Can a unit test project load the target application s app config file

Question

I am unit testing a  NET application   exe  that uses an app config file to load configuration properties   The unit test application itself does not have an app config file     When I try to unit test a method that utilizes any of the configuration properties  they return null   I m assuming this is because the unit test application is not going to load in the target application s app config   Is there a way to override this or do I have to write a script to copy the contents of the target app config to a local app config     This post kind-of asks this question but the author is really looking at it from a different angle than I am   EDIT  I should mention that I m using VS08 Team System for my unit tests

User · Answer

This is very easy    Right click on your test project Add-- Existing item You can see a small arrow just beside the Add button Select the config file click on  Add As Link

User · Answer

If you are using NUnit  take a look at this post  Basically you ll need to have your app config in the same directory as your  nunit file

User · Answer

I use NUnit and in my project directory I have a copy of my App Config that I change some configuration  example I redirect to a test database      You need to have it in the same directory of the tested project and you will be fine

User · Answer

Whether you re using Team System Test or NUnit  the best practice is to create a separate Class Library for your tests   Simply adding an App config to your Test project will automatically get copied to your bin folder when you compile   If your code is reliant on specific configuration tests  the very first test I would write validates that the configuration file is available  so that I know I m not insane      lt configuration gt      lt appSettings gt          lt add key  TestValue  value  true    gt      lt  appSettings gt   lt  configuration gt    And the test    TestFixture  public class GeneralFixture         Test       public void VerifyAppDomainHasConfigurationSettings                    string value   ConfigurationManager AppSettings  TestValue              Assert IsFalse String IsNullOrEmpty value    No App Config found                Ideally  you should be writing code such that your configuration objects are passed into your classes   This not only separates you from the configuration file issue  but it also allows you to write tests for different configuration scenarios   public class MyObject        public void Configure MyConfigurationObject config                    enabled   config Enabled               public string Foo                   if   enabled                          return  foo                        return String Empty               private bool  enabled      TestFixture  public class MyObjectTestFixture         Test       public void CanInitializeWithProperConfig                   MyConfigurationObject config   new MyConfigurationObject             config Enabled   true            MyObject myObj   new MyObject             myObj Configure config             Assert AreEqual  foo    myObj Foo

User · Answer

If you have a solution which contains for example Web Application and Test Project  you probably want that Test Project uses Web Application s web config   One way to solve it is to copy web config to test project and rename it as app config   Another and better solution is to modify build chain and make it to make automatic copy of web config to test projects output directory  To do that  right click Test Application and select properties  Now you should see project properties  Click  Build Events  and then click  Edit Post-build     button  Write following line to there   copy    SolutionDir  WebApplication1 web config     ProjectDir   OutDir   TargetFileName  config    And click OK   Note you most probably need to change WebApplication1 as you project name which you want to test   If you have wrong path to web config then copy fails and you will notice it during unsuccessful build   Edit   To Copy from the current Project to the Test Project   copy    ProjectDir bin WebProject dll config     SolutionDir WebProject Tests bin Debug App Config

User · Answer

I use NUnit and in my project directory I have a copy of my App Config that I change some configuration  example I redirect to a test database      You need to have it in the same directory of the tested project and you will be fine

User · Answer

This is a bit old but I found a better solution for this  I was trying the chosen answer here but looks like  testrunconfig is already obsolete   1  For Unit Tests  Wrap the config is an Interface  IConfig   for Unit tests  config really shouldn t be part of what your testing so create a mock which you can inject  In this example I was using Moq   Mock lt IConfig gt   configMock   configMock Setup config   gt  config ConfigKey  Returns  ConfigValue    var SUT   new SUT  configMock Object     2  For Integration test  dynamically add the config you need  Configuration config   ConfigurationManager OpenExeConfiguration ConfigurationUserLevel None   if config AppSettings Settings configName     null        config AppSettings Settings Remove configName     config AppSettings Settings Add configName  configValue   config Save ConfigurationSaveMode Modified  true   ConfigurationManager RefreshSection  appSettings

User · Answer

The simplest way to do this is to add the  config file in the deployment section on your unit test   To do so  open the  testrunconfig file from your Solution Items  In the Deployment section  add the output  config files from your project s build directory  presumably bin Debug    Anything listed in the deployment section will be copied into the test project s working folder before the tests are run  so your config-dependent code will run fine   Edit  I forgot to add  this will not work in all situations  so you may need to include a startup script that renames the output  config to match the unit test s name

User · Answer

Your unit tests are considered as an environment that runs your code to test it  Just like any normal environment  you have i e  staging production  You may need to add a  config file for your test project as well  A workaround is to create a class library and convert it to Test Project by adding necessary NuGet packages such as NUnit and NUnit Adapter  it works perfectly fine with both Visual Studio Test Runner and Resharper and you have your app config file in your test project          And finally debugged my test and value from App config

