So, as a partial solution, we can keep it in memory so that we can avoid the database call. Entity framework core 2x inmemory unit testng for windows forms. We also dont want to maintain two different worlds in our code and tests, the real world where ef runs against a real db and a fake work where our tests. But the in memory database doesnt support execution of stored procedures in any way.
See tutorials effort entity framework unit testing tool. Creating unit test using a real dbcontext is a pain because we have to mock the entire context to achieve this. The problem with entity framework is that it depends on the existance of a real database to run correctly. Net core web api application project and add a xunit testing project in the same solution. I came across the ef core in memory database recently. The fastest way to mock a database for unit testing danylkoweb. The aim of unit testing is to test the business logic in isolation without dependencies on other components of the system. How to use entity framework core inmemory and sql lite inmemory database options for unit tests. Ef core provides an inmemory provider to easily test your code without an actual database. Createoptions method will create options that will provide an ef core inmemory database for unit testing. Jan 30, 2017 i came across the ef core in memory database recently.
In this post, ill show how to use the in memory feature of entity framework core to create unit test involving the database. It provides the similar database functionality without over heading the actual database. I can mock the entity framework using rhino mocks, but that would not be sufficient. Aug 09, 2016 one of the most exciting features in the new version of entity framework entity framework core 1.
In memory database is nonpersistent implementation of data provider that we can use when testing entity framework related code. Apr 18, 2019 while writing the book entity framework core in action i wrote over 600 unit tests, which taught me a lot about unit testing ef core applications. In data intensive applications one of the most common difficulties when writing unit tests is to isolate them from the database. To use the in memory database provider first we need to add the following nuget package. How to mock data entity framework entity framework. Its a new db provider which holds everything in memory. That is, entity framework core can use an inmemory database, which is useful for things like unit testing.
The ef core testing sample demonstrates tests using the ef in memory database. Nov 24, 2015 in this blog post i demonstrated how you can use the new inmmeory database in entity framework 7 to easily unit test your applications. This database provider allows entity framework core to be used with. This can be useful for testing, although the sqlite provider in in memory mode may be a more appropriate test replacement for relational databases.
Code samples showing basics of in memory unit testing. Entity framework 7 in memory database unit testing using xunit. Start by creating a new class library project using the class library package template next, add the appropriate entity framework dependencies to. This article explains how you can configure entity framework core to use the memorybased provider for unit testing.
Just dont do this to test actual database queries or updates. These packages will help to create a database on runtime. Preferable youll write all your unit test using the memory database. Whenever you need to create a fake or mock database. Dont forget to check out the sample project on github if youd like to. This is useful for unit testing entity framework db operations as inmemory storage behaves same. Entity framework code first in memory database for unit. Entity framework core in memory testing database gary. Microsoft has provided inmemory database with entity framework core. Net app against an in memory database instead of having to install and configure the real. Feb 25, 2019 entity framework cores inmemory provider allows us to create a database in memory that our applications can use just like a normal datastore.
Save time mocking use your real entity framework dbcontext in unit tests. In memory entity framework testing via effort library, in. This proves we can switch using inmemory stub data or the real database by changing a appsetting in the nfig. While entity framework cores inmemory store works great for many scenarios, there are some situations where it might be better to run our tests against a real relational database. Net app against an inmemory database instead of having to install and configure the real. Here is an example of a test class that uses the inmemory database.
To avoid mocking and faking entity framework core provides us with inmemory data provider. Entity framework 7 includes a new inmemory store which is fantastic for unit testing. So, if you close the connection, then the database is lost. Show how to test keyless entity type mapped to view. A common approach for unit testing is to abstract away entity framework classes such as dbcontext and run the business logic under test against mocked objects in memory. Aug 23, 2012 and not from the real database, because the database at this point is empty. I dont know xunit, but in other testing frameworks you can reuse a single in memory database in multiple test cases, by annotating the text cases or rather, the entire test class transactional. We have the following repository that we want to test.
This article is not about why unit testing is great, it just gives the information how to remove the dependency on a database with entity framework core by using a memorybased provider a provider that is here for unit tests. Unit testing with entity framework and entity framework. Learn ef effort entity framework effort by example. Here is an image covering just a few of the methods, in bold available in this library. Unit testing entity framework core stored procedures no. In our sample, we use it as the backing store to an mvc application, but in the realworld wed more likely use it in test cases. It has no database backend and its only purpose is to support scenarios where persistent data storage is not needed. Entity framework core makes testing of data related controllers easier. Entity framework core in memory testing database gary woodfine. Unit test jpa entities with inmemory database eskatoss. Effort stands for the entity framework fake objectcontext realization tool. Effort instead allows you to create a fake or mock database so that you.
This tip is a guide for using the codeplex project effort for testing entity framework applications without requiring the unit tests to actually hit the sql server database. So im going to show a minimized code sample using xunit, entity framework, in memory database with. Using an in memory database as a test double with entity framework posted 10th november 2015 1st october 2017 steve fenton if you are using entity framework and you want to test your application without the real database, the typical technique employed is to write a repository or query provider that you can substitute with a stub during the test. The fastest way to mock a database for unit testing developers have always been trying to mimic a production database. No more mocking dbcontext or doing other dumb things. Using entity framework core inmemory database for unit testing. You can then use the entity framework database for your integration tests. Net core unit testing and entity framework core in memory databases i hit a problem yesterday when unit testing a service in my application using the inmemory provider for entity framework core.
