Helper method to test private and protected methods with PHPUnit (it's not bound to PHPUnit what so ever)

UnitTestPrivateMethods.php

<?php
class PHPUnitHelper {
    /**
     * Helps testing private and protected methods on SAC objects
     * @param object $class_instance class instance object
     * @param $method Method name
     * @return mixed method return value
     */
    public static function invokePrivateMethod($class_instance, $method_name) {
        $method = new ReflectionMethod(get_class($class_instance), $method_name);
        $method->setAccessible(true);
        return $method->invoke($class_instance);
    }
}

class MyProtectiveClass {
    protected function revealProtectedSecret() {
        return 'Protected Secret';
    }
}

$c = new MyProtectiveClass();
// equivalent to $c->revealProtectedSecret() if revealProtectedSecret
// were public instead of protected or private
$secret = PHPUnitHelper::invokePrivateMethod($c, 'revealProtectedSecret');
echo $secret.PHP_EOL;