User · Answer

If you application is using setting such as Asp net ConnectionString you need to add the attribute HostType to your method  else they wont load even if you have an App Config file    TestMethod   HostType  ASP NET       will load the ConnectionString from the App Config file public void Test

User · Answer

If you are using NUnit  take a look at this post  Basically you ll need to have your app config in the same directory as your  nunit file

User · Answer

Your unit tests are considered as an environment that runs your code to test it  Just like any normal environment  you have i e  staging production  You may need to add a  config file for your test project as well  A workaround is to create a class library and convert it to Test Project by adding necessary NuGet packages such as NUnit and NUnit Adapter  it works perfectly fine with both Visual Studio Test Runner and Resharper and you have your app config file in your test project          And finally debugged my test and value from App config

User · Answer

The simplest way to do this is to add the  config file in the deployment section on your unit test   To do so  open the  testrunconfig file from your Solution Items  In the Deployment section  add the output  config files from your project s build directory  presumably bin Debug    Anything listed in the deployment section will be copied into the test project s working folder before the tests are run  so your config-dependent code will run fine   Edit  I forgot to add  this will not work in all situations  so you may need to include a startup script that renames the output  config to match the unit test s name

User · Answer

This is a bit old but I found a better solution for this  I was trying the chosen answer here but looks like  testrunconfig is already obsolete   1  For Unit Tests  Wrap the config is an Interface  IConfig   for Unit tests  config really shouldn t be part of what your testing so create a mock which you can inject  In this example I was using Moq   Mock lt IConfig gt   configMock   configMock Setup config   gt  config ConfigKey  Returns  ConfigValue    var SUT   new SUT  configMock Object     2  For Integration test  dynamically add the config you need  Configuration config   ConfigurationManager OpenExeConfiguration ConfigurationUserLevel None   if config AppSettings Settings configName     null        config AppSettings Settings Remove configName     config AppSettings Settings Add configName  configValue   config Save ConfigurationSaveMode Modified  true   ConfigurationManager RefreshSection  appSettings

User · Answer

The simplest way to do this is to add the  config file in the deployment section on your unit test   To do so  open the  testrunconfig file from your Solution Items  In the Deployment section  add the output  config files from your project s build directory  presumably bin Debug    Anything listed in the deployment section will be copied into the test project s working folder before the tests are run  so your config-dependent code will run fine   Edit  I forgot to add  this will not work in all situations  so you may need to include a startup script that renames the output  config to match the unit test s name

User · Answer

I couldn t get any of these suggestions to work with nUnit 2 5 10 so I ended up using nUnit s Project -  Edit functionality to specify the config file to target  as others have said it needs to be in the same folder as the  nunit file itself   The positive side of this is that I can give the config file a Test config name which makes it much clearer what it is and why it is

User · Answer

I use NUnit and in my project directory I have a copy of my App Config that I change some configuration  example I redirect to a test database      You need to have it in the same directory of the tested project and you will be fine

User · Answer

If you have a solution which contains for example Web Application and Test Project  you probably want that Test Project uses Web Application s web config   One way to solve it is to copy web config to test project and rename it as app config   Another and better solution is to modify build chain and make it to make automatic copy of web config to test projects output directory  To do that  right click Test Application and select properties  Now you should see project properties  Click  Build Events  and then click  Edit Post-build     button  Write following line to there   copy    SolutionDir  WebApplication1 web config     ProjectDir   OutDir   TargetFileName  config    And click OK   Note you most probably need to change WebApplication1 as you project name which you want to test   If you have wrong path to web config then copy fails and you will notice it during unsuccessful build   Edit   To Copy from the current Project to the Test Project   copy    ProjectDir bin WebProject dll config     SolutionDir WebProject Tests bin Debug App Config

User · Answer

In Visual Studio 2008 I added the app config file to the test project as an existing item and selected copy as link in order to make sure it s not duplicated  That way I only have one copy in my solution  With several test projects it comes in really handy

User · Answer

Whether you re using Team System Test or NUnit  the best practice is to create a separate Class Library for your tests   Simply adding an App config to your Test project will automatically get copied to your bin folder when you compile   If your code is reliant on specific configuration tests  the very first test I would write validates that the configuration file is available  so that I know I m not insane      lt configuration gt      lt appSettings gt          lt add key  TestValue  value  true    gt      lt  appSettings gt   lt  configuration gt    And the test    TestFixture  public class GeneralFixture         Test       public void VerifyAppDomainHasConfigurationSettings                    string value   ConfigurationManager AppSettings  TestValue              Assert IsFalse String IsNullOrEmpty value    No App Config found                Ideally  you should be writing code such that your configuration objects are passed into your classes   This not only separates you from the configuration file issue  but it also allows you to write tests for different configuration scenarios   public class MyObject        public void Configure MyConfigurationObject config                    enabled   config Enabled               public string Foo                   if   enabled                          return  foo                        return String Empty               private bool  enabled      TestFixture  public class MyObjectTestFixture         Test       public void CanInitializeWithProperConfig                   MyConfigurationObject config   new MyConfigurationObject             config Enabled   true            MyObject myObj   new MyObject             myObj Configure config             Assert AreEqual  foo    myObj Foo

