Unit testing http handlers?

Question

My current project based in Asp .net makes considerable use of Http handlers to process various requests? So, is there any way by which I can test the functionality of each of the handlers using unit test cases? We are using Nunit and Moq framework to facilitate unit testing.

Answer 1

I think these blog entries from a while back are relevant:

http://www.kongsli.net/nblog/2009/05/03/aspnet-35-improving-testability-with-systemwebabstractions/

http://www.kongsli.net/nblog/2009/05/28/testability-with-systemwebabstractions-and-no-mock-framework/

See example #2 in the first post for an example on how to unit test an HttpHandler.

Answer 2

If you dont care about unit tests and want something quick and dirty you can use Fiddler

if you want a more integrated approach (Unit testing) you can use the WebRequest and WebResponse.

Answer 3

You sure can, although I haven't done myself "in anger".
Use a System.Net.WebClient to make HTTP calls against your handlers, and evaluate what comes back, that will allow you to test the public facing interface of the handler.

In this example I've hard-coded my target, and I'm using a method on the WebClient that will return a string.

The WebClient also gives you access to the ResponseHeaders, Encoding and other useful 'webby' stuff; you can also upload info as well.

using System.Net;

namespace UnitTestHttpHandler
{
    public class TestHarness
    {
        public static string GetString()
        {
            WebClient myWebClient = new WebClient();
            return myWebClient.DownloadString("http://localhost/Morphfolia.Web/ContentList.ashx");
        }
    }
}

You can then use the TestHarness to call the target HttpHandler and verify the results in your tests (or use a better approach to your testing if you know one - I'm not a unit testing guru).

    [TestMethod]
    public void TestMethod1()
    {
        string x = UnitTestHttpHandler.TestHarness.GetString();

        Assert.IsTrue(x.Length > 5);
    }