fakeiteasy initializing private members in constructor - asp.net-mvc

I want to test methods in my controller, I know about this...
myController = new MyController();
A.CallTo(()=>myController.SomeMethodIWantToTest().Returns(someValueIAmTesting);
The problem is that inside that parameterless constructor, I call numerous methods in other assemblies that set values for private members,
public class MyController : Controller {
private ILoginBusiness loginBusiness;
private ISomethingElse somethingElse;
//... and so on...
public MyController(){
loginbusiness = ServiceFactory.GetLoginBusiness();
somethingElse = //some method in another assembly that initializes the value
//... and so on, calling methods in other assemblies that initialize the private members...
}
public ActionResult SomeMethodIWantToTest(){ }
}
So how do I isolate all those method calls in my constructor (so I'm not calling methods in those other assemblies?)

First,
myController = new MyController();
A.CallTo(()=>myController.SomeMethodIWantToTest().Returns(someValueIAmTesting);
Will result in an error, as A.CallTo only handles calls to fakes (and there should be an extra ) after …ToTest()).
Second, the general approach that is taken in this sort of situation is called Dependency Injection. Instead of having a class make all its dependencies (in your case, by calling methods from other assemblies), you have its dependencies provided to it.
Assuming you're able to start injecting dependencies, you're almost home. You're already relying on interfaces inside MyController, so then you can use FakeItEasy to supply fakes to MyController, avoiding calls to the out-of-assembly methods.

Related

Partially mocking an ASP.Net MVC action method in Rhino Mock?

I'm new to Rhino, and wondered how to mock a local variable/object inside a method of a class I'd also be mocking. In this case I'd be doing it with an ASP.Net MVC controller & action method.
Here's what the controller looks like, simplified:
public class HomeController : Controller {
public myObjectType myMockedObject; //I want to mock this
public myNonMockedObject; //don't want to mock this
public ViewResult Index() {
//call various methods on the mocked and nonmocked members
return View();
}
}
In other words, I'd like to create a mock home controller and mock some local variables within it and their methods-- but not all of them. Is this possible using Rhino?
You can inject these through constructor parameters. Just write constructor that takes myObjectType as parameter. Within this constructor just initialize your fields.
Note1: in case to run MVC, you will need also parameterless ctro, or modify ConstructorFactory (e.g. here https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/560798/ASP-NET-MVC-Controller-Dependency-Injection-for-Be). Or just think about using some IoC container (e.g. https://www.nuget.org/packages/Unity/) that can inject whatever you want inside the controller (mock or normal class).
Note2: you should extract an interface from myObjectType class and mock that interface instead of concrete class (Rhino handles that better).
Note3: I am usually trying to put all the logic (and test that separately) outside of controller since it is quite tough to test the controller (you need to initialize a lot of stuff there what involves another mocking).

How to instantiate the repository that uses ninject in a unit test

I have a repository like:
public class Repository<TEntity> : IRepository<TEntity> where TEntity : class, IEntity
{
private readonly IContext _db;
public Repository(IContext context)
{
_db =context;
}
...
In Global.asax I have setup the ninject as:
kernel.Bind<IContext>().To<Context>();
This is working fine in the app probably because I'm explicity instantiating by calling the constructor with a paramater. There are problems in the unit tests however.
Then in a unit test I have:
var mockUnitOfWork = new Mock<UnitOfWork>();
var mockProjectApprovalRepository = new Mock<Repository<ProjectApproval>>();
mockUnitOfWork.Setup(x => x.ProjectApprovalRepository).Returns(mockProjectApprovalRepository.Object);
On this last line I get the error:
Can not instantiate proxy of class: MyNamespace.Repository Could not find a parameterless constructor.
I'm confused by this because I thought the point of Ninject was I didn't need to specify a parameterless constructor. Shouldn't ninject have instantiated a Context and used the constructor with one parameter.
When you do new Mock<Repository<ProjectApproval>>(), you're asking Moq to construct the object. If you asked Ninject to construct it, it would do it.
Ninject doesn't magically step in wherever construction happens - new is still new.
In this case, you can use an overload of the Mock constructor wherein you specify extra args.
Note that its generally accepted that Ninject shouldnt be anywhere near anything remotely close to the any common definition of the term Unit Test.

