ASP .NET - Unit Testing ASP.NET 1.1 w/NUnit

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Unit Testing ASP.NET 1.1 w/NUnit

Mike Hofer

2007-03-30, 7:07 pm

I need some advice, folks, and I'm hoping you can provide it.

First off, a few disclaimers:

1.) I am an ardant advocate of code quality. Especially, my own.

2.) I am maintaining a massive ASP.NET 1.1 code base that has no unit
tests built for it with NUnit or any other testing framework.

3.) Moving to .NET 2.0 and VSTS is not an option.

I am familiar with NUnit, and TDD in general. However, the base NUnit
library (last time I looked) doesn't natively support testing of
ASP.NET pages. In particular, if I want to test session state
management, viewstate management, and so forth, I'm out of luck unless
I first do a whole lot of refactoring (destabilizing the code).

While I'm all for cleaning up the code, I'm also for getting the
product out the door on time. I only refactor when it's necessary.
Anyway, I digress.

So my point is this: Is there an add-on for NUnit that tests ASP.NET
pages (specifically, targeting .NET Framework 1.1) that you recommend,
and if so, why?

I found NUnitAsp, and it looks promising, but I'd rather not
experiment on a working codebase. (I'll test it on some sample code
first.) You can find the link to NUnitAsp here:

http://nunitasp.sourceforge.net/

Any pointers you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Mike Hofer

Jon Paal [MSMD]

2007-03-30, 7:07 pm

here's another option...

http://www.superexpert.com/Blog/Archive/4.aspx

Mike Hofer

2007-03-30, 7:07 pm

On Mar 30, 1:37 pm, "Jon Paal [MSMD]" <Jon[ nospam ]Paal @ everywhere
dot com> wrote:
> here's another option...
>
> http://www.superexpert.com/Blog/Archive/4.aspx

The Selenium IDE looks like it requires your pages to be designed
BEFORE you script the tests. Isn't that the inverse of TDD? (Test
before you code?)

Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)

2007-03-30, 7:07 pm

Yes, but I am not always a purist. :-)

The nUnitASP project is fine for testing your ASP.NET apps. I would
recommend getting used to it prior to hooking it up to your application, but
it works nicely.

Overall, I suggest moving all non-UI code to libraries. You can then attach
unit tests to all of that code. The only thing left for nUnitAsp (or
similar) to test is UI code, which is normally not where your big problems
lie. While this is a good practice, it goes counter to most of the examples
on the web and in books (which heavily embed code into the pages, mostly
code behind, but some actually mix code in the tagged pages - YUCK!).

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP; MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA
http://gregorybeamer.spaces.live.com

****************************************
*****
Think outside the box!
****************************************
*****
"Mike Hofer" <kchighland@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1175277324.228461.85170@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On Mar 30, 1:37 pm, "Jon Paal [MSMD]" <Jon[ nospam ]Paal @ everywhere
> dot com> wrote:
>
> The Selenium IDE looks like it requires your pages to be designed
> BEFORE you script the tests. Isn't that the inverse of TDD? (Test
> before you code?)
>

Jon Paal [MSMD]

2007-03-30, 7:07 pm

As indicated, it's an option.

'Before' or 'after' test development for websites is sort of a chicken and egg thing. It's hard to define/build tests if you
haven't defined what is going to be tested....

"Mike Hofer" <kchighland@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1175277324.228461.85170@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On Mar 30, 1:37 pm, "Jon Paal [MSMD]" <Jon[ nospam ]Paal @ everywhere
> dot com> wrote:
>
> The Selenium IDE looks like it requires your pages to be designed
> BEFORE you script the tests. Isn't that the inverse of TDD? (Test
> before you code?)
>

Jon Paal [MSMD]

2007-03-30, 7:07 pm

one more view point....

http://www.coveryourasp.net/Technical/ASPNETTDD

"Mike Hofer" <kchighland@gmail.com> wrote in message news:1175277324.228461.85170@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> On Mar 30, 1:37 pm, "Jon Paal [MSMD]" <Jon[ nospam ]Paal @ everywhere
> dot com> wrote:
>
> The Selenium IDE looks like it requires your pages to be designed
> BEFORE you script the tests. Isn't that the inverse of TDD? (Test
> before you code?)
>

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