NUnit with an ASP.NET web site

Question

I'm currently trying to upgrade our build server at work, going from having no build server to having one!

I'm using JetBrains' TeamCity (having used ReSharper for a couple of years I trust their stuff), and intend to use NUnit and MSBuild.

However, I've come up with an issue: it appears that it is not possible to test an ASP.NET web site with NUnit. I had assumed it would be possible to configure it to test App_Code after a build, however it seems that the only way to do tests nicely is through converting the web site to a web application (which my boss does not like the idea of).

How could I go about this?

Please bear in mind that the testing needs to be able to be fired automatically from TeamCity.

Answer 1

• If you want to smoke test your site, or bang on some endpoints - see the code below.

• If, on the other hand, you want to test the untestable (detestable) ASP.NET website assembly (as opposed to a web app), you are, as they say in France, S.O.L.

The assembly is a randomly named dynamically compiled assembly deep in the bowels of the framework temporary ASP.NET files, making testing close to impossible.

You really do need to consider a couple of options:

1. place the logic that needs testing in a seperate assembly.
2. change to a web application project that delivers a testable assembly.

Sorry, I don't think that you will find what you are looking for, but I could be wrong. Let's see.

Good Luck

---

Download Visual Studio 2008 sample with site and applicatgion.

I wrote a wrapper for WebHost.WebServer.dll which is the core of the development server that works quite well in CI. I use it all the time.

Here is a scaled down version including a usage example.

Test.cs

using System.Net;
using NUnit.Framework;

namespace Salient.Excerpts
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class WebHostServerFixture : WebHostServer
    {
        [TestFixtureSetUp]
        public void TestFixtureSetUp()
        {
            // debug/bin/testproject/solution/siteundertest - make sense?
            StartServer(@"..\..\..\..\TestSite");

            // is the equivalent of
            // StartServer(@"..\..\..\..\TestSite",
            // GetAvailablePort(8000, 10000, IPAddress.Loopback, true), "/", "localhost");
        }
        [TestFixtureTearDown]
        public void TestFixtureTearDown()
        {
            StopServer();
        }

        [Test]
        public void Test()
        {
            // while a reference to the web app under test is not necessary,
            // if you do add a reference to this test project you may F5 debug your tests.
            // if you debug this test you will break in Default.aspx.cs
            string html = new WebClient().DownloadString(NormalizeUri("Default.aspx"));
        }
    }
}

WebHostServer.cs

// Project: Salient
// http://salient.codeplex.com
// Date: April 16 2010

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.NetworkInformation;
using System.Threading;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.WebHost;

namespace Salient.Excerpts
{
    /// <summary>
    /// A general purpose Microsoft.VisualStudio.WebHost.Server test fixture.
    /// WebHost.Server is the core of the Visual Studio Development Server (WebDev.WebServer).
    ///
    /// This server is run in-process and may be used in F5 debugging.
    /// </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    /// If you are adding this source code to a new project, You will need to
    /// manually add a reference to WebDev.WebHost.dll to your project. It cannot
    /// be added from within Visual Studio.
    ///
    /// Please see the Readme.txt accompanying this code for details.
    /// </remarks>
    /// NOTE: code from various namespaces/classes in the Salient project have been merged into this
    /// single class for this post in the interest of brevity
    public class WebHostServer
    {
        private Server _server;

        public string ApplicationPath { get; private set; }

        public string HostName { get; private set; }

        public int Port { get; private set; }

        public string VirtualPath { get; private set; }

        public string RootUrl
        {
            get { return string.Format(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, "http://{0}:{1}{2}", HostName, Port, VirtualPath); }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Combine the RootUrl of the running web application with the relative url specified.
        /// </summary>
        public virtual Uri NormalizeUri(string relativeUrl)
        {
            return new Uri(RootUrl + relativeUrl);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Will start "localhost" on first available port in the range 8000-10000 with vpath "/"
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="applicationPath"></param>
        public void StartServer(string applicationPath)
        {
            StartServer(applicationPath, GetAvailablePort(8000, 10000, IPAddress.Loopback, true), "/", "localhost");
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="applicationPath">Physical path to application.</param>
        /// <param name="port">Port to listen on.</param>
        /// <param name="virtualPath">Optional. defaults to "/"</param>
        /// <param name="hostName">Optional. Is used to construct RootUrl. Defaults to "localhost"</param>
        public void StartServer(string applicationPath, int port, string virtualPath, string hostName)
        {
            if (_server != null)
            {
                throw new InvalidOperationException("Server already started");
            }

