Hello,

This was a great chapter with some really good info. However, I didn't see anything on how to deal with outside services or data access. I did a few searches for an MS mock object implementation and didn't find one.

Using this framework is there any way to mock data access api's? If not, are there other solutions for this?

Thanks!
Michael

Visual Studio doesn't come with a mocking framework I'm afraid. Best to stick with one of the popular open source or commercial mocking frameworks available at this time.

Another approach is to use the data driven tests and then either call pointing to this data or replace your data access layer (coded to a common interface) with one that reads test data shipping along with your tests - however I suspect that you tried that approach already.

Martin,

Thanks for the quick reply. I've actually been looking at a new framework being developed by the RiSE group at Microsoft Research. They've developed a stubbing framework called Moles that can be downloaded with the Pex & Moles VS 2010 Powertools.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/pex/

Hopefully this will help anyone looking into a MS framework for stubbing (but not mocking).

Thanks,
Michael

I have used Moles and it is very powerful but somewhat awkward to use.
So I second Martin's recommendation that you find an open source mocking framework for your ordinary needs. Then use Moles in cases where that does not suffice. I use the MOQ framework and have been reasonably happy. Some of my colleagues like Rhino Mocks. And there are many more.

The reason I call Moles "powerful" is that it enables you to detour any .NET method, including non-virtual/static methods in sealed types. I am not aware of any free, open-source mocking products that can do this. It is a capability normally found only in commercial mocking products like TypeMock.