User · Answer

In Visual Studio 2008 I added the app config file to the test project as an existing item and selected copy as link in order to make sure it s not duplicated  That way I only have one copy in my solution  With several test projects it comes in really handy

User · Answer

Whether you re using Team System Test or NUnit  the best practice is to create a separate Class Library for your tests   Simply adding an App config to your Test project will automatically get copied to your bin folder when you compile   If your code is reliant on specific configuration tests  the very first test I would write validates that the configuration file is available  so that I know I m not insane      lt configuration gt      lt appSettings gt          lt add key  TestValue  value  true    gt      lt  appSettings gt   lt  configuration gt    And the test    TestFixture  public class GeneralFixture         Test       public void VerifyAppDomainHasConfigurationSettings                    string value   ConfigurationManager AppSettings  TestValue              Assert IsFalse String IsNullOrEmpty value    No App Config found                Ideally  you should be writing code such that your configuration objects are passed into your classes   This not only separates you from the configuration file issue  but it also allows you to write tests for different configuration scenarios   public class MyObject        public void Configure MyConfigurationObject config                    enabled   config Enabled               public string Foo                   if   enabled                          return  foo                        return String Empty               private bool  enabled      TestFixture  public class MyObjectTestFixture         Test       public void CanInitializeWithProperConfig                   MyConfigurationObject config   new MyConfigurationObject             config Enabled   true            MyObject myObj   new MyObject             myObj Configure config             Assert AreEqual  foo    myObj Foo

User · Answer

I couldn t get any of these suggestions to work with nUnit 2 5 10 so I ended up using nUnit s Project -  Edit functionality to specify the config file to target  as others have said it needs to be in the same folder as the  nunit file itself   The positive side of this is that I can give the config file a Test config name which makes it much clearer what it is and why it is

User · Answer

If you are using NUnit  take a look at this post  Basically you ll need to have your app config in the same directory as your  nunit file

User · Answer

The simplest way to do this is to add the  config file in the deployment section on your unit test   To do so  open the  testrunconfig file from your Solution Items  In the Deployment section  add the output  config files from your project s build directory  presumably bin Debug    Anything listed in the deployment section will be copied into the test project s working folder before the tests are run  so your config-dependent code will run fine   Edit  I forgot to add  this will not work in all situations  so you may need to include a startup script that renames the output  config to match the unit test s name

User · Answer

If you application is using setting such as Asp net ConnectionString you need to add the attribute HostType to your method  else they wont load even if you have an App Config file    TestMethod   HostType  ASP NET       will load the ConnectionString from the App Config file public void Test

User · Answer

This is very easy    Right click on your test project Add-- Existing item You can see a small arrow just beside the Add button Select the config file click on  Add As Link

User · Answer

I use NUnit and in my project directory I have a copy of my App Config that I change some configuration  example I redirect to a test database      You need to have it in the same directory of the tested project and you will be fine

User · Answer

Whether you re using Team System Test or NUnit  the best practice is to create a separate Class Library for your tests   Simply adding an App config to your Test project will automatically get copied to your bin folder when you compile   If your code is reliant on specific configuration tests  the very first test I would write validates that the configuration file is available  so that I know I m not insane      lt configuration gt      lt appSettings gt          lt add key  TestValue  value  true    gt      lt  appSettings gt   lt  configuration gt    And the test    TestFixture  public class GeneralFixture         Test       public void VerifyAppDomainHasConfigurationSettings                    string value   ConfigurationManager AppSettings  TestValue              Assert IsFalse String IsNullOrEmpty value    No App Config found                Ideally  you should be writing code such that your configuration objects are passed into your classes   This not only separates you from the configuration file issue  but it also allows you to write tests for different configuration scenarios   public class MyObject        public void Configure MyConfigurationObject config                    enabled   config Enabled               public string Foo                   if   enabled                          return  foo                        return String Empty               private bool  enabled      TestFixture  public class MyObjectTestFixture         Test       public void CanInitializeWithProperConfig                   MyConfigurationObject config   new MyConfigurationObject             config Enabled   true            MyObject myObj   new MyObject             myObj Configure config             Assert AreEqual  foo    myObj Foo

User · Answer

If you are using NUnit  take a look at this post  Basically you ll need to have your app config in the same directory as your  nunit file

[c#] Can a unit test project load the target application's app.config file?

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