The idea of using reflection to generate unit test for factories came to me while attempting to write simple unit tests for a factory class. The aim was to ensure that any changes to the class in future did not break my code, I started with something like the code below:
[TestFixture]
public class BlogExampleTests
{
private TransactionFactory factory;
[SetUp]
public void SetUp()
{
factory = new TransactionFactory();
}
[Test]
public void ShouldCorrectlyReturnTransactionA()
{
ITransaction transaction = null;
Assert.DoesNotThrow(() => transaction = factory.GetTransactionA());
Assert.IsNotNull(transaction);
}
[Test]
public void ShouldCorrectlyReturnTransactionB()
{
ITransaction transaction = null;
Assert.DoesNotThrow(() => transaction = factory.GetTransactionB());
Assert.IsNotNull(transaction);
}
[Test]
public void ShouldCorrectlyReturnTransactionC()
{
ITransaction transaction = null;
Assert.DoesNotThrow(() => transaction = factory.GetTransactionC());
Assert.IsNotNull(transaction);
}
}
Technically this works but I expect the factory to have approximately 200 methods when completed, so to get full coverage would be 200 test methods as well. The next move to improve these tests was to move all of these to one method using an array/list of delegates and pass the list into the test method like below:
public delegate ITransaction MyDelegate();
[TestFixture]
public class BlogExampleTests
{
private static readonly TransactionFactory Factory = new TransactionFactory();
private static object[] delegates = new[]
{
new MyDelegate(Factory.GetTransactionA),
new MyDelegate(Factory.GetTransactionB),
new MyDelegate(Factory.GetTransactionC)
};
[Test, TestCaseSource("delegates")]
public void ShouldCorrectlyReturnTheTransactions(MyDelegate method)
{
ITransaction transaction = null;
Assert.DoesNotThrow(() => transaction = method.Invoke());
Assert.IsNotNull(transaction);
}
}
This solution above is better than the first solution, although it still requires a new delegate to be created every time a method is added to the factory class. Then the idea occurred to me that not only could I save myself a lot of keystrokes but also ensure that the convention of the factory is followed in future by using reflection to look at the class and get all of the methods.
[TestFixture]
public class BlogExampleTests
{
private TransactionFactory factory;
private static readonly Type FactoryType = typeof(TransactionFactory);
[SetUp]
public void SetUp()
{
var parameters = new Type[0];
var constructor = FactoryType.GetConstructor(parameters);
factory = (TransactionFactory)constructor.Invoke(new object[0]);
}
[Test]
public void ShouldBeAbleToCreateAllTypes([ValueSource("GetFactoryTransactions")] MethodInfo method)
{
ITransaction transaction = null;
Assert.DoesNotThrow(() => transaction = method.Invoke(factory, null) as ITransaction);
Assert.IsNotNull(transaction);
}
IEnumerable GetFactoryTransactions()
{
return FactoryType.GetMethods(
BindingFlags.Instance |
BindingFlags.Public |
BindingFlags.DeclaredOnly);
}
}
In summary when someone adds or modifies the transaction factory it will automatically test that method and in this case ensure that the method does not require any parameters. Another good usage of unit tests using reflection is ensuring that every implementation that uses a certian interface (i.e. IDomainService) can be resolved using dependency injection.
