Laravel PHPunit SetUp bug

I'm writing tests for Laravel and PHPUnit. My tests make use of a setUp method which runs factory methods when applicable. For example:

public function setUp()
{
    parent::setUp();
    factory(App\User::class, 10)->create();
}

As you can see, I have implicitly called parent::setUp().

However, when I use my own setUp method, traits do not work! For example, If I write a test which doesnt use a setUp() method, and I use the DatabaseTransactions trait, then everything works as expected. Transactions are working fine for this test.

However, If I add my own setUp() method, even if I run parent::setUp(), the trait doesn't work! I know it's being run, because if I var_dump() within the trait method, it outputs data, but it just doesn't run transactions!

If I remove my own setUp() method, transactions work as expected again!

It's not just the DatabaseTransactions trait, this behaviour is also displayed using the DatabaseMigrations trait. I haven't checked other traits.

However if I change my setUp() method to:

public function setUp()
{
    parent::setUp();
    $this->beginDatabaseTransaction();

    $this->users = factory(App\User::class, 10)->create();
}

(note I have implicitly called the beginDatabaseTransaction() method) Then transactions will work.

Can anyone else explain if I am doing something wrong? Why do I need to implicitly call the trait methods if I override the setUp method?

via Chebli Mohamed