Unit-tests and validation logic - c#

I am currently writing some unit tests for a business-logic class that includes validation routines. For example:
public User CreateUser(string username, string password, UserDetails details)
{
ValidateUserDetails(details);
ValidateUsername(username);
ValidatePassword(password);
// create and return user
}
Should my test fixture contain tests for every possible validation error that can occur in the Validate* methods, or is it better to leave that for a separate set of tests? Or perhaps the validation logic should be refactored out somehow?
My reasoning is that if I decide to test for all the validation errors that can occur within CreateUser, the test fixture will become quite bloated. And most of the validation methods are used from more than one place...
Any great patterns or suggestions in this case?

Every test should only fail for one reason and only one test should fail for that reason.
This helps a lot with writing a maintainable set of unit tests.
I'd write a couple of tests each for ValidateUserDetails, ValidateUsername and ValidateUserPassword. Then you only need to test that CreateUser calls those functions.
Re read your question; Seems I misunderstood things a bit.
You might be interested in what J.P Boodhoo has written on his style of behaviour driven design.
http://blog.developwithpassion.com/2008/12/22/how-im-currently-writing-my-bdd-style-tests-part-2/
BDD is becoming a very overloaded term, everyone has a different definition and different tools to do it. As far as I see what JP Boodhoo is doing is splitting up test fixtures according to concern and not class.
For example you could create separate fixtures for testing Validation of user details, Validation of username, Validation of password and creating users. The idea of BDD is that by naming the testfixtures and tests the right way you can create something that almost reads like documentation by printing out the testfixture names and test names. Another advantage of grouping your tests by concern and not by class is that you'll probably only need one setup and teardown routine for each fixture.
I havn't had much experience with this myself though.
If you're interested in reading more, JP Boodhoo has posted a lot about this on his blog (see above link) or you can also listen to the dot net rocks episode with Scott Bellware where he talks about a similar way of grouping and naming tests http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=406
I hope this is more what you're looking for.

You definitely need to test validation methods.
There is no need to test other methods for all possible combinations of arguments just to make sure validation is performed.
You seem to be mixing Validation and Design by Contract.
Validation is usually performed to friendly notify user that his input is incorrect. It is very related to business logic (password is not strong enough, email has incorrect format, etc.).
Design by Contract makes sure your code can execute without throwing exceptions later on (even without them you would get the exception, but much later and probably more obscure one).
Regarding application layer that should contain validation logic, probably the best is service layer (by Fowler) which defines application boundaries and is a good place to sanitize application input. And there should not be any validation logic inside this boundaries, only Design By Contract to detect errors earlier.
So finally, write validation logic tests when you want to friendly notify user that he has mistaken. Otherwise use Design By Contract and keep throwing exceptions.

Let Unit Tests (plural) against the Validate methods confirm their correct functioning.
Let Unit Tests (plural) against the CreateUser method confirm its correct functioning.
If CreateUser is merely required to call the validate methods, but is not required to make validation decisions itself, then the tests against CreateUser should confirm that requirement.

What is the responsibility of your business logic class and does it do something apart from the validation? I think I'd be tempted to move the validation routines into a class of its own (UserValidator) or multiple classes (UserDetailsValidator + UserCredentialsValidator) depending on your context and then provide mocks for the tests. So your class now would look something like:
public User CreateUser(string username, string password, UserDetails details)
{
if (Validator.isValid(details, username, password)) {
// what happens when not valid
}
// create and return user
}
You can then provide seperate unit tests purely for the validation and your tests for the business logic class can focus on when validation passes and when validation fails, as well as all your other tests.

I would add a bunch of test for each ValidateXXX method. Then in CreateUser create 3 test cases for checking what happens when each of ValidateUserDetails, ValidateUsername and ValidatePassword fails but the other succeed.

