# Not Calling the Original Constructor

When creating generated partial test doubles, Mockery mocks out only the method which we specifically told it to. This means that the original constructor of the class we are mocking will be called.

In some cases this is not a desired behavior, as the constructor might issue calls to other methods, or other object collaborators, and as such, can create undesired side-effects in the application’s environment when running the tests.

If this happens, we need to use runtime partial test doubles, as they don’t call the original constructor.

    class MyClass
    {
        public function __construct()
        {
            echo "Original constructor called." . PHP_EOL;
            // Other side-effects can happen...
        }
    }

    // This will print "Original constructor called."
    $mock = \Mockery::mock('MyClass[foo]');

A better approach is to use runtime partial doubles:

    class MyClass
    {
        public function __construct()
        {
            echo "Original constructor called." . PHP_EOL;
            // Other side-effects can happen...
        }
    }

    // This will print "Original constructor called."
    $mock = \Mockery::mock('MyClass')->makePartial();
    $mock->shouldReceive('foo');

This is one of the reason why we don’t recommend using generated partial test doubles, but if possible, always use the runtime partials.

Read more about Partial Test Doubles.

Note

The way generated partial test doubles work, is a BC break. If you use a really old version of Mockery, it might behave in a way that the constructor is not being called for these generated partials. In the case if you upgrade to a more recent version of Mockery, you’ll probably have to change your tests to use runtime partials, instead of generated ones.

This change was introduced in early 2013, so it is highly unlikely that you are using a Mockery from before that, so this should not be an issue.