Customizing a specific string inside a class using AutoFixture

Full source code.

I’ve been using AutoFixture for a while with my unit tests. It creates objects with prefilled data, saving me the hassle of manually constructing them.

Basic usage

If you want a string from AutoFixture do something like –

string myString = fixture.Create();

//"c2eefff9-9cc2-4358-aee1-2d27b0476e41"

If you want to prefix the string do this –

string myPrefixedString = fixture.Create("Prefix");

//"Prefix191dd4bc-f3ed-4d19-ac36-f3c84c958155"

If you want something that looks like an email address –

string emailAddress = fixture.Create().Address;

//"9ed7e16b-f6df-42d6-8812-d7ea6580f300@example.org"

Where it starts to get a bit tricky is if you have a class like this –

public class Account
{
	public Guid AccountId { get; set; }
	public string Firstname { get; set; }
	public string Lastname { get; set; }
	public IEnumerable<string> EmailAddresses { get; set; }
}

Because I am using a string to represent an email address AutoFixture will give me a string, not an email address.

Here are two solutions.

Solution 1

fixture.Customize<Account>(c => c.With(a => a.EmailAddresses, fixture.CreateMany<MailAddress>().Select(ma => ma.Address.ToString())));

This produces emails that look like –

"f45a37ae-6d2c-42a5-92ac-832e6ea2d028@example.net"
"72625222-e7af-4c29-96ed-4219efc1a859@example.net"
"54a39694-fd7a-458c-8739-0667ec9fa2d7@example.net"

Solution 2

If I want to generate email address that look a little more like real world address I have to create a SpecimenBuilder.

    public class EmailAddressesStringSpecimenBuilder : ISpecimenBuilder
    {
        public object Create(object request, ISpecimenContext context)
        {
            var propertyInfo = request as PropertyInfo;

            if (propertyInfo != null)
            {
                if (propertyInfo.Name == "EmailAddresses" && propertyInfo.PropertyType == typeof (IEnumerable<string>))
                {
					// of course you can customize how the mail addresses are created, you can even use a fixture to create strings :) 
                    IEnumerable<string> emailAddresses = new List<string>() {"user1@acme.com", "user2@unknown.com", "user3@nothing.com"};
                    return emailAddresses;
                }
            }
            return new NoSpecimen();
        }
    }

How to use the customizations

            Fixture fixture = new Fixture();

			fixture.Customizations.Add(new EmailAddressesStringSpecimenBuilder());
            // use one of the two customizations here, but not both
			// fixture.Customize<Account>(c => c.With(a => a.EmailAddresses, fixture.CreateMany<MailAddress>().Select(ma => ma.Address.ToString())));

            var account1 = fixture.Create<Account>();
            var account2 = fixture.Create<Account>();

Full source code.