Insert Catchy Title Here

ASP.Net MVC is Easier to Test than Model-View-Presenter

David Hayden's experience leads him to believe that Model-View-Presenter Seems Easier to Test Than ASP.NET MVC.  He asks for some insight from the inter-web to help him see the light.  He uses the following example to highlight the simplicity of testing MVP:

[Test]
public void EmptyCustomerNameShouldCauseInvalidCustomerMessage()
{
    MockRepository mocks = new MockRepository();
    
    IAddCustomerView mockView = mocks.CreateMock<IAddCustomerView>();
    AddCustomerPresenter presenter = new AddCustomerPresenter(mockView);
    
    Expect.Call(mockView.CustomerName).Return(string.Empty);
    Expect.Call(mockView.CustomerTitle).Return("Jester");
    Expect.Call(mockView.PhoneNumber).Return("555-1212");
    mockView.Message = "Invalid Customer...";

    mocks.ReplayAll();
    presenter.onAddCustomer();
    mocks.VerifyAll();
}

Here is the same unit test using MVC:

[Test]
public void EmptyCustomerNameShouldCauseInvalidCustomerMessage()
{  
    CustomerController controller = new CustomerController();

    controller.Add(string.Empty, "Jester", "555-1212");

    Assert.IsTrue(controller.ViewData.Contains("message"));
    Assert.AreEqual("Invalid Customer...", controller.ViewData["message"]);
}

I hope this helps contrast the two approaches.  I will leave it up to you to decide which is simpler.

posted @ Monday, December 17, 2007 8:50 AM