SharePoint Mocking

Microsoft SharePoint is a browser based web platform where you can set up websites to share and manage information and documents, and publish reports in order to make it easier for people to work together.

Unit testing in Microsoft SharePoint faces several problems that Telerik® JustMock overcomes:

• Interfaces are rarely used - most objects in Microsoft SharePoint don't implement public interfaces.
• Sealed classes - many Microsoft SharePoint elements are sealed.
• Internal constructors - many Microsoft SharePoint elements have internal constructors. Even if there is no behavior that we need to mock, we still need to create an instance of it.
• In this topic we will cover some scenarios in unit testing Microsoft SharePoint.

Disallow SPContext.Current

Disallow calling SPContext.Current property.

[TestMethod] 
[ExpectedException(typeof(ApplicationException))] 
public void ShouldThrowApplicationExceptionOnCurrent() 
{ 
    // Arrange 
    Mock.Arrange(() => SPContext.Current).Throws(new ApplicationException("Not allowed to call SPContext.Current")); 
 
    // Act 
    SPContext currentContext = SPContext.Current; 
} 

In this example we mock the static SPContext class. We arrange the Current property to throw an ApplicationException once it is called. The constructor will initialize the Message property of the exception using the "Not allowed to call SPContext.Current" string.

Mocking SPContext.Current

Arranging SPContext.Current property to return mock fake object.

// Arrange 
var fakeContext = Mock.Create<SPContext>(); 
Mock.Arrange(() => SPContext.Current).Returns(fakeContext); 
 
// Act 
SPContext currentContext = SPContext.Current; 
 
// Assert 
Assert.IsNotNull(currentContext, "The current SPContext should not be null"); 

Here we arrange the Current property getter to return fake object when called. After acting with SPContext currentContext = SPContext.Current we verify that our fake object was actually returned initializing the Current property. If the assertion fails, we specify that the message "The current SPContext should not be null" should be displayed.

Mocking SPContext.Current.Site

In this example we will mock the Site property get of the SPContext.Current object. We will use the following class:

public class Site 
{ 
    public static string GetHomePageUrl() 
    { 
        return SPContext.Current.Site.Url; 
    } 
} 

Follows the actual test code:

// Arrange 
var fakeSiteUrl = "https://www.telerik.com"; 
var fakeSharepointSite = Mock.Create<SPSite>(); 
 
Mock.Arrange(() => SPContext.Current.Site).Returns(fakeSharepointSite); 
Mock.Arrange(() => fakeSharepointSite.Url).Returns(fakeSiteUrl); 
 
// Act 
string actualUrl = Site.GetHomePageUrl(); 
 
Assert.AreEqual(fakeSiteUrl, actualUrl); 

We arrange that once the Url property of the static SPContext.Current.Site is called, "https://www.telerik.com" is returned as a result. We act by calling the GetHomePageUrl method in our sample class. It returns the ulr of the current site and thus "https://www.telerik.com". Finally, this behavior is verified.

Mocking AllowAnonymousAccess Property

In the next two examples we mock the AllowAnonymousAccess property of SPContext.Web and SPContext.Current.Web objects.

Firstly, let's mock SPContext.Web:

// Arrange 
var fakeContext = Mock.Create<SPContext>(); 
Mock.Arrange(() =>fakeContext.Web.AllowAnonymousAccess).Returns(true); 
 
// Assert 
Assert.IsTrue(fakeContext.Web.AllowAnonymousAccess, "Our SPWeb should allow anonymous access"); 

Here we create fake instance of SPContext and then arrange the AllowAnonymousAccess property to return true.

Now, let's mock SPContext.Current.Web:

// Arrange 
var fakeContext = Mock.Create<SPContext>(); 
Mock.Arrange(() => SPContext.Current).Returns(fakeContext); 
 
var fakeWeb = Mock.Create<SPWeb>(); 
Mock.Arrange(() => fakeContext.Web).Returns(fakeWeb); 
Mock.Arrange(() => fakeWeb.AllowAnonymousAccess).Returns(true); 
 
// Assert 
Assert.IsTrue(SPContext.Current.Web.AllowAnonymousAccess, "Anonymous access should be allowed on our current SPWeb"); 

We create a fake instance of SPContext and pass it to the SPContext.Current property. Then a fake instance of SPWeb is created that is arranged to be returned as a result once its Web property getter is called. Then, as in the previous example, AllowAnonymousAccess is arranged to return true. Finally, we verify.

In both examples, if the assertion fails, a message is displayed.

Mocking SPList Class

Follows a slightly more complicated example. Here we mock SPList.

// Arrange 
var spWeb = Mock.Create<SPWeb>(); 
var spList = Mock.Create<SPList>(); 
 
var spListCollection = Mock.Create<SPListCollection>(); 
var spListItemCollection = Mock.Create<SPListItemCollection>(); 
 
Mock.Arrange(() => spWeb.Lists).Returns(spListCollection); 
Mock.Arrange(() => spListCollection[Arg.AnyString]).Returns(spList); 
 
Mock.Arrange(() => spList.GetItems(Arg.IsAny<SPQuery>())).Returns(spListItemCollection); 
 
// Assert 
Assert.AreEqual(spListCollection, spWeb.Lists); 
Assert.AreEqual(spList, spWeb.Lists["myList"]); 
Assert.AreEqual(spListItemCollection, spWeb.Lists["myList"].GetItems(new SPQuery())); 

This is what we do:

1. Create a fake instance of SPWeb
2. Create a fake instance of SPList
3. Create a fake instance of SPListCollection
4. Create a fake instance of SPListItemCollection
5. Mock the fake instance of SPWeb from step 1. to return the fake instance of SPListCollection from step 3. once the List property get is called.
6. Next, arrange that a call to any index in the fake object of SPListCollection returned in the previous step should result in the fake object of SPList from step 2.
7. Finally in our arrangement, specify that getting any item from our SPList from the previous step should result in the fake object of SPListItemCollection from step 4.
8. Act/Assert. The last thing to do in this example is to verify that every call will result in the proper fake object as specified above:
   • spWeb.Lists will result in spListCollection
   • spWeb.Lists accessed by any string index will result in spList
   • getting any item from any SPList will result in spListItemCollection

To further understand the example, consider the following class hierarchy:

• SPWeb.List returns SPListCollection
  • SPListCollection["myList"] returns SPList
    • SPList.GetItems(new SPQuery()) returns SPListItemCollection
      • SPListItemCollection