asp.net mvc - How to create fake test objects quickly and efficiently

Question

I'm currently testing the controller in my mvc app and I'm creating a fake repository for testing. However I seem to be writing more code and spending more time for the fakes than I do on the actual repositories. Is this right?

The code I have is as follows:

Controller

public partial class SomeController : Controller
{
    IRepository repository;

    public SomeController(IRepository rep)
    {
        repository = rep;
    }

    public virtaul ActionResult Index()
    {
        // Some logic
        var model = repository.GetSomething();

        return View(model);
    }
}

IRepository

public interface IRepository
{
    Something GetSomething();
}

Fake Repository

public class FakeRepository : IRepository
{
    private List<Something> somethingList;

    public FakeRepository(List<Something> somethings)
    {
        somthingList = somthings;
    }

    public Something GetSomething()
    {
        return somethingList;
    }
}

Fake Data

class FakeSomethingData
{
    public static List<Something> CreateSomethingData()
    {
        var somethings = new List<Something>();

        for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
        {
            somethings.Add(new Something
            {
                value1 = String.Format("value{0}", i),
                value2 = String.Format("value{0}", i),
                value3 = String.Format("value{0}", i)
            });
        }

        return somethings;
    }
}

Actual Test

[TestClass]
public class SomethingControllerTest
{
    SomethingController CreateSomethingController()
    {
        var testData = FakeSomethingData.CreateSomethingData();
        var repository = new FakeSomethingRepository(testData);

        SomethingController controller = new SomethingController(repository);

        return controller;
    }

    [TestMethod]
    public void SomeTest()
    {
        // Arrange
        var controller = CreateSomethingController();

        // Act
        // Some test here

        // Arrange
    }
}

All this seems to be a lot of extra code, especially as I have more than one repository. Is there a more efficient way of doing this? Maybe using mocks?

Thanks

Answer 1

The better way is using Dev Magic Fake, so you can Mock the database and can be permanent too, you can also Mock the UI

Just add a reference to DevMagicFake.dll

And you can code the following:

 [HttpPost]
        public ActionResult Create(VendorForm vendorForm)
        {
            var repoistory = new FakeRepository<VendorForm>();
            repoistory.Save(vendorForm);
            return View("Page", repoistory.GetAll());
        }

This will save the VendorForm permanent in the memory, and you can retrieve it anytime You can also generate data for this object or any other object in your model, for more information about Dev Magic Fake see the following Link on CodePlex:

http://devmagicfake.codeplex.com

Thanks

M.Radwan

Answer 2

As CD proposed, use a mocking framework. I too use Moq, and with Moq your test code could be refactored to something like this:

// Arrange
var repoMock = new Mock<IRepository>();
repoMock.Setup(r => r.GetSomething()).Returns(TestData.SomeThings);
var controller = new SomethingController(repoMock.Object);

// Act
controller.DoStuff();

// Assert
...

I usually find it convenient to put all my test data in a separate TestData class with static properties for everything - that way I know that I test with the same data in each test. This is what you need in TestData for this example:

public static List<Something> SomeThings
{ 
    get
    {     
        var somethings = new List<Something>();

        for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
        {
            somethings.Add(new Something
            {
                value1 = String.Format("value{0}", i),
                value2 = String.Format("value{0}", i),
                value3 = String.Format("value{0}", i)
            });
        }

        return somethings;
    }
}

Answer 3

You can mock the repository.

(I use Moq, Mock a database repository using Moq)