Configure and Test Laravel Task Scheduling

I've had luck in Laravel 8 with the following test:

public function testRunsAt930()
{
    Event::fake();
    $this->travelTo(now()->startOfWeek()->setHour(9)->setMinute(30));
    $this->artisan('schedule:run');
    
    Event::assertDispatched(ScheduledTaskFinished::class, function ($event) {
        return strpos($event->task->command, 'your-command-name') !== false;
    });
}

The scheduler fires off the Illuminate\Console\Events\ScheduledTaskFinished event when it successfully runs a schedule, so you can find out if your schedule would run at a particular time by mocking your time then actually running the schedule and then you just listen for that event.

If you're not using L8 you can probably use something like Carbonite for the time mocking, though I think the rest should work, though you might need to use Artisan facade in earlier versions.

To find out if a schedule ran just use Event::assertDispatched() as in the above example. Though if you want to find out if it did not run you can just use Event::assertNotDispatched() for the ScheduledTaskFinished::class or listen for the ScheduledTaskFailed::class instead.

I know this has already been answered but I found this method may be a bit cleaner if you're using L8, and maybe even for earlier versions.

command() runs an artisan command. What you're trying to achieve - issuing a command to the OS - is done by exec('echo "Happy New Year!"')

Testing depends on what you want to test:

• Whether the scheduler (every minute) is working?

In this case, you don't have to. It is tested in the original framework code.

• Whether the command succeeds?

Well, you can manually run php artisan schedule:run and see the output.

The scheduler does not produce any output on default (>> /dev/null 2>&1). You can, however, redirect the output of the runned scripts to any file by chaining writeOutputTo() or appendOutputTo() (https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/scheduling#task-output).

---

For more complex logic, write a console command instead (https://laravel.com/docs/5.1/artisan#writing-commands) and use command() - this way you can write nice, testable code.

If you want to unit test the scheduling of events you can use this example. It is based on the default inspire command:

public function testIsAvailableInTheScheduler()
{
    /** @var \Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule $schedule */
    $schedule = app()->make(\Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule::class);

    $events = collect($schedule->events())->filter(function (\Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event $event) {
        return stripos($event->command, 'YourCommandHere');
    });

    if ($events->count() == 0) {
        $this->fail('No events found');
    }

    $events->each(function (\Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event $event) {
        // This example is for hourly commands.
        $this->assertEquals('0 * * * * *', $event->expression);
    });
}

Building on Michiel's answer, I've used the methods contained in Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event to test if the event is due to run for a given date.

I've mocked the current date using Carbon::setTestNow() so that any date based logic in the when() and skip() filters will behave as expected.

use Tests\TestCase;
use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Schedule;
use Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event;

use Cron\CronExpression;
use Carbon\Carbon;


class ScheduleTest extends TestCase {


    public function testCompanyFeedbackSchedule()
    {
        $event = $this->getCommandEvent('your-command-signature');

        $test_date = Carbon::now()->startOfDay()->addHours(8);

        for ($i=0; $i < 365; $i++) { 
            $test_date->addDay();
            Carbon::setTestNow($test_date);

            // Run the when() & skip() filters
            $filters_pass = $event->filtersPass($this->app);
            // Test that the Cron expression passes
            $date_passes = $this->isEventDue($event);
            $will_run = $filters_pass && $date_passes;

            // Should only run on first friday of month
            if ($test_date->format('l') === 'Friday' && $test_date->weekOfMonth === 1) {
                $this->assertTrue($will_run, 'Task should run on '. $test_date->toDateTimeString());
            } else {
                $this->assertFalse($will_run, 'Task should not run on '. $test_date->toDateTimeString());
            }
        }
    }


    /**
     * Get the event matching the given command signature from the scheduler
     * 
     * @param  string  $command_signature
     * 
     * @return Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event
     */
    private function getCommandEvent($command_signature)
    {
        $schedule = app()->make(Schedule::class);

        $event = collect($schedule->events())->first(function (Event $event) use ($command_signature) {
            return stripos($event->command, $command_signature);
        });

        if (!$event) {
            $this->fail('Event for '. $command_signature .' not found');
        }

        return $event;
    }


    /**
     * Determine if the Cron expression passes.
     * 
     * Copied from the protected method Illuminate\Console\Scheduling\Event@isEventDue
     * 
     * @return bool
     */
    private function isEventDue(Event $event)
    {
        $date = Carbon::now();

        if ($event->timezone) {
            $date->setTimezone($event->timezone);
        }

        return CronExpression::factory($event->expression)->isDue($date->toDateTimeString());
    }
}