I'm using Lokad Shared Library for defining business validation rules. Here's how I test corner cases (sample from the open-source):
[Test]
public void Test()
{
ShouldPass("rinat.abdullin#lokad.com", "pwd", "http://ws.lokad.com/TimeSerieS2.asmx");
ShouldPass("some#nowhere.net", "pwd", "http://127.0.0.1/TimeSerieS2.asmx");
ShouldPass("rinat.abdullin#lokad.com", "pwd", "http://sandbox-ws.lokad.com/TimeSerieS2.asmx");
ShouldFail("invalid", "pwd", "http://ws.lokad.com/TimeSerieS.asmx");
ShouldFail("rinat.abdullin#lokad.com", "pwd", "http://identity-theift.com/TimeSerieS2.asmx");
}
static void ShouldFail(string username, string pwd, string url)
{
try
{
ShouldPass(username, pwd, url);
Assert.Fail("Expected {0}", typeof (RuleException).Name);
}
catch (RuleException)
{
}
}
static void ShouldPass(string username, string pwd, string url)
{
var connection = new ServiceConnection(username, pwd, new Uri(url));
Enforce.That(connection, ApiRules.ValidConnection);
}
Where ValidConnection rule is defined as:
public static void ValidConnection(ServiceConnection connection, IScope scope)
{
scope.Validate(connection.Username, "UserName", StringIs.Limited(6, 256), StringIs.ValidEmail);
scope.Validate(connection.Password, "Password", StringIs.Limited(1, 256));
scope.Validate(connection.Endpoint, "Endpoint", Endpoint);
}
static void Endpoint(Uri obj, IScope scope)
{
var local = obj.LocalPath.ToLowerInvariant();
if (local == "/timeseries.asmx")
{
scope.Error("Please, use TimeSeries2.asmx");
}
else if (local != "/timeseries2.asmx")
{
scope.Error("Unsupported local address '{0}'", local);
}
if (!obj.IsLoopback)
{
var host = obj.Host.ToLowerInvariant();
if ((host != "ws.lokad.com") && (host != "sandbox-ws.lokad.com"))
scope.Error("Unknown host '{0}'", host);
}
If some failing case is discovered (i.e.: new valid connection url is added), then the rule and the test gets updated.
More on this pattern could be found in this article. Everything is Open Source so feel free to reuse or ask questions.
PS: note that primitive rules used in this sample composite rule (i.e. StringIs.ValidEmail or StringIs.Limited) are thoroughly tested on their own and thus do not need excessive unit tests.

Related

Don't run test from TestClass if condition is not met

I am using Assembly Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.TestFramework, Version=14.0.0.0
I have a [TestClass] which includes only tests concerned with publishing and subscribing to messages. However it's possible that the message broker client that we use is not available on the current environment or for some other reason, which is controller with a falg in the appsettings:
var messageBrokerConfig = configuration.GetSection("MessageBroker").Get<BrokerConfig>();
if (messageBrokerConfig.Enabled)...
this is the way I know if the message broker is available and I can execute the tests or not. Now, a simple solution, that immediatly comes to mind is just to have some (maybe private method) which would be called at the beginning of each test like:
private bool ShouldExecute()
{
return configuration.GetSection("MessageBroker").GetSection("Enabled") == false.ToString()
}
But then I should put this at the beginning of every test which is pretty far from DRY.
In a perfect scenarion I would be able to able/disable the [TestClass] attribute or have any other attribute or something that will prevent all test from executing. At worst, maybe when I invoke the
[ClassInitialize] method. But I don't know the framework very well so I'm not sure what are my options here.
I'm pretty sure there should be a solution which will allows me to put a code at one place and decide for the whole class but I just don't know what it is.

How to identify when my code is testing in C#?

