XAF - How to Unit Test Controllers, Actions, and Business Logic (EF Core)

This example creates unit tests for an Entity Framework Core ORM-powered XAF application. The solution illustrates best practices for testing XAF Controllers, Actions, business object behavior, and security-related usage scenarios via xUnit and Moq.

Implementation Details

The E2E test project addresses the following testing patterns:

Test Class	What It Tests
ActionsInViewTests	The test checks action enable and disable behavior based on TargetObjectsCriteria and SelectionDependencyType in Detail and List Views.
SetTaskActionExecuteTest	The test runs a SingleChoiceAction and updates properties on selected objects.
SetTaskActionStateTest	The test evaluates action state based on security permissions through ISecurityStrategyBase.
FindBySubjectActionExecuteTest	The test runs a ParametrizedAction that finds and displays an object by criteria.
CreateLinkedSaleBaseDescendantControllerTest	The test verifies event subscription and copies properties from parent objects to child objects in nested frames.
CaptionHelperTests	The test sets up CaptionHelper localization through ModelApplication and ExpressApplicationSetupParameters.

Testing Actions in Views (Mocking Approach)

The tests mock IObjectSpace, XafApplication, Frame, and View objects (DetailView/ListView) to evaluate action behavior without running the full application. Key mocking patterns include:

• Mocking IObjectSpace and its LINQ query methods for object retrieval.
• Creating DetailView/ListView instances with mocked CollectionSource and ListEditor.
• Setting up Frame objects to activate controllers and register actions.
• Verifying CommitChanges() is called after action execution.

Testing Security-Dependent Logic

SetTaskActionStateTest demonstrates how to mock ISecurityStrategyBase to simulate granted or denied field-level permissions and verify that action state reflects the current user's access rights.

Testing Event Subscriptions

CreateLinkedSaleBaseDescendantControllerTest uses reflection to verify that a controller correctly subscribes to the NewObjectViewController.ObjectCreated event.

Files to Review

• ActionsInViewTests.cs
• SetTaskActionExecuteTest.cs
• SetTaskActionStateTest.cs
• FindBySubjectActionExecuteTest.cs
• CreateLinkedSaleBaseDescendantControllerTest.cs
• CaptionHelperTests.cs

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