Say I have a simple common interface in my library IFoo:
interface IFoo { void doSomething(); }

With multiple subclasses Foo1, Foo2, …, FooN all implementing IFoo differently.
My current approach is to write a single base class Test written against IFoo, and then a test subclass for each implementation of IFoo, which creates an instance of the appropriate type in SetUp.

This works fine, and reworking with AOP would probably be straightforward but might not buy me a great deal.

However, I’ve been asked to support the ability to run from the IDE by right-clicking on a single test function and selecting “Run Test(s)” which I believe is part of the NUnit IDE extension functionality.

Currently this doesn’t work because the only class containing the test function definitions is abstract. I’m having trouble envisaging a way to provide the user with something to click on to run a single invocation of the Test (there are other test framework GUIs but that’s not deemed acceptable).

Do you have any insight on how to make this kind of behavior available ? I was thinking of using AOP and using test subclasses to imply advice, but this still won’t give the user something to click on so now that I’ve written it down, I’m thinking it’s a bit unachievable. Still, I’d be happy for input and this article is in that area.

— begin metapher mode –

It’s almost like having to choose for home security between my best friend or Jack Bauer. Certainly Jack Bauer is the more trained and specialized person for securing my home place than my best friend could ever be but I happen to know my best friend better than Jack Bauer and therefore I have more trust in him

— end metapher mode –

Have a nice day

One problem I have with AOP in general is that the application of an aspect occurs outside the function’s definition. That has always made it hard for developers new to some code to know where to look.

I’m sure one day I’ll find an example of AOP being put to good use beyond the ubiquitous logging example. If anyone knows of such an example please do point me to it.

With the delegate method I might even like to pull that all out in to a method which reads something like RunTestsWithLogging(). Leaving the test methods themselves less noisy.

Thanks for the post, think I’ll go look in to some AOP now!

Nice, man.