I am having troubles when testing a controller, because there are some lines at my Startup that are null when testing, I want to add a condition for run this lines only if it's not testing.
// Desired method that retrieves if testing
if (!this.isTesting())
{
SwaggerConfig.ConfigureServices(services, this.AuthConfiguration, this.ApiMetadata.Version);
}
The correct answer (although of no help): It should not be able to tell so. The application should to everything it does unaware if it is in productino or test.
However to test the application in a simpler setting, you can use fake modules or mock-up modules that are loaded instead of the heavy-weight production modules.
But in order to use that, you have to refactor your solution and use injection for instance.
Some links I found:
Designing with interfaces
Mock Objects
Some more on Mock objects
It really depends on which framework you use for testing. It can be MSTest, NUnit or whatever.
Rule of thumb, is that your application should not know whether it is tested. It means everything should be configured before actual testing through injection of interfaces. Simple example of how tests should be done:
//this service in need of tests. You must test it's methods.
public class ProductionService: IProductionService
{
private readonly IImSomeDependency _dep;
public ImTested(IImSomeDependency dep){ _dep = dep; }
public void PrintStr(string str)
{
Console.WriteLine(_dep.Format(str));
}
}
//this is stub dependency. It contains anything you need for particular test. Be it some data, some request, or just return NULL.
public class TestDependency : IImSomeDependency
{
public string Format(string str)
{
return "TEST:"+str;
}
}
//this is production, here you send SMS, Nuclear missle and everything else which cost you money and resources.
public class ProductionDependency : IImSomeDependency
{
public string Format(string str)
{
return "PROD:"+str;
}
}
When you run tests you configure system like so:
var service = new ProductionService(new TestDependency());
service.PrintStr("Hello world!");
When you run your production code you configure it like so:
var service = new ProductionService(new ProductionDependency());
service.PrintStr("Hello world!");
This way ProductionService is just doing his work, not knowing about what is inside it's dependencies and don't need "is it testing case №431" flag.
Please, do not use test environment flags inside code if possible.
UPDATE:
See #Mario_The_Spoon explanation for better understanding of dependency management.

How to create a restful web service with TDD approach?

