Concrete Example - Mocking .NET Objects w/NUnit

Geoff Lane does a very good job of explaining .NET Mock objects.

People were requesting a "concrete" example so I implemented an example C# console application (although this can easily be made into an ASP.NET web application).

Geoff hints to using Spring .NET to wire things up, but that might be too confusing for some people. And maybe a little over board for a simple example (open closed principle).

So instead I created a PersonServiceManager that creates a "concrete" PersonService via IPersonRepository injection. The GUI communicates to the PersonServiceManager through an IPersonService interface.

Instead of "mocking" an IPersonRepository, we are actually implementing it then injecting it into PersonService (just like our NUnit test). The PersonServiceManager handles passing the appropriate database connection string down to the data layer. In my example, the data layer object PersonDb (which implements IPersonRepository and used for injection) utilizes the DbProviderFactory.

Here is the sample source.

Also remember that the sample source could be broken down into separate assemblies in a real world project.

Side by Side - IE8, IE6, IE5.5, IE5, IE4.01, & IE3

Running IE8 on your computer? The included developer tools are great. Need to switch to IE7 mode? No problem using IE8.

But what about IE6, IE5.5, IE5, IE4.01, and IE3? Here is a free multiple installer you can use. And it works! And I performed a virus scan (before and after the install)... no problems detected.

Unfortunately, a couple of my JQuery sites look weird with IE6. I know I know, its not JQuery... rather its the IE6 CSS quirks (among other things... standards compliance... cough... cough...).

http://tredosoft.com/Multiple_IE

Example mySql IsDate Function

Here is an example mySql IsDate function using a regular expression:

CREATE DEFINER=`root`@`localhost` FUNCTION `IsDate`(var varchar(25)) RETURNS tinyint(4)
DETERMINISTIC
BEGIN
/* 05/17/2009, 5/01/2009, 5/1/2009 */

declare result tinyint;

select trim(var)

REGEXP '^([1-9]|0[1-9]|1[012])/([1-9]|0[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])/(19|20)[0-9][0-9]'

into @result;

return @result;
END

MySql Connector .NET MySqlBulkLoader Example

Here is a MySqlBulkLoader example I quickly wrote to import 65,000 records into a mySql 5.1 database using the mySql Connector 5.2.5. And yes, its fast as snot (the lead programmer at my first programming job out of college invented the term).

.NET Reflector helped me figure out the follow details:

- the default FieldTerminator is "\t"
- the default LineTerminator is "\n"
- the default FieldQuotationCharacter is '\0'
- the .Load() method both opens and closes the connection

Also, the mySql documentation obviously helped to explain a lot including the "\r\n" Win32 line terminator in my example (I used Excel to export the CSV). The database user in this example needs "insert" permission.

Download the VB.NET, Sql, and CSV files here.

Unit Testing ASP.NET App_Code

I learn something new every day. Today, its the ability to Unit Test code in the App_Code folder using Visual Studio 2008 Professional.

Most of the ASP.NET projects that I work on have their business logic contained in a separate assembly. However, a recent smaller project has some business classes residing in the App_Code directory.

Tip: Just make sure you watch your dynamic port assignments.