Unit tests with attribute based routing

Question

I have a controller with a routing attribute. This controller fails in a unit test because the route could not be found:

A route named 'Values' could not be found in the route collection

This is the controller method:

[Route("api/values", Name="ApiValues")]
[HttpGet]
public HttpResponseMessage Get()
{ 
    urlHelper.Link("ApiValues", new {});
}

This is my unit test:

var valuesController = new ValuesController()
{
    Request = new HttpRequestMessage
    {
        RequestUri = new Uri("http://localhost/api/")
    },
    Configuration = new HttpConfiguration()
};

valuesController.Get();

I also tried to add this to the unit test:

valuesController.Configuration.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();
valuesController.Configuration.EnsureInitialized();

But that didn't help anything.

Answer 1

I got the same error:

A route named 'Values' could not be found in the route collection.

But the unit test passes on my machine after I add MapHttpAttributeRoutes and EnsureInitialized:

var valuesController = new ValuesController()
{
    Request = new HttpRequestMessage { RequestUri = new Uri("http://localhost/api/") },
    Configuration = new HttpConfiguration()
};

valuesController.Configuration.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();
valuesController.Configuration.EnsureInitialized();

valuesController.Get();

Can you provide with more information to repro the issue or check whether there is any difference between our test code?

Answer 2

Instead of calling the controller directly in the Unit tests, use Helper methods to get Controller context and Action context. This will avoid the use of

valuesController.Configuration.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();
valuesController.Configuration.EnsureInitialized();

Refer the awesome explanation by Filip W. on Testing routes in Web API 2