I'm having an issue of including the helper methods in my tests suites:

phpunit plugins/MantisCoreFormatting/tests/MarkdownTest.php

    /**
     * Mantis Text, Bug/Notes and Mention link Processing
     *
     * @return string Formatted text
     */
    private function textBugNoteMentionLinksProcess ( $p_string ) {

        $t_string = $p_string;

        # Text processing
        $t_string = string_strip_hrefs( $t_string );
        $t_string = string_html_specialchars( $t_string );
        $t_string = string_restore_valid_html_tags( $t_string, true );

        # Bug and Notes processing
        $t_string = string_process_bug_link( $t_string );
        $t_string = string_process_bugnote_link( $t_string );

        # Mention processing
        $t_string = mention_format_text( $t_string, true );

        return $t_string;
    }

    /**
     * Test If string starts with hash(#) symbol
     *
     * @return void
     */
    public function testHash() {

        $t_expected_string = '<h1>hello</h1>';

        # followed by letter
        $t_input_string = '#hello';
        $t_process_string = $this->textBugNoteMentionLinksProcess( $t_input_string );
        $this->assertEquals( $t_expected_string, MantisMarkdown::convert_text( $t_process_string ) );

        # followed by space
        $t_input_string = '# hello';
        $t_process_string = $this->textBugNoteMentionLinksProcess( $t_input_string );
        $this->assertEquals( $t_expected_string, MantisMarkdown::convert_text( $t_process_string ) );

        # followed by numeric
        $t_input_string = #[1];

        $t_process_string = $this->textBugNoteMentionLinksProcess( $t_input_string );

        $this->assertEquals( $t_expected_string, MantisMarkdown::convert_text( $t_process_string ) );
    }

I'm referring with the Bug and Notes processing methods:

# Bug and Notes processing
$t_string = string_process_bug_link( $t_string );
$t_string = string_process_bugnote_link( $t_string );

A Fatal error: Call to a member function Param() on null in /core/database_api.php on line 85

It seems that the helper methods is asking a db connection though. right?

Q? is there a way to inject any required dependencies (autoloading) from the console? phpunit plugins/MantisCoreFormatting/tests/MarkdownTest.php

I'm sorry I don't have time to look into this right now, but I suggest you check out how it's done for other API tests (in tests/Mantis/).

Since this is a core plugin, I would also suggest you put your tests there in the tests/Mantis/ directory, and not in a plugin-specific dir.

Finally, I recommend you refactor your testHash() function to remove code duplication by using a PHPUnit data provider function. see example and reference documentation.

Thank you @dregad, I was just confused why there is logic to check from the database if( bug_exists( $c_bug_id ) ) line 351 in string_api->string_process_bug_link. I was thinking that the helper method would just process the link without checking the database if bug exist or not (the helper method is hard to tests with that setup). I would suggest to inject the dependency instead.

Since this is a core plugin, I would also suggest you put your tests there in the tests/Mantis/ directory, and not in a plugin-specific dir.

right, will move it to tests/Mantis directory.

Finally, I recommend you refactor your testHash() function to remove code duplication by using a PHPUnit data provider function. see example and reference documentation.

right.