should that work? Should we ask companies if they'd like to offer
  products/services to give away?

* How should tests be submitted, and who can volunteer to review tests
  and work with those who have karma to php-src to accept and merge in
  the tests?

* We need mentors who can help UG leaders prepare for the event.

* It'd be great if we could assemble a presentation for any group to use
  that would introduce TestFest and explain how to get started. I know
  several people had worked on virtual machines that groups could use
  to get people up-and-running quickly; today with Vagrant/Docker, it
  should be easier than ever before to put something together that's
  portable and useful.

* What else?

So, let's get the ball rolling and assemble the groups for TestFest
2017!

Cheers,
Ben


Relevant Links:

* Original TestFest page:
  <http://web.archive.org/web/20080912150938/http://qa.php.net/testfest.php>

* TestFest on the PHP wiki:
  <https://wiki.php.net/qa/testfest>

* Old source for testfest.php.net:
  <https://github.com/php/web-testfest>

* Some blog posts from Stefan Koopmanschap:
  <http://leftontheweb.com/blog/categories/testfest/>

* Philip Norton's post on the UK PHP TestFest 2010:
  <http://www.hashbangcode.com/blog/php-testfest-uk-2010-and-testing-php>

* PHPBelgium slides for preparing for TestFest 2009:
  <https://www.slideshare.net/PHPBelgium/preparation-for-php-test-fest-2009>

* Brazilian TestFest code resources:
  <https://github.com/PHPTestFestBrasil/PHPTestFest>

* Sammy's php[tek] 2017 talk:
  <https://speakerdeck.com/sammyk/writing-tests-for-php-source-php-tek-2017>


--Apple-Mail=_35C55AFD-5F61-4068-9875-37E41495CAE2
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment;
	filename=signature.asc
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature;
	name=signature.asc
Content-Description: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----

iF4EAREIAAYFAlk3eqAACgkQsC2XmJyMBxtNGAD9H4rXUo55sPV8QnE5UjWhR+MF
XUGNfonR1dwVTBhwYv8A/1tct+ritxCBJDf5V/9TfY7ZSShY2UVUDNnxF3M8hPGH
=zMfN
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--Apple-Mail=_35C55AFD-5F61-4068-9875-37E41495CAE2--