TFS Advantage

Creating and using a test base class

tim — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:45:00 GMT

After writing unit tests for awhile, you will observe there are common patterns and common needs. One way to fulfill some of these needs is to use a “test base class” or an “abstract test class”. Using such a pattern for MSTest can help you create more robust unit tests with less code.

The concept is pretty straight forward. Basically, create a base class that can perform some mundane or defensive programming tasks for you.

In MSTest, this is accomplished by create a new class (or unit test class) in either your test assembly or a common assembly (that is also a test assembly). You cannot make it truly abstract (that leads to some funkiness), but you can inherit from in when you create a new unit test class by decorating it with the TestMethod attribute.

You can push the typical TestContext property up to a base unit test class, as well as provide virtual methods for TestInitialize and TestCleanup.

Things to think about for you Test Base class:

· Mock out items and clean up all your mocking

· Clean up your dead files

· Add support methods to copy test files

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;

namespace TestSupport
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Summary description for UnitTest1
    /// </summary>
    [TestClass]
    public class TestBase
    {

private TestContext testContextInstance;

        /// <summary>
        ///Gets or sets the test context which provides
        ///information about and functionality for the current test run.
        ///</summary>
        public virtual TestContext TestContext
        {
            get
            {
                return testContextInstance;
            }
            set
            {
                testContextInstance = value;
            }
        }

[ClassInitialize]
public static void MyClassInitialize(TestContext testContext) { }

[ClassCleanup]
public static void MyClassCleanup() { }

protected bool _testInitializedRan;

        [TestInitialize]
        public virtual void MyTestInitialize()
        {
            _testInitializedRan = true;
        }

        [TestCleanup]
        public virtual void MyTestCleanup() { }
    }

    [TestClass]
    public class MyTestClass : TestBase
    {
        [TestMethod]
        public void ShowsThatTestInitializeRan()
        {
            Assert.IsTrue(_testInitializedRan);
        }
    }
}

Survey questions for customized training session on Visual Studio 2008 - Unit Testing - TDD - Continuous Integration - Team Foundation Server

tim — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:48:00 GMT

I'm putting on a two day training session for a group where some participants might be completely new to unit testing and/or TDD. Almost all are new to TFS. I put together a survey for the participants to gauge my audience. I thought this might be a useful resource for others for looking into training, thinking about training or perhaps even job interview material. Here it is in its raw format directly from the survey engine.

TFS Advantage - Continuous Integration Development with Team Foundation Server 2008

How much professional programming experience do you have?