Unit test controller that uses application scoped variables

Question

I\'m building an ASP.NET MVC4 app. I\'m not using any mocking framework and, if possible, would prefer not to at this point. My question is 2 parts.

I have a controll

Answer 1

In general globals aren't good for testing. There are at least two approaches you could take.

1. Use a mocking framework like Pex/Moles, NMock, etc.

2. Use an inversion-of-control approach (NInject is my favorite). If class like a controller has an external dependency, it asks for the interface, typically in its constructor.

   private readonly IApplicationSettings _settings;

   public MyController(IApplicationSettings settings) { _settings = settings; }

   void someMethod() { _settings.Get("MyVar"); }

This way you can write real and test implementations.

public LiveAppSettings : IApplicationSettings
{
    public string Get(string key)
    { 
        return HttpContext.Current.Application[key];
    }
}

With Ninject, you can bind either implementation at application startup:

var kernel = new StandardKernel();
kernel.Bind().To();