Entitity Framework 4.1 - Code First- Unit testing data access layer

Question

I'm a .NET developer and I'm writing tests for my data access layer. I have tests that use fake repository - I have achieved that by using Moq and Ninject.

I'm getting my head around EntityFramework 4.1 Code First model and I'd like to create a prototype for CRUD routines. It's an MVC app, so my entities won't be tracked by a context.

To me it feels wrong that I'm writing tests that will make changes to the database. I will then have to clear the database each time I want to run these tests. Is this the only way to test CRUD routines?

Thank you

Answer 1

How do you expect to test data access if you don't access the data? Yes data access should be tested against real database. There is very simple workaround for your problem. Make your test transactional and rollback changes at the end of the test. You can use base class like this (NUnit):

[TestFixture]
public abstract class BaseTransactionalTest
{
    private TransactionalScope _scope = null;

    [SetUp]
    public void Initialize()
    {
        _scope = new TransactionalScope(...);        
    }

    [TearDown]
    public void CleanUp()
    {
        if (_scope != null)
        {
            _scope.Dispose();
            _scope = null;
        }
    }
}