I've been given a task of creating a restful web service with JSON formating using WCF with the below methods using TDD approach which should store the Product as a text file on disk:
CreateProduct(Product product)
GetAProduct(int productId)
URI Templates:
POST to /MyService/Product
GET to /MyService/Product/{productId}
Creating the service and its web methods are the easy part but
How would you approach this task with TDD? You should create a test before creating the SUT codes.
The rules of unit tests say they should also be independent and repeatable.
I have a number of confusions and issues as below:
1) Should I write my unit tests against the actual service implementation by adding a reference to it or against the urls of the service (in which case I'd have to host and run the service)? Or both?
2)
I was thinking one approach could be just creating one test method inside which I create a product, call the CreateProduct() method, then calling the GetAProduct() method and asserting that the product which was sent is the one that I have received. On TearDown() event I just remove the product which was created.
But the issues I have with the above is that
It tests more than one feature so it's not really a unit test.
It doesn't check whether the data was stored on file correctly
Is it TDD?
If I create a separate unit test for each web method then for example for calling GetAProduct() web method, I'd have to put some test data stored physically on the server since it can't rely on the CreateProduct() unit tests. They should be able to run independently.
Please advice.
Thanks,
I'd suggest not worrying about the web service end points and focus on behavior of the system. For the sake of this discussion I'll drop all technical jargon and talk about what I see as the core business problem you're trying to solve: Creating a Product Catalog.
In order to do so, start by thinking through what a product catalog does, not the technical details about how to do it. Use that as your starting points for your tests.
public class ProductCatalogTest
{
[Test]
public void allowsNewProductsToBeAdded() {}
[Test]
public void allowsUpdatesToExistingProducts() {}
[Test]
public void allowsFindingSpecificProductsUsingSku () {}
}
I won't go into detail about how to implement the tests and production code here, but this is a starting point. Once you've got the ProductCatalog production class worked out, you can turn your attention to the technical details like making a web service and marshaling your JSON.
I'm not a .NET guy, so this will be largely pseudocode, but it probably winds up looking something like this.
public class ProductCatalogServiceTest
{
[Test]
public void acceptsSkuAsParameterOnGetRequest()
{
var mockCatalog = new MockProductCatalog(); // Hand rolled mock here.
var catalogService = new ProductCatalogService(mockCatalog);
catalogService.find("some-sku-from-url")
mockCatalog.assertFindWasCalledWith("some-sku-from-url");
}
[Test]
public void returnsJsonFromGetRequest()
{
var mockCatalog = new MockProductCatalog(); // Hand rolled mock here.
mockCatalog.findShouldReturn(new Product("some-sku-from-url"));
var mockResponse = new MockHttpResponse(); // Hand rolled mock here.
var catalogService = new ProductCatalogService(mockCatalog, mockResponse);
catalogService.find("some-sku-from-url")
mockCatalog.assertWriteWasCalledWith("{ 'sku': 'some-sku-from-url' }");
}
}
You've now tested end to end, and test drove the whole thing. I personally would test drive the business logic contained in ProductCatalog and likely skip testing the marshaling as it's likely to all be done by frameworks anyway and it takes little code to tie the controllers into the product catalog. Your mileage may vary.
Finally, while test driving the catalog, I would expect the code to be split into multiple classes and mocking comes into play there so they would be unit tested, not a large integration test. Again, that's a topic for another day.
Hope that helps!
Brandon
Well to answer your question what I would do is to write the test calling the rest service and use something like Rhino Mocks to arrange (i.e setup an expectation for the call), act (actually run the code which calls the unit to be tested and assert that you get back what you expect. You could mock out the expected results of the rest call. An actual test of the rest service from front to back would be an integration test not a unit test.
So to be clearer the unit test you need to write is a test around what actually calls the rest web service in the business logic...
Like this is your proposed implementation (lets pretend this hasn't even been written)
public class SomeClass
{
private IWebServiceProxy proxy;
public SomeClass(IWebServiceProxy proxy)
{
this.proxy = proxy;
}
public void PostTheProduct()
{
proxy.Post("/MyService/Product");
}
public void REstGetCall()
{
proxy.Get("/MyService/Product/{productId}");
}
}
This is one of the tests you might consider writing.
[TestFixture]
public class TestingOurCalls()
{
[Test]
public Void TestTheProductCall()
{
var webServiceProxy = MockRepository.GenerateMock<IWebServiceProxy>();
SomeClass someClass = new SomeClass(webServiceProxy);
webServiceProxy.Expect(p=>p.Post("/MyService/Product"));
someClass.PostTheProduct(Arg<string>.Is.Anything());
webServiceProxy.VerifyAllExpectations();
}
}

Rhino Mocks Stub Method not working

Why won't this test method work? I keep getting requires a return value or an exception to throw.
public AuthenticateResponse Authenticate(string username, string password)
{
string response = GetResponse(GetUrl(username, password).ToString());
return ParseResponse(response);
}
[TestMethod()]
[ExpectedException(typeof(XmlException))]
public void Authenticate_BadXml_ReturnException()
{
MockRepository mockRepository = new MockRepository();
SSO sso = mockRepository.Stub<SSO>();
sso.Stub(t => t.GetResponse("")).Return("<test>d");
AuthenticateResponse response = sso.Authenticate("test", "test");
}
Your repository is still in "record" mode. You're mixing record/replay semantics (the "old" way of doing things) with the newer AAA (arrange/act/assert) style.
Instead of creating your own repository, simply use:
var sso = MockRepository.GeneateStub<SSO>();
Everything should work fine now.
Your last line is calling the Authenticate method on your stub object, you haven't set up a return or value or exception to throw when calling it, so Rhino Mocks doesn't know what the stub should do and it causes an error. You probably don't want to call a method on your stub - that seems kind of pointless to me, is there another object (that you're actually testing in this test) that you should be calling a method on?
Is that your whole test? If so, your test makes no sense. The only object in your test is the one you're stubbing--where is the subject of the test?
If you're trying to test the SSO class, you absolutely never want to mock/stub it. If SSO has one or more dependencies, use the mocking framework to set up canned interactions between those dependencies and your SUT. That is the exact purpose of a mocking framework.

