AbstractController.php

<?php

abstract class AbstractController
{
  public function dispatch($action)
  {
    $actionName = $action . "Action";

    if (!method_exists($this, $actionName))
    {
      throw new Exception("Action method '{$actionName}' does not exist");
    }

    $this->$actionName();
  }
}

AbstractControllerTest.php

<?php

require_once("src/AbstractController.php");

class AbstractControllerTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
  public function testDispatchWillDispatchActionRequest()
  {
    $controller = $this->getMockForAbstractClass('AbstractController', array(), '', true, true, true, array('indexAction'));
    $controller->expects($this->once())->method('indexAction');

    $controller->dispatch('index');
  }
}

Actual Output

$ phpunit
PHPUnit 3.7.21 by Sebastian Bergmann.

Configuration read from /home/james/Workspace/methodtest/phpunit.xml

E

Time: 0 seconds, Memory: 3.25Mb

There was 1 error:

1) AbstractControllerTest::testDispatchWillDispatchActionRequest
Exception: Action method 'indexAction' does not exist

/home/james/Workspace/methodtest/src/AbstractController.php:11
/home/james/Workspace/methodtest/tests/AbstractControllerTest.php:13
/usr/share/php/PHPUnit/TextUI/Command.php:176
/usr/share/php/PHPUnit/TextUI/Command.php:129

FAILURES!
Tests: 1, Assertions: 0, Errors: 1.

The Solution
@benjie pointed out here that the $mockedMethods array is only added to $methods if it actually exists, unlike if you call $this->getMock() directly instead.

My workaround/solution is as follows:

// Remove this line:
$controller = $this->getMockForAbstractClass('AbstractController', array(), '', true, true, true, array('indexAction'));

// Add this line instead:
$controller = $this->getMock('AbstractController', array('indexAction'));

This only works because I haven't declared any abstract functions within my abstract class - if I did, I expect it would break, but I haven't tested so can't vouch for that assumption ;)