diff --git a/lib/simpletest/testsimpletestlib.php b/lib/simpletest/testsimpletestlib.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7471d5d12af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/simpletest/testsimpletestlib.php
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Unit tests for (some of) ../accesslib.php.
+ *
+ * @copyright &copy; 2006 The Open University
+ * @author T.J.Hunt@open.ac.uk
+ * @license http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU Public License
+ * @package moodlecore
+ */
+
+if (!defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL')) {
+    die('Direct access to this script is forbidden.');    ///  It must be included from a Moodle page
+}
+
+class accesslib_test extends MoodleUnitTestCase {
+
+    function test_get_parent_contexts() {
+        $context = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_SYSTEM);
+        $this->assertEqual(get_parent_contexts($context), array());
+
+        $context = new stdClass;
+        $context->path = '/1/25';
+        $this->assertEqual(get_parent_contexts($context), array(1));
+
+        $context = new stdClass;
+        $context->path = '/1/123/234/345/456';
+        $this->assertEqual(get_parent_contexts($context), array(345, 234, 123, 1));
+    }
+
+    function test_get_parent_contextid() {
+        $context = get_context_instance(CONTEXT_SYSTEM);
+        $this->assertFalse(get_parent_contextid($context));
+
+        $context = new stdClass;
+        $context->path = '/1/25';
+        $this->assertEqual(get_parent_contextid($context), 1);
+
+        $context = new stdClass;
+        $context->path = '/1/123/234/345/456';
+        $this->assertEqual(get_parent_contextid($context), 345);
+    }
+
+    function test_get_users_by_capability() {
+        global $DB;
+        // Create three nested contexts. instanceid does not matter for this. Just
+        // ensure we don't violate any unique keys by using an unlikely number.
+        // We will fix paths in a second.
+        $contexts = $this->load_test_data('context',
+                array('contextlevel', 'instanceid', 'path', 'depth'), array(
+                array(10, 666, '', 1),
+                array(40, 666, '', 2),
+                array(50, 666, '', 3),
+        ));
+        $contexts[0]->path = '/' . $contexts[0]->id;
+        $DB->set_field('context', 'path', $contexts[0]->path, array('id' => $contexts[0]->id));
+        $contexts[1]->path = $contexts[0]->path . '/' . $contexts[1]->id;
+        $DB->set_field('context', 'path', $contexts[1]->path, array('id' => $contexts[1]->id));
+        $contexts[2]->path = $contexts[1]->path . '/' . $contexts[2]->id;
+        $DB->set_field('context', 'path', $contexts[2]->path, array('id' => $contexts[2]->id));
+
+        // Just test load_test_data and delete_test_data for now.
+        $this->assertTrue($DB->record_exists('context', array('id' => $contexts[1]->id)));
+        $this->assertTrue($DB->get_field('context', 'path', array('id' => $contexts[2]->id)), $contexts[2]->path);
+        $this->delete_test_data('context', $contexts);
+        $this->assertFalse($DB->record_exists('context', array('id' => $contexts[1]->id)));
+    }
+}
+?>
diff --git a/lib/simpletestlib.php b/lib/simpletestlib.php
index a75031b1643..f85f3bf45e2 100644
--- a/lib/simpletestlib.php
+++ b/lib/simpletestlib.php
@@ -279,6 +279,53 @@ class MoodleUnitTestCase extends UnitTestCase {
         UnitTestDB::restore();
         fulldelete($this->pkfile);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Load a table with some rows of data. A typical call would look like:
+     *
+     * $config = $this->load_test_data('config_plugins',
+     *         array('plugin', 'name', 'value'), array(
+     *         array('frog', 'numlegs', 2),
+     *         array('frog', 'sound', 'croak'),
+     *         array('frog', 'action', 'jump'),
+     * ));
+     *
+     * @param string $table the table name.
+     * @param array $cols the columns to fill.
+     * @param array $data the data to load.
+     * @return array $objects corresponding to $data.
+     */
+    public function load_test_data($table, array $cols, array $data) {
+        global $DB;
+        $results = array();
+        foreach ($data as $rowid => $row) {
+            $obj = new stdClass;
+            foreach ($cols as $key => $colname) {
+                $obj->$colname = $row[$key];
+            }
+            $obj->id = $DB->insert_record($table, $obj);
+            $results[$rowid] = $obj;
+        }
+        return $results;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Clean up data loaded with load_test_data. The call corresponding to the
+     * example load above would be:
+     *
+     * $this->delete_test_data('config_plugins', $config);
+     *
+     * @param string $table the table name.
+     * @param array $rows the rows to delete. Actually, only $rows[$key]->id is used.
+     */
+    public function delete_test_data($table, array $rows) {
+        global $DB;
+        $ids = array();
+        foreach ($rows as $row) {
+            $ids[] = $row->id;
+        }
+        $DB->delete_records_list($table, 'id', $ids);
+    }
 }
 
 /**