Automocking the SUT

Question

I have read Mark Seeman's article on auto-mocking and I'm now writing a re-usable windsor container based on that article.

My implementation of Mark's article (basically copied directly)

The main work is done in the AutoMoqResolver class. This will provide a mock whenever a class has a dependency on an interface:

public class AutoMoqResolver : ISubDependencyResolver
{
    private readonly IKernel kernel;

    public AutoMoqResolver(IKernel kernel)
    {
        this.kernel = kernel;
    }

    public bool CanResolve(
        CreationContext context,
        ISubDependencyResolver contextHandlerResolver,
        ComponentModel model,
        DependencyModel dependency)
    {
        return dependency.TargetType.IsInterface;
    }

    public object Resolve(
        CreationContext context,
        ISubDependencyResolver contextHandlerResolver,
        ComponentModel model,
        DependencyModel dependency)
    {
        var mockType = typeof(Mock<>).MakeGenericType(dependency.TargetType);
        return ((Mock)this.kernel.Resolve(mockType)).Object;
    }
}

The AutoMoqResolver is added to the container using the following implementation of the IWindsorInstaller interface:

public class AutoMockInstaller<T> : IWindsorInstaller
{
    public void Install(
        IWindsorContainer container,
        IConfigurationStore store)
    {
        container.Kernel.Resolver.AddSubResolver(
            new AutoMoqResolver(container.Kernel));

        container.Register(Component.For(typeof(Mock<>)));

        container.Register(Classes
            .FromAssemblyContaining<T>()
            .Pick()
            .WithServiceSelf()
            .LifestyleTransient());
    }
}

Then my container simply runs the installer and it is ready to automatically provide mocks for any interface dependencies in unit tests:

public class AutoMockContainer<T> : WindsorContainer
{
    public AutoMockContainer()
    {
        // simply run the auto-mock installer
        this.Install(new AutoMockInstaller<T>());
    }
}

Super!

I've tested this and my dependencies are happily mocked automatically so I then went to apply it to some real code. This is when I realised that the solution doesn't help me because of the pattern I tend to follow when testing a class. My specific issue is that I want to be able to auto-mock the SUT itself in order to verify that one method on the SUT is called from another.

My code that needs to be tested

I'll explain myself by way of an example. I am developing MVC code and I am supporting unobtrusive AJAX using the following general pattern:

public Class ExampleController : Controller
{
    private IService service;

    public ExampleController(IService service)
    {
        this.service = service;
    }

    public PartialViewResult DoSomethingWithAjax()
    {
        this.PerformTask();

        return this.PartialView();
    }

    public RedirectToRouteResult DoSomethingWithoutAjax()
    {
        this.PerformTask();

        return this.RedirectToAction("SomeAction");
    }

    protected virtual void PerformTask()
    {
        // do something here
    }
}

My test pattern

So in order to verify that the PerformTask() method was called from DoSomethingWithAjax() or DoSomethingWithoutAjax(), I define a new TestableExampleController class like this:

public class TestableExampleController : ExampleController
{
    public TestableExampleController(IService service) : base(service)
    {
    }

    public virtual void PerfomTaskPublic()
    {
        base.PerfomTask();
    }

    protected override void PerformTask()
    {
        this.PerformTaskPublic();
    }
}

I can then use TestableExampleController as my SUT so the following test will pass:

[TestMethod]
public void DoSomethingAjax_Calls_PerformTask()
{
    //// Arrange
    // create a mock TestableExampleController
    var controllerMock = new Mock<TestableExampleController>();
    controllerMock.CallBase = true;

    // use the mock controller as the SUT
    var sut = controllerMock.Object;

    //// Act
    sut.DoSomethingAjax();

    //// Assert
    controllerMock.Verify(x => x.PerformTaskPublic(), Times.Once());
}

My problem

Refactoring this test to use my AutoMockContainer class like this doesn't work:

[TestMethod]
public void DoSomethingAjax_Calls_PerformTask()
{
    //// Arrange
    // create a container
    var container = new AutoMockContainer<TestableExampleController>();

    // resolve a mock SUT using the container
    var controllerMock = container.Resolve<Mock<TestableExampleController>>();
    controllerMock .CallBase = true;

    // use the mock controller as the SUT
    var sut = controllerMock.Object;

    //// Act
    sut.DoSomethingAjax();

    //// Assert
    controllerMock.Verify(x => x.PerformTaskPublic(), Times.Once());
}

The test fails to create an instance of Mock<TestableExampleController> because it can't find a parameterless constructor.

Can not instantiate proxy of class: MyNamespace.TestableExampleController. Could not find a parameterless constructor. Parameter name: constructorArguments

My proposed solution

Ideally I would like to implement a wrapper class which can be registered with the container to automatically provide a mock for any component:

public class ComponentWrapper<T> where T : class
{
    public ComponentWrapper(Mock<T> componentMock)
    {
        componentMock.CallBase = true;
        this.ComponentMock = componentMock;
    }

    public Mock<T> ComponentMock { get; private set; }

    public T Component
    {
        get { return this.ComponentMock.Object;  }
    }
}

I would like to be able to write the following test that passes:

[TestMethod]
public void DoSomethingAjax_Calls_PerformTask()
{
    //// Arrange
    // create a container
    var container = new AutoMockContainer<TestableExampleController>();

    // resolve a ComponentWrapper using the container
    var wrapper = container.Resolve<ComponentWrapper<TestableExampleController>>();

    //// Act
    // call a method using the component
    wrapper.Component.DoSomethingAjax();

    //// Assert
    // verify a method call using the mock
    wrapper.ComponentMock.Verify(x => x.PerformTaskPublic(), Times.Once());
}

I can't quite get my head round how to achieve this and I've spent most of the day fiddling with new ISubDependencyResolver implementations but I just can't get this to work.

Hopefully my question is clear and the answer is actually relatively simple?

Answer 1

It turns out that AutoFixture.AutoMoq will do exactly what I want out of the box so thank you to TrueWill for pointing me in the right direction.

The following simple test will pass:

[TestMethod]
public void Run_Calls_DoSomethingProtected()
{
    //// Arrange
    // AutoMoqCustomization allows AutoFixture to 
    // be used an an auto-mocking container
    var fixture = new Fixture().Customize(new AutoMoqCustomization());

    // simply ask the fixture to create a mock
    var sutMock = fixture.Create<Mock<TestableDummySystem>>();

    //// Act
    // exercise the mock object
    sutMock.Object.Run();

    //// Assert
    // this verification passes!
    sutMock.Verify(x => x.DoSomethingProtectedPublic());
}