ASP.Net MVC: Intro To MVCContrib TestHelpers

MVCContrib contains an assembly specifically built to provide help when unit testing ASP.Net MVC controller actions.  This is a very condensed guide to what you can accomplish using each helper method.

Test View Rendering

Test that a view is being rendered from the action:

_controller.List().AssertViewRendered();

…for a particular view

_controller.List().AssertViewRendered().ForView("SomeViewName");

…with a view model of the correct type

_controller.List().AssertViewRendered().ForView("List").WithViewData<SomeType>();

Test PartialView Rendering

Test that a partial view is being rendered from the action:

_controller.ShowAsteroid().AssertPartialViewRendered();

…for a particular view

_controller.ShowAsteroid().AssertPartialViewRendered().ForView("Asteroid");

…with a view model of the correct type

_controller.ShowAsteroid().AssertPartialViewRendered().ForView("Asteroid").WithViewData<AsteroidModel>();

Test Redirects

Assert that the action redirects to the correct action:

_controller.AddFormStar().AssertActionRedirect().ToAction("List");

…for an action on a different controller:

_controller.AddFormStar().AssertActionRedirect().ToController("SomeController").ToAction("List");

Easily Stub HttpContext Variables

The TestHelper library contains a class (TestControllerBuilder) that builds up a complete context for your controller to operate within.  This gives you the ability to easily mock anything that you would normally access from HttpContext.  Here’s an example of usage:

The _builder variable is what contains all of the dictionaries for Session, ViewData, etc. that you can use to set up all of your stubs.  Example:

The code in the ActionUnderTest method will now be able to access all of the variables just set up in the test.  Couldn’t be easier!