Mocking async DbContext functions with input parameter with C#/Moq Framework

Question

I have made a Mock of DbContext and populated with test data. DbSet is a protected class so the result cannot be mocked, so I found an extension method.

    public static class DbSetMocking
    {

    private static Mock<DbSet<T>> CreateMockSet<T>(IQueryable<T> data)
            where T : class
    {
        var queryableData = data.AsQueryable();
        var mockSet = new Mock<DbSet<T>>();

        mockSet.As<IQueryable<T>>().Setup(m => m.Provider)
                .Returns(queryableData.Provider);
        mockSet.As<IQueryable<T>>().Setup(m => m.Expression)
                .Returns(queryableData.Expression);
        mockSet.As<IQueryable<T>>().Setup(m => m.ElementType)
                .Returns(queryableData.ElementType);
        mockSet.As<IQueryable<T>>().Setup(m => m.GetEnumerator())
                .Returns(queryableData.GetEnumerator());

      return mockSet;
    }

    public static IReturnsResult<TContext> ReturnsDbSet<TEntity, TContext>(this IReturns<TContext, DbSet<TEntity>> setup, TEntity[] entities)
        where TEntity : class
        where TContext : DbContext
    {
        var mockSet = CreateMockSet(entities.AsQueryable());
        return setup.Returns(mockSet.Object);
    }

    public static IReturnsResult<TContext> ReturnsDbSet<TEntity, TContext>(this IReturns<TContext, DbSet<TEntity>> setup, IQueryable<TEntity> entities)
        where TEntity : class
        where TContext : DbContext
    {
        var mockSet = CreateMockSet(entities);
        return setup.Returns(mockSet.Object);
    }

    public static IReturnsResult<TContext> ReturnsDbSet<TEntity, TContext>(this IReturns<TContext, DbSet<TEntity>> setup, IEnumerable<TEntity> entities)
        where TEntity : class
        where TContext : DbContext
    {
        var mockSet = CreateMockSet(entities.AsQueryable());
        return setup.Returns(mockSet.Object);
    }
}

To create a Mock of DbContext:

var db = new Mock<DbContext>();

//Populate
this.db.Setup(x => x.MyObjects).ReturnsDbSet(
  new List<MyObject>
  {
     new MyObject{Id=1, Description="Test"},                   
  }
 );

Second, I am trying to extend the Mocks to include Find(id) and FindAsync(id) methods. Theese methods are being place in the DbSetMocking class. Find method works fine:

 mockSet.Setup(m => m.Find(It.IsAny<object[]>()))
      .Returns<object[]>(id => StaticMethodtoFindStuff<T>(queryableData,   id));

However, I cannot get the FindAsync method to work. This is what I have tried so far:

mockSet.Setup(m => m.FindAsync(It.IsAny<object[]>()))
   .Returns(Task.FromResult(StaticMethodtoFindStuff<T>(queryableData, 1)));

This one works, but then I dont have access to the parameter set by the function. Tried this one, compiling works fine, but it fails on execution with the error msg:

Object of type 'System.Object[]' cannot be converted to type 'System.Threading.Tasks.Task`1[System.Object[]]'.

mockSet.Setup(m => m.FindAsync(It.IsAny<object[]>()))
    .Returns<Task<object[]>>(d =>
     {
        return Task.FromResult(StaticMethodtoFindStuff<T>(queryableData, d));
     });

Anybody have a clue how I can implement this function?

Answer 1

Try changing this line:

mockSet.Setup(m => m.FindAsync(It.IsAny<object[]>()))
    .Returns<Task<object[]>>(d =>
     {
        return Task.FromResult(StaticMethodtoFindStuff<T>(queryableData, d));
     });

to:

mockSet.Setup(m => m.FindAsync(It.IsAny<object[]>()))
    .Returns<object[]>(d =>
     {
        return Task.FromResult(StaticMethodtoFindStuff<T>(queryableData, d));
     });

The thing here is, generic argument T for .Returns<T> is not the type of result, but instead, that's the type of first parameter, passed inside function in .Setup method -- for your it's object[].

Check Moq source code for more info:

https://github.com/moq/moq4/blob/b2cf2d303ea6644fda2eaf10bad43c88c05b395f/Source/Language/IReturns.Generated.cs

Here's a quote from the sources, check T1 and T2 parameter commentaries:

/// <summary>
/// Specifies a function that will calculate the value to return from the method, 
/// retrieving the arguments for the invocation.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T1">The type of the first argument of the invoked method.</typeparam>
/// <typeparam name="T2">The type of the second argument of the invoked method.</typeparam>
/// <param name="valueFunction">The function that will calculate the return value.</param>
/// <return>Returns a calculated value which is evaluated lazily at the time of the invocation.</return>
/// <example>
/// <para>
/// The return value is calculated from the value of the actual method invocation arguments. 
/// Notice how the arguments are retrieved by simply declaring them as part of the lambda 
/// expression:
/// </para>
/// <code>
/// mock.Setup(x => x.Execute(
///                      It.IsAny<int>(), 
///                      It.IsAny<int>()))
///     .Returns((int arg1, int arg2) => arg1 + arg2); //I fixed that line, it's different in the documentation and is incorrect
/// </code>
/// </example>
IReturnsResult<TMock> Returns<T1, T2>(Func<T1, T2, TResult> valueFunction);

You can also see, that it defines multiple overloads of Returns with variable number of generic parameters, so that you could mock a method with up to 16 parameters.

Answer 2

Finally got it figured out. Turned out that I was missing an 'async' keyword there. Code is:

        mockSet.Setup(m => m.FindAsync(It.IsAny<object[]>()))
            .Returns<object[]>(async (d) =>
            {
                return await Task.FromResult(StaticMethodtoFindStuff<T>(queryableData, d));
            });