Unit Testing Controllers In Web API

Introduction

TDD (Test-driven development) is a developmental approach in which TFD (Test-First Development) is there, and where we write a test before writing a code for the production. TDD is also supported by both MVC and Web API. In this article, we will learn how to write unit test case for Web API controller.

Following is a very common pattern in Unit Testing.

In the first step, we will have to create test data for testing, using a mock or stub object. This approach will minimize the number of dependencies.

Set up Unit test project

We have an option to create a Unit test project when we create a Web API project. When we create a unit test project with a web API project, Visual Studio IDE automatically adds Web API project reference to the unit test project.

Apart from this, we need to install the following packages to the Unit test project, because our unit test is dependent on these.

Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi
EntityFramework (if applicable)

If we want to inject any dependency to the controller, we can use the mock object. Using the following NuGet command, we can download a mock library.

Unit Test which returns HttpResponseMessage

In this following example, I have GET method in the controller and want to write a Unit test for this API method.

Controller Code

namespace WebAPI.Controllers
{
using System.Linq;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
using WebAPI.Models;
publicclassEmployeeController: ApiController
{
EntityModel context = newEntityModel();
publicHttpResponseMessage Get(int id)
{
var employee = context.Employees.Where(p => p.Id == id)
.FirstOrDefault();
if (employee == null)
{
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.NotFound);
}
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, employee);
}
///<summary>
/// Dispose
///</summary>
///<param name="disposing"></param>
protectedoverridevoid Dispose(bool disposing)
{
context.Dispose();
base.Dispose(disposing);
}
}
}

Unit Test

namespace WebAPI.Tests
{
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Web.Http;
using WebAPI.Controllers;
using WebAPI.Models;
[TestClass]
publicclassEmployeeUnitTest
{
[TestMethod]
publicvoid EmployeeGetById()
{
// Set up Prerequisites
var controller = newEmployeeController();
controller.Request = newHttpRequestMessage();
controller.Configuration = newHttpConfiguration();
// Act on Test
var response = controller.Get(1);
// Assert the result
Employee employee;
Assert.IsTrue(response.TryGetContentValue < Employee > (out employee));
Assert.AreEqual("Jignesh", employee.Name);
}
}
}

Here we set "Request" and "Configuration" on the controller. It is very important otherwise the Unit test will throw ArgumentNullException or InvalidOperationException.

Unit Test which returns IHttpActionResult

Web API also supports IHttpActionResult as a return type. This interface has a pre-defined command pattern to create HTTP responses. This approach is quite easy because IHttpActionResult creates the response. It is very easy to write a Unit test case with this approach because we can skip many things which are required for the setup HttpResponseMessage.

Example

In the following example, I created the controller called "DepartmentController" and GET method in the controller class. This method returns OK (department) when department is found in the database.

Controller Code

namespace WebAPI.Controllers
{
using System.Linq;
using System.Web.Http;
using WebAPI.Models;
publicclassDepartmentController: ApiController
{
EntityModel context = newEntityModel();
publicIHttpActionResult Get(int id)
{
Department department = context.Departments.Where(p => p.DepartmentId == id)
.FirstOrDefault();
if (department == null)
{
return NotFound();
}
return Ok(department);
}
publicIHttpActionResult Post(Department department)
{
if (department != null)
{
context.Departments.Add(department);
context.SaveChanges();
return CreatedAtRoute("DefaultApi", new
{
id = department.DepartmentId
}, department);
}
return BadRequest();
}
}
}

Unit Test

I have written the Unit test case, which returns 200 with the response body. In this Unit test, I have GET content result, using OkNegotiatedContentResult and I check whether the return object has the same departmentId.

namespace WebAPI.Tests
{
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using System.Web.Http.Results;
using WebAPI.Controllers;
using WebAPI.Models;
[TestClass]
publicclassDepartmentUnitTest
{
[TestMethod]
publicvoid DepartmentGetByIdSuccess()
{
// Set up Prerequisites
var controller = newDepartmentController();
// Act on Test
var response = controller.Get(1);
var contentResult = response asOkNegotiatedContentResult < Department > ;
// Assert the result
Assert.IsNotNull(contentResult);
Assert.IsNotNull(contentResult.Content);
Assert.AreEqual(1, contentResult.Content.DepartmentId);
}
}
}

The following unit test is written to test the response of the action method, when the department is not found in the database.