How to inject with Guice when there are two different constructors?

Total Guice noob here, have read a few articles and seen the intro video, that's about it.
Here's my simplified old code that I'm trying to "guicifiy". Can't quite figure out how to, since (as far as I understand), I can only #inject-annotate one of the two constructors? How can a calling class create the one or the other instance? Or will I have to refactor this somehow?
public class MyDialog extends JDialog {
public MyDialog( JFrame parent, <other parameters...> ) {
super( parent );
}
public MyDialog( JDialog parent, <other parameters...>) {
super( parent );
}
}
You can only inject into the one ctor.
Depending on how this class is being used, you could:
Inject a factory into the client code with two "new" methods.
Roll all the arguments into one ctor and pass null when not required.
How can a calling class create the one or the other instance?
This suggests that the calling classes will want multiple instances of MyDialog? Then you need to use a hand-rolled factory (Assisted Inject can handle this for you if you only had one ctor). I don't know the details of what you are up to and I'm likely repeating what you already know but as a blanked statement I'd suggest also extracting an interface from MyDialog and have the factory return them. This way you can fake MyDialog in tests.
Constructor injection is very clean. mlk is right, saying that you can inject into one constructor only.
What you can do is use method injection:
public class Smt {
private int a;
private Cereal cereal;
private Personality personality;
private ignition;
public Smt() {
this.a = 5;
}
public Smt(int a) {
this.a = a;
}
#Inject
public void setup(#CiniMini Cereal cereal, #Rastafarian Personality personality,
Ignition ignition) {
this.cereal = cereal;
this.personality = personality;
this.ignition = ignition;
}
}
What Guice will do is call your class' setup class method and provide all the injections. Then you do the same thing as in the constructor--assign the objects to your class' attributes.
I agree with the previous comments.
Just an additional hint: constructor injection is supposed to provide all dependencies a class needs. As mlk says, one approach could be to annotate the constructor with most arguments and then refactor the other one to call the former by passing null values where needed.
Additionally, Guice 3.0 supports the so called Constructor Bindings which allow the programmer to specify which constructor to use. See here for more details.

Is there a good/proper way of solving the dependency injection loop problem in the ASP.NET MVC ContactsManager tutorial?

