How to unit test MVC controller action that is using HttpClient

Question

I am trying to test the following MVC controller Action, which is calling out to Web API for a List of Products:

public ActionResult Index()
{
    var model = new List<Product>();

    using(HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
    {
        model = client.GetAsync(uri).Result.Content.ReadAsAsync<List<Product>>().Result;
    }

    return View(model);
}

I am trying to unit test this, have tried using Telerik JustMock to test, for example:

[TestMethod]
    public void IndexDisplaysAllProducts()
    {                                       // Not sure how to call here
        var repo = Mock.Arrange(() => (new List<Product>())).Returns(
                new List<Product> { 
                    new Product(), 
                    new Product(), 
                    new Product()
                });

        var controller = new ProductsController();

        var result = (ViewResult)controller.Index();
        var model = (List<Product>)result.Model;

        Assert.AreEqual(3, model.Count);
    }

Just wondered how you would go about testing this?

Abstract HttpClient away. in tests IoC will replace that class with a controlled mock. Well you may also split action in one *Impl method, if you do not need to test HttpClient related code — Adriano Repetti
– Adriano Repetti, Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 18:28

Andrew Hewitt · Accepted Answer · 2015-02-20 19:38:01Z

2

Mobile atm, so excuse brevity. Implement an httpclientfactory class and Ihttpclientfactory interface, inject that to the ctor using ioc then mock during test to create a mocked instance of the http client.

Alternatively, and even simpler to test, you could use this approach to implement a factory class for something that does all of the stuff you're using the http client for (GetAsync(uri).Result.Content.ReadAsAsync>() etc)

Hth

edited Feb 20, 2015 at 19:38

answered Feb 20, 2015 at 19:23

Andrew Hewitt

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