I am a great fan of API tests. I do like to utilize the WebApplicationFactory for this. I even wrote some articles about this in the past "Introduction to WebApplicationFactory". But what if we need to "mock" HttpClient calls inside our tests?
In this article, we will discuss the testing pyramid - what it is and what are some problems with that.
We will also discuss a different approach: The testing diamond.
Often times we have unit or integration tests that rely on some input data. The easiest solution is just to take some hard-coded values and move on with life. This has some major downsides:
Giving specific values in a test carries meaning, but we are often times not interested in that. We just need to pass the object around to fulfill the API. Also the simplest solution to fulfill your test is literally checking against those values.
Here is an elegant solution to that problem: AutoFixture. I will show you what it can do, especially in combination with xUnit.
This article will show you what exactly a WebApplicationFactory is and why it is so "mighty" when it comes down to testing. I will highlight some of the properties, which you can leverage to write powerful tests.