Unit Testing a WCF Client

Question

I am working with code that currently does not use any dependency injection, and makes multiple service calls through a WCF client.

public class MyClass
{
    public void Method()
    {
        try
        {
            ServiceClient client = new ServiceClient();
            client.Operation1();
        }
        catch(Exception ex)
        {
            // Handle Exception
        }
        finally
        {
            client = null;
        }

        try
        {
            ServiceClient client = new ServiceClient();
            client.Operation2();
        }
        catch(Exception ex)
        {
            // Handle Exception
        }
        finally
        {
            client = null;
        }
    }
}

My goal is to make this code unit-testable through the use of dependency injection. My first thought was to simply pass an instance of the service client to the class constructor. Then in my unit tests, I can create a mock client for testing purposes that does not make actual requests to the web service.

public class MyClass
{
    IServiceClient client;

    public MyClass(IServiceClient client)
    {
        this.client = client;
    }

    public void Method()
    {
        try
        {
            client.Operation1();
        }
        catch(Exception ex)
        {
            // Handle Exception
        } 

        try
        {
            client.Operation2();
        }

        catch(Exception ex)
        {
            // Handle Exception
        }
    }
}

However, I realized that this changes the code in a way that affects its original behavior, based on the information from this question: Reuse a client class in WCF after it is faulted

In the original code, if the call to Operation1 fails and the client is put in a faulted state, a new instance of ServiceClient is created, and Operation2 will still be called. In the updated code, if the call to Operation1 fails, the same client is reused to call Operation2, but this call will fail if the client is in a faulted state.

Is it possible to create a new instance of the client while keeping the dependency injection pattern? I realize that reflection can be used to instantiate a class from a string, but I feel like reflection isn't the right way to go about this.

Answer 1

What I did in the past was have a generic client (with 'interception' using Unity) which creates a new connection from the ChannelFactory, based on the service's business interface, for each call and close that connection after each call, deciding on whether to indicate the connection is faulted based on whether an exception or normal response was returned. (See below.)

My real code using this client just requests an instance implementing the business interface and it will get an instance of this generic wrapper. The instance returned does not need to be disposed of, or treated differently based on whether an exception was returned. To get a service client (using the wrapper below) my code does: var client = SoapClientInterceptorBehavior<T>.CreateInstance(new ChannelFactory<T>("*")), which is usually hidden in a registry or passed in as a constructor argument. So in your case I would end up with var myClass = new MyClass(SoapClientInterceptorBehavior<IServiceClient>.CreateInstance(new ChannelFactory<IServiceClient>("*"))); (you probably want to put the whole call to create the instance in some factory method of your own, just requiring IServiceClient as input type, to make it a bit more readable. ;-))

In my tests I can just injected a mocked implementation of the service and test whether the right business methods were called and their results properly handled.

    /// <summary>
    /// IInterceptionBehavior that will request a new channel from a ChannelFactory for each call,
    /// and close (or abort) it after each call.
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">business interface of SOAP service to call</typeparam>
    public class SoapClientInterceptorBehavior<T> : IInterceptionBehavior 
    {
        // create a logger to include the interface name, so we can configure log level per interface
        // Warn only logs exceptions (with arguments)
        // Info can be enabled to get overview (and only arguments on exception),
        // Debug always provides arguments and Trace also provides return value
        private static readonly Logger Logger = LogManager.GetLogger(LoggerName());

    private static string LoggerName()
    {
        string baseName = MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType.FullName;
        baseName = baseName.Remove(baseName.IndexOf('`'));
        return baseName + "." + typeof(T).Name;
    }

    private readonly Func<T> _clientCreator;

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates new, using channelFactory.CreatChannel to create a channel to the SOAP service.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="channelFactory">channelfactory to obtain connections from</param>
    public SoapClientInterceptorBehavior(ChannelFactory<T> channelFactory)
                : this(channelFactory.CreateChannel)
    {
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates new, using the supplied method to obtain a connection per call.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="clientCreationFunc">delegate to obtain client connection from</param>
    public SoapClientInterceptorBehavior(Func<T> clientCreationFunc)
    {
        _clientCreator = clientCreationFunc;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Intercepts calls to SOAP service, ensuring proper creation and closing of communication
    /// channel.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="input">invocation being intercepted.</param>
    /// <param name="getNext">next interceptor in chain (will not be called)</param>
    /// <returns>result from SOAP call</returns>
    public IMethodReturn Invoke(IMethodInvocation input, GetNextInterceptionBehaviorDelegate getNext)
    {
        Logger.Info(() => "Invoking method: " + input.MethodBase.Name + "()");
        // we will not invoke an actual target, or call next interception behaviors, instead we will
        // create a new client, call it, close it if it is a channel, and return its
        // return value.
        T client = _clientCreator.Invoke();
        Logger.Trace(() => "Created client");
        var channel = client as IClientChannel;
        IMethodReturn result;

