How to place approval file for approvaltests in a folder of their own?

Question

I can't find out how to move the .approved. files to a folder of their own in Approval-tests. I guess the information is there somewhere - I just can't find it.

https://github.com/approvals/ApprovalTests.Net

Answer 1

The current way to do it is by annotating the fixture or at the assembly level with

[ApprovalTests.Namers.UseApprovalSubdirectory("foldername")]

If you are before version 3.2 you can create a custom namer that will handle this if you want to. The basics are:

Override the namer for your framework, and override the method SourcePath

public string SourcePath
{
    get { return base.SourcePath + @"\yourSubfolder"; }
}

Then you need to add your new namer to the stack

StackTraceParser.AddParser(new MyNamer());

Although I would ask why you want the separation of the approval files to a subdirectory of your tests? I'm sure there is a good reason, but I have found it nicer to keep them closer to my actual tests.

Answer 2

From a look at the code from Git, it looks like Llewellyn just added the following attribute...

[UseApprovalSubdirectory("Approvals")]

.. to place the approvals in a subfolder called "Approvals". This appears to work at the test and class level.

This helps keep those approvals organized when there are many approval files for each unit test file.