If you don't know what I'm talking about either go through the tutorial and try to add dependency Injection yourself or try your luck with my explanation of the problem.
Note: This problem isn't within the scope of the original tutorial on ASP.NET. The tutorial only suggests that the patterns used are dependency injection friendly.
The problem is basically that there is a dependency loop between the Controller, the ModelStateWrapper and the ContactManagerService.
The ContactController constuctor takes an IContactManagerService.
The ContactManagerService constructor takes an IContactManagerRepository (not important) and an IValidationDictionary (which ModelStateWrapper implements).
The ModelStateWrapper constructor takes a ModelStateDictionary (which is a property called "ModelState" on the controller).
So the dependency cycle goes like this: Controller > Service > ModelStateWrapper > Controller
If you try to add dependency injection to this, it will fail. So my question is; what should I do about it? Others have posted this question, but the answers are few, different, and all seem kinda "hack-ish".
My current solution is to remove the IModelStateWrapper from the IService constructor and add an Initialize method instead like this:
public class ContactController : Controller
{
private readonly IContactService _contactService;
public ContactController(IContactService contactService)
{
_contactService = contactService;
contactService.Initialize(new ModelStateWrapper(ModelState));
}
//Class implementation...
}
public class ContactService : IContactService
{
private IValidationDictionary _validationDictionary;
private readonly IContactRepository _contactRepository;
public ContactService(IContactRepository contactRepository)
{
_contactRepository = contactRepository;
}
private void Initialize(IValidationDictionary validationDictionary)
{
if(validationDictionary == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("validationDictionary");
_validationDictionary = validationDictionary;
}
//Class implementation...
}
public class ModelStateWrapper : IValidationDictionary
{
private readonly ModelStateDictionary _modelState;
public ModelStateWrapper(ModelStateDictionary modelState)
{
_modelState = modelState;
}
//Class implementation...
}
With this construct I can configure my unity container like this:
public static void ConfigureUnityContainer()
{
IUnityContainer container = new UnityContainer();
// Registrations
container.RegisterTypeInHttpRequestLifetime<IContactRepository, EntityContactRepository>();
container.RegisterTypeInHttpRequestLifetime<IContactService, ContactService>();
ControllerBuilder.Current.SetControllerFactory(new UnityControllerFactory(container));
}
Unfortunately this means that the "Initialize" method on the service has to be called manually by the controller constructor. Is there a better way? Maybe where I somehow include the IValidationDictionary in my unity configuration? Should I switch to another DI container? Am I missing something?
As a general consideration, circular dependencies indicate a design flaw - I think I can safely say this since you are not the original author of the code :)
I wouldn't consider an Initialize method a good solution. Unless you are dealing with an add-in scenario (which you aren't), Method Injection is not the right solution. You have almost already figured that out, since you find it unsatisfactory that you need to manually invoke it because your DI Container can't.
Unless I am entirely mistaken, the ContactController doesn't need the IValidationDictionary instance before its Action methods are being invoked?
If this is true, the easiest solution would probably be to define an IValidationDictionaryFactory interface and make the ContactController constructor take an instance of this interface.
This interface could be defined like this:
public interface IValidationDictionaryFactory
{
IValidationDictionary Create(Controller controller);
}
Any Action method on the controller that needs an IValidationDictionary instance can then invoke the Create method to get the instance.
The default implementation would look something like this:
public class DefaultValidationDictionaryFactory : IValidationDictionaryFactory
{
public IValidationDictionary Create(Controller controller)
{
return controller.ModelState;
}
}
How about slightly changing/improving the design to something like this: http://forums.asp.net/t/1486130.aspx
Each controller has a virtual method Initialize to do stuff like that.
I think there is no better way because the IValidationDictionary is an abstraction layer between you current request/controller/modelstate and the IContactService. Injecting controllers modelstate into the service and then injecting the service into the controller is simply impossible using constructor injection. One has to be first.
May be there is a way using property injection? But I think this will be complicated too.

How are you able to Unit Test your controllers without an IoC container?