        int size = input.Arguments.Count;
        var args = new object[size];
        for(int i = 0; i < size; i++)
        {
            args[i] = input.Arguments[i];
        }
        Logger.Trace(() => "Arguments: " + string.Join(", ", args));

        try
        {
            object val = input.MethodBase.Invoke(client, args);
            if (Logger.IsTraceEnabled)
            {
                Logger.Trace(() => "Completed " + input.MethodBase.Name + "(" + string.Join(", ", args) + ") return-value: " + val);
            }
            else if (Logger.IsDebugEnabled)
            {
                Logger.Debug(() => "Completed " + input.MethodBase.Name + "(" + string.Join(", ", args) + ")");
            }
            else
            {
                Logger.Info(() => "Completed " + input.MethodBase.Name + "()");
            }

            result = input.CreateMethodReturn(val, args);
            if (channel != null)
            {
                Logger.Trace("Closing channel");
                channel.Close();
            }
        }
        catch (TargetInvocationException tie)
        {
            // remove extra layer of exception added by reflective usage
            result = HandleException(input, args, tie.InnerException, channel);
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            result = HandleException(input, args, e, channel);
        }

        return result;

    }

    private static IMethodReturn HandleException(IMethodInvocation input, object[] args, Exception e, IClientChannel channel)
    {
        if (Logger.IsWarnEnabled)
        {
            // we log at Warn, caller might handle this without need to log
            string msg = string.Format("Exception from " + input.MethodBase.Name + "(" + string.Join(", ", args) + ")");
            Logger.Warn(msg, e);
        }
        IMethodReturn result = input.CreateExceptionMethodReturn(e);
        if (channel != null)
        {
            Logger.Trace("Aborting channel");
            channel.Abort();
        }
        return result;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns the interfaces required by the behavior for the objects it intercepts.
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>
    /// The required interfaces.
    /// </returns>
    public IEnumerable<Type> GetRequiredInterfaces()
    {
        return new [] { typeof(T) };
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Returns a flag indicating if this behavior will actually do anything when invoked.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// This is used to optimize interception. If the behaviors won't actually
    ///             do anything (for example, PIAB where no policies match) then the interception
    ///             mechanism can be skipped completely.
    /// </remarks>
    public bool WillExecute
    {
        get { return true; }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates new client, that will obtain a fresh connection before each call
    /// and closes the channel after each call.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="factory">channel factory to connect to service</param>
    /// <returns>instance which will have SoapClientInterceptorBehavior applied</returns>
    public static T CreateInstance(ChannelFactory<T> factory)
    {
        IInterceptionBehavior behavior = new SoapClientInterceptorBehavior<T>(factory);
        return (T)Intercept.ThroughProxy<IMy>(
                  new MyClass(),
                  new InterfaceInterceptor(),
                  new[] { behavior });
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Dummy class to use as target (which will never be called, as this behavior will not delegate to it).
    /// Unity Interception does not allow ONLY interceptor, it needs a target instance
    /// which must implement at least one public interface.
    /// </summary>
    public class MyClass : IMy
    {
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// Public interface for dummy target.
    /// Unity Interception does not allow ONLY interceptor, it needs a target instance
    /// which must implement at least one public interface.
    /// </summary>
    public interface IMy
    {
    }
}

Answer 2

You need to inject factory rather than instance itself:

public class ServiceClientFactory : IServiceClientFactory
{
    public IServiceClient CreateInstance()
    {
        return new ServiceClient();
    }
}

Then in MyClass you simply use factory to get instance each time it is required:

// Injection
public MyClass(IServiceClientFactory serviceClientFactory)
{
    this.serviceClientFactory = serviceClientFactory;
}

// Usage
try
{
    var client = serviceClientFactory.CreateInstance();
    client.Operation1();
}

Alternatively, you can inject function returning such client using Func<IServiceClient> delegate so that you can avoid creating extra class and interface:

// Injection
public MyClass(Func<IServiceClient> createServiceClient)
{
    this.createServiceClient = createServiceClient;
}

// Usage
try
{
    var client = createServiceClient();
    client.Operation1();
}

// Instance creation
var myClass = new MyClass(() => new ServiceClient());

In your case Func<IServiceClient> should be sufficient. Once instance creation logic gets more complicated it would be a time reconsider explicitly implemented factory.