No more mocking dbcontext or doing other dumb things heres how. It catches many more problems because sqlite is a real relational database. So here is another quick and dirty howto titled unit test jpa entities with inmemory database. Unit testing with inmemory provider and sqlite inmemory. Crud via entity frameworks inmemory database simon gilbert. Use entityframework core inmemory database for unit. Inmemory dbcontext with entity framework core mirko maggioni unit testing july 1, 2017 july 1, 2017 frequently, when we need to test a ef context from our unit test class, we need to implement a stub of the context manually, in order to have, for example, an in. Using ef cores inmemory provider to store a database in memory. Speedy is a simple easy to use entity framework unit testing. I would like to populate an inmemory database with rows, and make sure that my code retrieves them properly.
There is a newer prerelease version of this package available. The problem with unit testing code that uses entity framework classes, such as dbcontext, is that the classes are difficult to mock. Testing code that uses ef core ef core microsoft docs. Two strategies for testing entity framework effort and sql. Oct 08, 2015 unit testing entity framework 7 with the in memory data store.
Github karenpayneoregonentityframeworkcoreinmemorytesting. While were building the api,we can use the inmemory provider feature of ef coreto quickly set up a test database. I personally think the sqlite inmemory is a much better option than ef cores inmemory database. Some examples include when loading entities using raw sql or when using sql server specific features that can not be tested using the inmemory provider. Integration testing with entity framework core and sql. Net core and entity framework core then unit testing is very easy. Effort instead allows you to create a fake or mock database so that you can focus on testing your business logic layer without having to be concerned about the data access layer. Simple example with a database with blogs and posts. Unit testing business logic that is based on entity framework is a difficult task. The scope of the database is controlled by opening and closing the connection. Testing ef core repositories with xunit and an in memory. While the situation will improve with the introduction of entity framework 7 and its in memory data store, for now we still have to find a way of mocking dbcontext if we want to test code that uses it directly. Because it uses an in memory data store it means that the database can be constructed quickly and your actual unit tests can therefore still run very quickly. Using an inmemory store is convenient since we dont need to worry about setting up a relational database.
How to mock entity frameworks dbcontext for unit testing. The inmemory data provider in entity framework makes life simpler by letting you test the code of your asp. Now, assume that whenever the category is required, you fetch it from the database and pass it to the site. Next, you will discover how inmemory database providers like inmemory and sqlite can help with improving your tests. Instead we use the ef inmemory database when unit testing something that uses dbcontext. However, there are a few problems with this approach. It obviously wont have all the features of a relational database but it might be useful when unit testing simple repository methods. Using an in memory database as a test double with entity framework. This guidance and application demonstrate how to create unit tests for your web api 2 application that uses the entity framework. This makes it possible to prototype applications and write tests without having to set up a local or external database. In entity framework core, we have two packages which help us to create the database on runtime as similar to the actual database and its tables as well. Testing entity framework core using in memory database provider. As a database developer i would like to implement an advanced and costeffective database unit testing framework that can help my team in early bug detection and does not require context switching from sql to any other toollanguage and is suitable when all my database development work is done through ssms sql server management studio.
While writing the book entity framework core in action i wrote over 600 unit tests, which taught me a lot about unit testing ef core applications. In this post, ill show how to use the inmemory feature of entity framework core to create unit test involving the database. In the unit tests for the homecontroller, change the lines. Entity framework core has made unit testing crud functions much easier, see here for an example of using the in memory database, it allows you to search, add, remove and update rows. The techniques are explained in much more details in chapter 15 of the book entity framework in action. Using ef cores inmemory provider to store a database in. Oct 27, 2016 this database provider allows entity framework core to be used with an in memory database. The beauty of using an inmemory database for developmentis that we can simply swap it. Speedy is a simple easy to use entity framework unit. Unit testing entity framework 7 with the in memory data store. In memory database provider for entity framework core to be used for testing purposes. It provides functions for resetting a database back to a known state by deleting data from tables.
Unit testing with entity framework and entity framework core 2. This blog post builds on simple product catalog that uses sql server as. So, lets move to the practical demonstration without wasting much time. Helpers to create an inmemory sqlite database for unit testing. Entity framework core has made it really easy to set up and configure in memory database options, reducing the amount of ceremony and configuration one has to do to get it up and running.
Start by creating a new class library project using the class library package template. Download and install sql server express with advanced services from msdn. Net core unit testing and entity framework core in memory. Writing unit tests for controllers is easy when enitiyframework core is in use. Two strategies for testing entity framework effort and. The provider is maintained as part of the entity framework core project. That is, the database manipulations within the test cases will be automatically rolled back after leaving the scope of the methods. But now it is suitable, simple and good decision to have separete in memory database for each test.