WCF Service authorization patterns

I'm implementing a secure WCF service. Authentication is done using username / password or Windows credentials. The service is hosted in a Windows Service process. Now, I'm trying to find out the best way to implement authorization for each service operation.
For example, consider the following method:
public EntityInfo GetEntityInfo(string entityId);
As you may know, in WCF, there is an OperationContext object from which you can retrieve the security credentials passed in by the caller/client. Now,authentication would have already finished by the time the first line in the method is called. However, how do we implement authorization if the decision depends on the input data itself? For example, in the above case, say 'admin' users(whose permissions etc are stored in a database), are allowed to get entity info, and other users should not be allowed... where do we put the authorization checks?
Say we put it in the first line of the method like so:
CheckAccessPermission(PermissionType.GetEntity, user, entityId) //user is pulled from the current OperationContext
Now, there are a couple of questions:
Do we validate the entityId (for example check null / empty value etc) BEFORE the authorization check or INSIDE the authorization check? In other words, if authorization checks should be included in every method, is that a good pattern? Which should happen first - argument validation or authorization?
How do we unit test a WCF service when authorization checks are all over the place like this, and we don't have an OperationContext in the unit test!? (Assuming I'm tryin to test this service class implementation directly without any of the WCF setup).
Any ideas guys?
For question 1, it's best to perform authorization first. That way, you don't leak validation error messages back to unauthorized users.
BTW, instead of using a home-grown authentication method (which I assume is what your CheckAccessPermission is), you might be able to hook up to WCF's out-of-the-box support for ASP.NET role providers. Once this is done, you perform authorization via OperationContext.Current.ServiceSecurityContext.PrimaryIdentity.IsInRole(). The PrimaryIdentity is an IPrincipal.
About question #2, I would do this using Dependency Injection and set up your service implementation something like this:
class MyService : IMyService
{
public MyService() : this(new UserAuthorization()) { }
public MyService(IAuthorization auth) { _auth = auth; }
private IAuthorization _auth;
public EntityInfo GetEntityInfo(string entityId)
{
_auth.CheckAccessPermission(PermissionType.GetEntity,
user, entityId);
//Get the entity info
}
}
Note that IAuthorization is an interface that you would define.
Because you are going to be testing the service type directly (that is, without running it inside the WCF hosting framework) you simply set up your service to use a dummy IAuthorization type that allows all calls. However, an even BETTER test is to mock the IAuthorization and test that it is called when and with the parameters that you expect. This allows you to test that your calls to the authorization methods are valid, along with the method itself.
Separating the authorization into it's own type also allows you to more easily test that it is correct in isolation. In my (albeit limited) experience, using DI "patterns" give you vastly better separation of concerns and testability in your types as well as leading to a cleaner interface (this is obviously open to debate).
My preferred mocking framework is RhinoMocks which is free and has very nice fluent interface but there are lots of others out there. If you'd like to know more about DI here are some good primers and .Net frameworks:
Martin Fowler on DI
Jeremy Miller on DI
Scott Hanselman's List of DI Containers
My personal favorite DI container: The Castle Project Windsor Container
For question 1, absolutely do authorization first. No code (within your control) should execute before authorization to maintain the tightest security. Paul's example above is excellent.
For question 2, you could handle this by subclassing your concrete service implementation. Make the true business logic implementation an abstract class with an abstract "CheckPermissions" method as you mention above. Then create 2 subclasses, one for WCF use, and one (very isolated in a non deployed DLL) which returns true (or whatever you'd like it to do in your unit testing).
Example (note, these shouldn't be in the same file or even DLL though!):
public abstract class MyServiceImpl
{
public void MyMethod(string entityId)
{
CheckPermissions(entityId);
//move along...
}
protected abstract bool CheckPermissions(string entityId);
}
public class MyServiceUnitTest
{
private bool CheckPermissions(string entityId)
{
return true;
}
}
public class MyServiceMyAuth
{
private bool CheckPermissions(string entityId)
{
//do some custom authentication
return true;
}
}
Then your WCF deployment uses the class "MyServiceMyAuth", and you do your unit testing against the other.

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