            // WebHost.Server will not run on any other IP
            IPAddress ipAddress = IPAddress.Loopback;

            if(!IsPortAvailable(ipAddress, port))
            {
                throw new Exception(string.Format("Port {0} is in use.", port));
            }

            applicationPath = Path.GetFullPath(applicationPath);

            virtualPath = String.Format("/{0}/", (virtualPath ?? string.Empty).Trim('/')).Replace("//", "/");

            _server = new Server(port, virtualPath, applicationPath, false, false);
            _server.Start();

            ApplicationPath = applicationPath;
            Port = port;
            VirtualPath = virtualPath;
            HostName = string.IsNullOrEmpty(hostName) ? "localhost" : hostName;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Stops the server.
        /// </summary>
        public void StopServer()
        {
            if (_server != null)
            {
                _server.Stop();
                _server = null;
                // allow some time to release the port
                Thread.Sleep(100);
            }
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            StopServer();
        }


       /// <summary>
        /// Gently polls specified IP:Port to determine if it is available.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="ipAddress"></param>
        /// <param name="port"></param>
        public static bool IsPortAvailable(IPAddress ipAddress, int port)
        {
            bool portAvailable = false;

            for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
            {
                portAvailable = GetAvailablePort(port, port, ipAddress, true) == port;
                if (portAvailable)
                {
                    break;
                }
                // be a little patient and wait for the port if necessary,
                // the previous occupant may have just vacated
                Thread.Sleep(100);
            }
            return portAvailable;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Returns first available port on the specified IP address.
        /// The port scan excludes ports that are open on ANY loopback adapter.
        ///
        /// If the address upon which a port is requested is an 'ANY' address all
        /// ports that are open on ANY IP are excluded.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="rangeStart"></param>
        /// <param name="rangeEnd"></param>
        /// <param name="ip">The IP address upon which to search for available port.</param>
        /// <param name="includeIdlePorts">If true includes ports in TIME_WAIT state in results.
        /// TIME_WAIT state is typically cool down period for recently released ports.</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static int GetAvailablePort(int rangeStart, int rangeEnd, IPAddress ip, bool includeIdlePorts)
        {
            IPGlobalProperties ipProps = IPGlobalProperties.GetIPGlobalProperties();

            // if the ip we want a port on is an 'any' or loopback port we need to exclude all ports that are active on any IP
            Func<IPAddress, bool> isIpAnyOrLoopBack = i => IPAddress.Any.Equals(i) ||
                                                           IPAddress.IPv6Any.Equals(i) ||
                                                           IPAddress.Loopback.Equals(i) ||
                                                           IPAddress.IPv6Loopback.
                                                               Equals(i);
            // get all active ports on specified IP.
            List<ushort> excludedPorts = new List<ushort>();

            // if a port is open on an 'any' or 'loopback' interface then include it in the excludedPorts
            excludedPorts.AddRange(from n in ipProps.GetActiveTcpConnections()
                                   where
                                       n.LocalEndPoint.Port >= rangeStart &&
                                       n.LocalEndPoint.Port <= rangeEnd && (
                                       isIpAnyOrLoopBack(ip) || n.LocalEndPoint.Address.Equals(ip) ||
                                        isIpAnyOrLoopBack(n.LocalEndPoint.Address)) &&
                                        (!includeIdlePorts || n.State != TcpState.TimeWait)
                                   select (ushort)n.LocalEndPoint.Port);

            excludedPorts.AddRange(from n in ipProps.GetActiveTcpListeners()
                                   where n.Port >= rangeStart && n.Port <= rangeEnd && (
                                   isIpAnyOrLoopBack(ip) || n.Address.Equals(ip) || isIpAnyOrLoopBack(n.Address))
                                   select (ushort)n.Port);

            excludedPorts.AddRange(from n in ipProps.GetActiveUdpListeners()
                                   where n.Port >= rangeStart && n.Port <= rangeEnd && (
                                   isIpAnyOrLoopBack(ip) || n.Address.Equals(ip) || isIpAnyOrLoopBack(n.Address))
                                   select (ushort)n.Port);

            excludedPorts.Sort();

            for (int port = rangeStart; port <= rangeEnd; port++)
            {
                if (!excludedPorts.Contains((ushort)port))
                {
                    return port;
                }
            }

            return 0;
        }
    }
}

NOTE: The Microsoft.VisualStudio.WebHost namespace is contained in the file WebDev.WebHost.dll. This file is in the GAC, but it is not possible to add a reference to this assembly from within Visual Studio.

To add a reference you will need to open your .csproj file in a text editor and add the reference manually.

Look for the ItemGroup that contains the project references and add the following element:

<Reference Include="WebDev.WebHost, Version=9.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a, processorArchitecture=x86">
  <Private>False</Private>
</Reference>

Reference: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/test-with-vs-devserver-2.aspx