I'm starting to get into Unit Testing, Dependancy Injection and all that jazz while constructing my latest ASP.NET MVC project.
I'm to the point now where I would like to Unit Test my Controllers and I'm having difficulty figuring out how to appropriately do this without an IoC container.
Take for example a simple controller:
public class QuestionsController : ControllerBase
{
private IQuestionsRepository _repository = new SqlQuestionsRepository();
// ... Continue with various controller actions
}
This class is not very unit testable because of its direct instantiation of SqlQuestionsRepository. So, lets go down the Dependancy Injection route and do:
public class QuestionsController : ControllerBase
{
private IQuestionsRepository _repository;
public QuestionsController(IQuestionsRepository repository)
{
_repository = repository;
}
}
This seems better. I can now easily write unit tests with a mock IQuestionsRepository. However, what is going to instantiate the controller now? Somewhere further up the call chain SqlQuestionRepository is going to have to be instantiated. It seems as through I've simply shifted the problem elsewhere, not gotten rid of it.
Now, I know this is a good example of where an IoC container can help you by wiring up the Controllers dependancies for me while at the same time keeping my controller easily unit testable.
My question is, how is one suppose to do unit testing on things of this nature without an IoC container?
Note: I'm not opposed to IoC containers, and I'll likely go down that road soon. However, I'm curious what the alternative is for people who don't use them.
Isn't it possible to keep the direct instantiation of the field and also provide the setter? In this case you'd only be calling the setter during unit testing. Something like this:
public class QuestionsController : ControllerBase
{
private IQuestionsRepository _repository = new SqlQuestionsRepository();
// Really only called during unit testing...
public QuestionsController(IQuestionsRepository repository)
{
_repository = repository;
}
}
I'm not too familiar with .NET but as a side note in Java this is a common way to refactor existing code to improve the testability. I.E., if you have classes that are already in use and need to modify them so as to improve code coverage without breaking existing functionality.
Our team has done this before, and usually we set the visibility of the setter to package-private and keep the package of the test class the same so that it can call the setter.
You could have a default constructor with your controller that will have some sort of default behavior.
Something like...
public QuestionsController()
: this(new QuestionsRepository())
{
}
That way by default when the controller factory is creating a new instance of the controller it will use the default constructor's behavior. Then in your unit tests you could use a mocking framework to pass in a mock into the other constructor.
One options is to use fakes.
public class FakeQuestionsRepository : IQuestionsRepository {
public FakeQuestionsRepository() { } //simple constructor
//implement the interface, without going to the database
}
[TestFixture] public class QuestionsControllerTest {
[Test] public void should_be_able_to_instantiate_the_controller() {
//setup the scenario
var repository = new FakeQuestionsRepository();
var controller = new QuestionsController(repository);
//assert some things on the controller
}
}
Another options is to use mocks and a mocking framework, which can auto-generate these mocks on the fly.
[TestFixture] public class QuestionsControllerTest {
[Test] public void should_be_able_to_instantiate_the_controller() {
//setup the scenario
var repositoryMock = new Moq.Mock<IQuestionsRepository>();
repositoryMock
.SetupGet(o => o.FirstQuestion)
.Returns(new Question { X = 10 });
//repositoryMock.Object is of type IQuestionsRepository:
var controller = new QuestionsController(repositoryMock.Object);
//assert some things on the controller
}
}
Regarding where all the objects get constructed. In a unit test, you only set up a minimal set of objects: a real object which is under test, and some faked or mocked dependencies which the real object under test requires. For example, the real object under test is an instance of QuestionsController - it has a dependency on IQuestionsRepository, so we give it either a fake IQuestionsRepository like in the first example or a mock IQuestionsRepository like in the second example.
In the real system, however, you set up the whole of the container at the very top level of the software. In a Web application, for example, you set up the container, wiring up all of the interfaces and the implementing classes, in GlobalApplication.Application_Start.
I'm expanding on Peter's answer a bit.
In applications with a lot of entity types, it is not uncommon for a controller to require references to multiple repositories, services, whatever. I find it tedious to manually pass all those dependencies in my test code (especially since a given test may only involve one or two of them). In those scenarios, I prefer setter-injection style IOC over constructor injection. The pattern I use it this:
public class QuestionsController : ControllerBase
{
private IQuestionsRepository Repository
{
get { return _repo ?? (_repo = IoC.GetInstance<IQuestionsRepository>()); }
set { _repo = value; }
}
private IQuestionsRepository _repo;
// Don't need anything fancy in the ctor
public QuestionsController()
{
}
}
Replace IoC.GetInstance<> with whatever syntax your particular IOC framework uses.
In production use nothing will invoke the property setter, so the first time the getter is called the controller will call out to your IOC framework, get an instance, and store it.
In test, you just need to call the setter prior to invoking any controller methods:
var controller = new QuestionsController {
Repository = MakeANewMockHoweverYouNormallyDo(...);
}
The benefits of this approach, IMHO:
Still takes advantage of IOC in production.
Easier to manually construct your controllers during testing. You only need to initialize the dependencies your test will actually use.
Possible to create test-specific IOC configurations, if you don't want to manually configure common dependencies.

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