How to mock Controller.User using moq

Question

I have a couple of ActionMethods that queries the Controller.User for its role like this

bool isAdmin = User.IsInRole("admin"); 

acting conveniently on that condition.

I'm starting to make tests for these methods with code like this

[TestMethod] public void HomeController_Index_Should_Return_Non_Null_ViewPage() {     HomeController controller  = new HomePostController();     ActionResult index = controller.Index();      Assert.IsNotNull(index); } 

and that Test Fails because Controller.User is not set. Any idea?

Answer 1

You need to Mock the ControllerContext, HttpContextBase and finally IPrincipal to mock the user property on Controller. Using Moq (v2) something along the following lines should work.

    [TestMethod]     public void HomeControllerReturnsIndexViewWhenUserIsAdmin() {         var homeController = new HomeController();          var userMock = new Mock<IPrincipal>();         userMock.Expect(p => p.IsInRole("admin")).Returns(true);          var contextMock = new Mock<HttpContextBase>();         contextMock.ExpectGet(ctx => ctx.User)                    .Returns(userMock.Object);          var controllerContextMock = new Mock<ControllerContext>();         controllerContextMock.ExpectGet(con => con.HttpContext)                              .Returns(contextMock.Object);          homeController.ControllerContext = controllerContextMock.Object;         var result = homeController.Index();         userMock.Verify(p => p.IsInRole("admin"));         Assert.AreEqual(((ViewResult)result).ViewName, "Index");     } 

Testing the behaviour when the user isn't an admin is as simple as changing the expectation set on the userMock object to return false.

Answer 2

Using Moq version 3.1 (and NUnit):

    [Test]     public void HomeController_Index_Should_Return_Non_Null_ViewPage()     {         // Assign:         var homeController = new HomeController();          Mock<ControllerContext> controllerContextMock = new Mock<ControllerContext>();         controllerContextMock.Setup(             x => x.HttpContext.User.IsInRole(It.Is<string>(s => s.Equals("admin")))             ).Returns(true);         homeController.ControllerContext = controllerContextMock.Object;          // Act:         ActionResult index = homeController.Index();          // Assert:         Assert.IsNotNull(index);         // Place other asserts here...         controllerContextMock.Verify(             x => x.HttpContext.User.IsInRole(It.Is<string>(s => s.Equals("admin"))),             Times.Exactly(1),             "Must check if user is in role 'admin'");     } 

Notice that there is no need to create mock for HttpContext, Moq supports nesting of properties when setting up the test.