Using the Unit Testing Feature with Pipelines

Article
07/07/2021

This topic demonstrates how to use the unit testing feature to add a unit test for the pipeline in the FlatFileReceive pipeline example. Pipeline unit testing is similar to the Pipeline.exe tool that is documented here: Pipeline Tools. When you enable unit testing on the Deployment tab of the project properties, the pipeline class in your project is derived from Microsoft.BizTalk.TestTools.Pipeline.TestableReceivePipeline. This class models some of the same functionality exposed by the Pipeline.exe tool.

Prerequisites

You must first follow the steps for building the FlatFileReceive sample and become familiar with that sample. The documentation that includes the steps for building the FlatFileReceive sample can be found here: FlatFileReceive (BizTalk Server Sample).

Adding a Unit Test Project to the FlatFileReceive Sample

To add a unit test project to the FlatFileReceive sample

In Visual Studio, open the FlatFileReceive.sln solution file.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the FlatFileReceive project, and then click Properties.
In Project Designer, click the Deployment property page tab and set Enable Unit Testing to True.
Close the project properties page saving the changes.
On the main menu, click Build, and then click Rebuild Solution.
On the main menu, click Test, and then click New Test.
In the Add New Test dialog box, select Create a new Visual C# test project for the Add to Test Project field. Select Unit Test Wizard in the Templates list, and then click OK.
In the New Test Project dialog box, leave the project name as TestProject1 and click Create.
In the Create Unit Tests dialog box, expand the types and select the FFReceivePipeline() constructor under the Microsoft.Samples.BizTalk.FlatFileReceive.FFReceivePipeline node. Click OK.

Adding Test Code to Test the Pipeline

To add test code to test the pipeline

Add the following references to the TestProject1 project:
- BizTalk Pipeline Interop
- Microsoft.BizTalk.TestTools
- Microsoft XLANG/s Base Types
In Solution Explorer, open FFReceivePipelineTest.cs and add the following directives to the top of that file:
```
using System.IO;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Collections.Generic;
```

Scroll to the bottom of the file and replace the FFReceivePipelineConstructorTest method with the following code, which verifies that the pipeline inputs exist before testing the pipeline. This code also verifies that a message conforming to the flat file schema is generated.

[TestMethod()]
public void FFReceivePipelineUnitTest()
{
    //=== Pipeline class derived from TestableReceivePipeline ===//
    FFReceivePipeline target = new FFReceivePipeline();

    //=== Collection of messages to test the flat file pipeline ===//
    StringCollection documents = new StringCollection();
    string strSourcePO_XML = @".\..\..\..\FlatFileReceive_in.txt";
    Assert.IsTrue(File.Exists(strSourcePO_XML));
    documents.Add(strSourcePO_XML);

    //=== Only a body part for this test message so an empty ===//
    //=== collection will be passed.                         ===//
    StringCollection parts = new StringCollection();

    //=== Dictionary mapping the schema to the namespace and type ===//
    //=== as displayed in the properties window for the *.xsd     ===//
    Dictionary<string, string> schemas = new Dictionary<string, string>();
    string SchemaFile = @".\..\..\..\PO.xsd";
    Assert.IsTrue(File.Exists(SchemaFile));
    schemas.Add("Microsoft.Samples.BizTalk.FlatFileReceive.PO", SchemaFile);

    //=== Test the execution of the pipeline using the inputs ===//
    target.TestPipeline(documents, parts, schemas);

    //=== Validate that the pipeline test produced the message ===//
    //=== which conforms to the schema.                        ===//
    string[] strMessages = Directory.GetFiles(testContextInstance.TestDir + "\\out","Message*.out");
    Assert.IsTrue(strMessages.Length > 0);
    PO PO_target = new PO();
    foreach(string outFile in strMessages)
    {
      Assert.IsTrue(PO_target.ValidateInstance(outFile,Microsoft.BizTalk.TestTools.Schema.OutputInstanceType.XML));
    }
}

Building and Running the Unit Test

To build and run the unit test

In Solution Explorer, right-click TestProject1, and then click Build.
On the main menu, click Test, and then in the Windows list, click Test View.
In the Test View window, right-click FFReceivePipelineUnitTest, and then click Run Selection. Verify that you see Passed in the Test Results window.

In the TestResults directory examine the *.out file. This file should contain the new message processed by the pipeline. It should be located in a directory similar to the following:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft BizTalk Server <version>\SDK\Samples\Pipelines\AssemblerDisassembler\FlatFileReceive\TestResults\Wes_BTS2009Svr 2009-02-04 09_01_04\Out

The processed message should look similar to the following:

<purchaseOrder orderDate="1999-10-20" xmlns="http://FlatFileReceive.PO">

  <shipTo country="US" xmlns="">
    <name>Alice Smith</name>
    <street>123 Maple Street</street>
    <city>Mill Valley</city>
    <state>CA</state>
    <zip>90952</zip>
  </shipTo>

  <billTo country="US" xmlns="">
    <name>Robert Smith</name>
    <street>8 Oak Avenue</street>
    <city>Old Town</city>
    <state>PA</state>
    <zip>95819</zip>
  </billTo>

  <comment>Hurry, my lawn is going wild!</comment>

  <items xmlns="">

    <item partNum="872-AA">
      <productName>Lawnmower</productName>
      <quantity>1</quantity>
      <USPrice>148.95</USPrice>
      <comment xmlns="http://FlatFileReceive.PO">Confirm this is electric</comment>
    </item>

    <item partNum="926-AA">
      <productName>Baby Monitor</productName>
      <quantity>1</quantity>
      <USPrice>39.98</USPrice>
      <comment xmlns="http://FlatFileReceive.PO">Confirm this is electric</comment>
      <shipDate>1999-05-21</shipDate>
    </item>

  </items>

</purchaseOrder>

If any test fails you can double-click the test in the Test Results window to see the assert or exception that caused that test failure.

Test Code Summary

When unit testing was enabled for the FlatFileReceive project, the FFReceivePipeline C# class associated with FFReceivePipeline.btp was derived from the Microsoft.BizTalk.TestTools.Pipeline.TestableReceivePipeline class. The FFReceivePipelineUnitTest method in TestProject1 used the TestPipeline method that FFReceivePipeline inherited to test the flat file receive pipeline. After the pipeline processed the message, the output message was validated against the flat file schema. The parameters for the TestPipeline method are as follows:

Parameter Name	Description
Documents	StringCollection containing messages to be processed by the pipeline.
Parts	StringCollection containing the parts for the messages.
Schemas	Dictionary mapping used to map each message type to its corresponding .xsd schema file. The key must be in the format Namespace.Type. The namespace and type used should be noted from the properties window for the .xsd file in Visual Studio. See the screenshot below. Namespace and type exposed from the properties window of an XSD file.