Using an in memory database as a test double with entity. Here i assume you already have written your entities java classes with correct annotations. Net in memory test is rather easy as dependency injection is done in startup. All code in the examples make use of my current favourite unit testing framework xunit, but should be fairly easy to convert to any of the others. Instructor all of the data about the hotels roomsand bookings will be stored in the database. Typically you want a clean database for each test method. Next, you will discover how in memory database providers like inmemory and sqlite can help with improving your tests. Unit testing with inmemory provider and sqlite inmemory database in efcore. Integration testing with entity framework core and sql server. When unit tests are run, instantiate some kind of in memory database from this test data have ef run against this in memory database for the duration of the unit test run we dont want our unit tests to rely on a specific external database being present, and in a specific state. This database file is part of the sample project that you can download for this project. Heres an extract from the documentation ef core database providers do not have to be relational databases. Inmemory dbcontext with entity framework core mirko. The ef core testing sample demonstrates tests using the ef inmemory database.
Yes, it is possible in entity framework core to generate the database. Here is a great and fast way to unit test your entity framework entities while using maximum flexibility. We would like that the tests which verify the business logic, not to hit the database, so we can easily configure test data for. Now, granted that there are a number of other possible ways to fake out a database and conduct unit test, but i havent found one that i thought was as simple to implement as with entity framework core. The best approach for unit testing entity framework is mocking in memory by using third party libraries such as entity framework effort etc. Just open visual studio 2017 or higher and create an asp. We can avoid mocks and fakes of database context as database context doesnt depend on database we are using. The database exists in the scope of a data connection. In this course, testing with ef core, you will learn how ef core can help with testing code that relies on calls into your database. The datasource project contains the repository, domain and context objects necessary to connect to a database using entity framework. A simple modification is enough to make entity framework. Using entity framework core inmemory database for unit. Entity framework core makes unit tests easier to write.
Testing ef core repositories with xunit and an in memory db. Inmemory is designed to be a general purpose database for testing, and is not designed to. The database is scoped to the duration that the connection is open. One of the new feature of ef core is, entity framework core inmemory provider. Is there an inmemory provider for entity framework.
The key to testing with this provider is the ability to tell the context to use sqlite, and control the scope of the in memory database. In this case using the ef inmemory database is appropriate because the test is not dependent on database behavior. Using effort entity framework unit testing tool codeproject. May 12, 2015 unit testing on top of entity framework dbcontext on code design, data access, entity framework, quality, repository when writing unit tests one of the challenges is to isolate your tests from everything. Being able to quickly and easily replicate and simulate database inteactivity in your unit and integration tests helps to ensure your code operates and. So, lets see how we can implement in memory and sqlite in entity framework core and use it while writing unit test cases. Entity framework code first in memory database for unit testing. Dot net core in memory unit testing using xunit frank. Sqlite with memory storage is a very good option when it comes to unit test data access layer. It is a simple and fast in memory database used for unit testing. So, when i wrote the chapter on unit testing, which was the last in the book, i combined what i had learn into a library called efcore. Testing ef core in memory using sqlite meziantous blog. Testsupport is an opensource library mit licence with a nuget package available. The key to testing with this provider is the ability to tell the context to use the inmemory provider, and control the scope of the in memory database.
Were just going to test the add method in this post. It also ensures our unit tests run quickly so we arent left waiting hours for a large test suite to complete. Testing with the inmemory database provider in entity. Testing with the ef inmemory database ef core microsoft docs. First, you will learn about different ways of testing your application. Next we need to code our database context layer by defining our database table for our blog post entities, and setting our primary key.
This can be useful for testing, although the sqlite provider in inmemory. Well use entity framework core to connectour api to a database provider. Entity framework core makes it easy to write tests that execute against an inmemory store. When youre ready to switch to using a real database, you can simply swap in.
Sep 19, 2012 the problem with entity framework is that it depends on the existance of a real database to run correctly. Each test method specifies a unique database name, meaning each. Tagged with dotnet, testing, tutorial, entityframework. In this case using the ef in memory database is appropriate because the test is not dependent on database behavior. Effort is a powerful tool that enables a convenient way to create automated tests for entity framework based applications. Instead we use the ef in memory database when unit testing something that uses dbcontext. What we achieved over the last 4 years has grown beyond our hopes. Nov 16, 2016 that post was built on a prerelease version of entity framework so i thought id provide an updated post on top of the dbcontext api surface we ended up shipping. We dont have to necessarily mock or fake database context as context is. Your tests become completely independent, because, obviously, at case of real database, you will not create separate database for each test the one for all of them. To download the most uptodate version of the framework, see the asp. However, this provider act differently from a relation database. Inmemory database provider for entity framework core to be used for testing purposes. Dec, 20 mocking entity framework when unit testing asp.
Entity framework core has made it really easy to set up and configure inmemory database options, reducing the amount of ceremony and configuration one has to do to get it up and running. Still about hibernate, i have several jpa entities grouped in a persistence unit that i need to test. The first package will provide all the required classes for using entity framework core functionality within the xunit project and rest of two are for inmemory provider and sqlite inmemory database respectively. You can start it with an empty database and fill it yourself using a database seeder, or you can fill it with values from a test csv file.