CodeThinked

Asp.net MVC Testing Imbalance

Posted on 3/20/2008 2:03:00 AM by Justin Etheredge

Update: I have put up a new post here that shows how I have simplified some of my testing. If you like it please kick it so that others will see the follow up post!

Here is my "Update" action on a project that I am working on:

public void Update(int id)

    _viewData.User = _userRepository.GetUser(id);

    BindingHelperExtensions

        .UpdateFrom(_viewData.User, Request.Form);

    _userRepository.SubmitChanges();

    RedirectToAction("List");

And here is my test for it (using Moq, I wanted to try it out. This uses the Moq MvcMockHelpers from Scott Hanselman's post):

public void UserControllerUpdateTest()

    RouteTable.Routes.Add(

        new Route("[controller]/[action]", new MvcRouteHandler()));

    var mockUserRepository = new Mock<IUserRepository>();

    var user = new User()

        Id = 10,

        UserName = "TestUser",

        EmailAddress = "test@test.com",

        ModifiedOn = DateTime.Now,

        CreatedOn = DateTime.Now

};

    mockUserRepository.Expect(ur => ur.GetUser(10))

        .Returns(user);

    mockUserRepository.Expect(ur => ur.SubmitChanges());

    var fakeController =

        new UserControllerForTesting(mockUserRepository.Object);

    FakeViewEngine fakeView = new FakeViewEngine();

    fakeController.ViewEngine = fakeView;

    var context = new MockHttpContextContainer();

    var formData = new NameValueCollection();

    var userNameFormData = "TestUser2";

    var emailAddressFormData = "test2@test.com";

    formData.Add("User.UserName", userNameFormData);

    formData.Add("User.EmailAddress", emailAddressFormData);

    context.Request.Expect(r => r.Form)

        .Returns(formData);

    var routeData = new RouteData();

    routeData.Values.Add("Action", "Add");

    routeData.Values.Add("Controller", "Home");

    fakeController

        .SetFakeControllerContext(context.Context.Object,

        routeData);

    fakeController.Update(10);

    mockUserRepository.VerifyAll();

    Assert.AreEqual(fakeController.RedirectedAction, "List");

    var viewData = fakeController.TestingViewData;

    Assert.IsNotNull(viewData);

    Assert.IsNotNull(viewData.User);

    Assert.AreEqual(viewData.User.UserName,

        userNameFormData);

    Assert.AreEqual(viewData.User.EmailAddress,

        emailAddressFormData);

And that doesn't even include any of my helper objects or methods. Anyone see a problem with this? I am going to have to put some serious effort into streamlining this. I know that there is quite a bit I can abstract out across different controllers and actions so we will see how this goes. Feel free to provide feedback if you like. So far though I am really having fun digging into this, I can't believe I waited this long!