Isolated testing of system components through contract testing

A C# .NET based, lightweight stub server that mimics the functionality of an external service, commonly used by microservices.

Key Features

• Test locally system and integration tests of system components
• Reduce the dependency on complex and/or expensive test environments
• Per-request conditional responses
• Recording requests
• Easy to use

By using contract testing¹ in integration tests for projects with dependencies on external services, the stub server can provide configurable responses for requests made to these services. Each request is recorded and can be validated as part of these integration tests.

Note

In discussions of integration tests, the tested project is frequently called "SUT", the System Under Test in short.

The stub server creates a in-memory web host for the external service to handle the requests and responses for the external service made by the SUT. Creating the stub server can be done within a custom WebApplicationFactory ² that might be available in the testproject for integration testing the SUT. An example of a custom WebApplicationFactory can be found in the example testproject.

Usage

Setup StubServer in a custom WebApplicationFactory

Add the initialization of the stub server in the constructor of your custom WebApplicationFactory.

_stubServer = new StubServer();

Add proxy methodes for adding responses to the StubServer.

public Task<ResponseSetup> AddResponseSetupAsync(ResponseSetup responseSetup, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    => _stubServer.AddResponseSetupAsync(responseSetup, cancellationToken);

public Task AddResponsesSetupAsync(IEnumerable<ResponseSetup> responseSetups, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    => _stubServer.AddResponsesSetupAsync(responseSetups, cancellationToken);

Add proxy methode for reading requests from the StubServer.

public Task<IEnumerable<ReceivedRequest>> FindReceivedRequestsAsync(ReceivedRequestSearchParams searchParams, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    => _stubServer.FindReceivedRequestsAsync(searchParams, cancellationToken);

Add proxy methodes for removing responses and received requests from the StubServer.

public Task ClearResponsesSetupAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    => _stubServer.ClearResponsesSetupAsync(cancellationToken);

public Task ClearReceivedRequestsAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    => _stubServer.ClearReceivedRequestsAsync(cancellationToken);

Override the Dispose since the StubServer is a disposable object.

protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
    base.Dispose(disposing);

    if (disposing)
    {
        _stubServer.Dispose();
    }
}

Override the CreateHost of the WebApplicationFactory to configure the base address of the used external service.

protected override void ConfigureWebHost(IWebHostBuilder builder)
{
    builder.ConfigureServices((context, services) =>
    {
        context.Configuration["ExternalApi"] = _stubServer.BaseAddressStub.ToString();
    });

    base.ConfigureWebHost(builder);
}

Use in unit test

Create a test class that implements a IClassFixture<> interface referencing the custom WebApplicationFactory to share object instances across the tests in the class.

public class WeatherForecastTests : IClassFixture<ExampleWebApplicationFactory<Program>>

In the constructor of the test class use the factory to create the HttpClient and clear the ResponseSetup and ReceivedRequest data from the StubServer

public WeatherForecastTests(ExampleWebApplicationFactory<Program> factory)
{
    _factory = factory;
    _httpClient = _factory.CreateClient();

    _factory.ClearResponsesSetupAsync();
    _factory.ClearReceivedRequestsAsync();
}

A typical test uses the factory to setup the response and process the request through the HttpClient. The request to the external service can be validated.

[Fact]
public async Task GetAllWeatherForecasts()
{
    static IEnumerable<WeatherForecast> GetItems()
    {
        for (var i = 0; i < NumberOfItems; i++)
        {
            yield return GenerateWeatherForecast(i);
        }
    }

    // Arrange
    var expected = GetItems().ToList();
    var responseSetup = new ResponseSetup
    {
        Path = "/external/api/weatherforecast",
        HttpMethods = [HttpMethod.Get.ToString()],
        ReturnStatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK,
        Response = expected
    };
    await _factory.AddResponseSetupAsync(responseSetup);

    var expectedReceivedRequests = new List<ReceivedRequest>
    {
        new(responseSetup.Path, responseSetup.HttpMethods[0], responseSetup.Query, responseSetup.Headers, string.Empty, true)
    };

    // Act
    var response = await _httpClient.GetAsync("/weatherforecast");

    // Assert
    var actual = await response.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<IEnumerable<WeatherForecast>>();
    actual.Should().BeEquivalentTo(expected);

    var actualReceivedRequests = await _factory.FindReceivedRequestsAsync(new ReceivedRequestSearchParams("/external/api/weatherforecast", [HttpMethod.Get.ToString()]));
    actualReceivedRequests.Should().BeEquivalentTo(expectedReceivedRequests, options => options
        .Excluding(_ => _.Headers)
        .Excluding(_ => _.Id)
        .Excluding(_ => _.CreatedDateTime));
}

• Prepare the ResponseSetup:
  • Set Path and HttpMethods to a partial path and HttpMethod of the expected request used by the external service.
  • Set ReturnStatusCode to the desired HttpStatusCode.
  • Set Response to the desired reponse of the external service.
• Add the ResponseSetup to the StubServer with the method AddResponseSetupAsync

Tip

Multiple ResponseSetup can be added in 1 call with the method AddResponsesSetupAsync!

• Process the request to the SUT using the HttpClient
• Verify the response from the SUT
• Verify the request made to the external service
  • Use the method FindReceivedRequestsAsync to locate the request made to the external service. The request can be found on a combination of Path, HttpMethod, and Query.

Important

ReceivedRequest can only be found when there is a matching ResponseSetup

---

Release notes

1.1.0

• Removed obsolete methods in StubServer:
  • CreateApiService<TApiService>
  • CreateApiService(type type>)
• Moved the folder Services to the folder Internal, including classes
• Updated access modifier for classes in the folder Services from public to internal. The following classes are impacted:
  • Results/ApiServiceResult
  • Results/ApiServiceResult<TModel>
  • ApiService
  • ReceivedRequestApiService
  • SetupResponseApiService
• Change access modifier for class UriExtensions from public to internal and moved the class to the folder Internal
• Removed interface IApiResult

1.0.3

• Change the default for the usage of the development certificate in the StubServer from true to false
• Changed constructor of StubServer so that users can chose a certificate used by the StubServer and how to handle this certificate in the HttpClient
• Add methods for add and remove ResponseSetup items to the StubServer
• Add methods for find and remove ReceivedRequest to the StubServer
• [Deprecated] methods in StubServer:
  • CreateApiService<TApiService>
  • CreateApiService(type type>)

Footnotes

1. Consumer-driven Contract Testing (CDC) ↩

2. Integration tests in ASP.NET Core ↩