[TestMethod]
publicvoid GetDepartmentNotFound()
{
// Set up Prerequisites
var controller = newDepartmentController();
// Act
IHttpActionResult actionResult = controller.Get(100);
// Assert
Assert.IsInstanceOfType(actionResult, typeof(NotFoundResult));
}

In the example given above, the Post method calls CreatedAtRoute for returning a Status code 201. In the following Unit test, I have verified that the action sets the correct routing value.

[TestMethod]
publicvoid AddDepartmentTest()
{
// Arrange
var controller = newDepartmentController();
Department department = newDepartment
{
DepartmentName = "Test Department",
};
// Act
IHttpActionResult actionResult = controller.Post(department);
var createdResult = actionResult asCreatedAtRouteNegotiatedContentResult < Department > ;
// Assert
Assert.IsNotNull(createdResult);
Assert.AreEqual("DefaultApi", createdResult.RouteName);
Assert.IsNotNull(createdResult.RouteValues["id"]);
}

We can also verify the status code of the action methods.

For example, Put method return status is code 202 (Accepted), OK (200) etc.

Controller Method

publicIHttpActionResult Put(Department department)
{
if (department != null)
{
// Do some work .
return Content(HttpStatusCode.Accepted, department);
}
return BadRequest();
}

Unit test

[TestMethod]
publicvoid UpdateDepartmentTest()
{
// Arrange
var controller = newDepartmentController();
Department department = newDepartment
{
DepartmentId = 4,
DepartmentName = "Test Department",
};
// Act
IHttpActionResult actionResult = controller.Put(department);
var contentResult = actionResult asNegotiatedContentResult < Department > ;
Assert.IsNotNull(contentResult);
Assert.AreEqual(HttpStatusCode.Accepted, contentResult.StatusCode);
Assert.IsNotNull(contentResult.Content);
}

Summary

Unit test is a code that helps us in verifying the expected behavior of the other code in isolation. Here “In isolation" means there is no dependency between the tests. This is a better idea to test the Application code, before it goes for quality assurance (QA).

21 Comments

Join the conversation! Your thoughts help the community grow.

Ramendra Kumar5y ago
HI Getting Error In Test Class , That Login Failed For User Sa, Where as I Changed In Web.Config File, For Sql Express, Grid View is Populating using that Connection, so please let me know where you Setted Sa Else From Web .Config File
- Jignesh Trivedi5y ago
  The connection string is defined in web.config. there is connectionstring section in this file. Here, entity framework is used so connection string name similar to entity model class (defined in Entitymodel.cs) i.e. EntityModel. hope this is answer of your question
jubula samal6y ago
Superb, well described and very very helpful.
nitesh sahu8y ago
Very nice article thanks
siva kumar9y ago
HI,I have one doubt how to call paramertiezed constructor from test cases.
- Jignesh Trivedi9y ago
  About controller? you need to pass parameter when controller class is created i.e. var controller = new DepartmentController("Test");
Jimit Gandhi9y ago
Very Informative and well presented!!
Manas Mohapatra9y ago
Very Informative and nicely described....
Bikesh Srivastava10y ago
Very helpful
Santhakumar Munuswamy10y ago
Thank you for nice article
Gokul10y ago
Thanks for sharing
Guest User10y ago
*read
Guest User10y ago
interesting to rea
kalu singh rao10y ago
Nice...
Vignesh Mani10y ago
good one
Kuppurasu Nagaraj10y ago
Nice Sharing..
Govind Khandelwal10y ago
Nice..
Raja10y ago
Good One...
Ravi Patel10y ago
very helpful thanks a lot
Thiruppathi R10y ago
i dont konw how can i test mvc controller,but not know ,thanks for an articles..
Debasis Saha10y ago
Good One..