My blog has moved to:
  http://www.pksoftware.net/devblog/

This post now at:
  http://www.pksoftware.net/devblog/post/2007/02/Getting-Started-With-NUnitForms-GUI-Testing-With-Message-Boxes.aspx

 

A sequel to the entry on "Getting Started with NUnitForms"
  http://www.pksoftware.net/blog/2007/02/06/Getting+Started+With+NUnitForms.aspx
This post is focused on handling the testing of message boxes in an application.

Another common test requirement that you will probably come across in the GUI world is the use of message boxes. To handle a message box with NUnitForms (i.e. simulate a user click or similar), use a "message box handler" method. Firstly set up the test to "expect" a message box and then supply the name of the method to handle the reaction:

[Test]
public void MessageBoxTest()
{
   base.ExpectModal("Info", "MessageBoxTestHandler");
  ButtonTester runButton = new ButtonTester("RunButton");
  runButton.Click();
}

This tells the test sub-system that a message box is expected and the title should be "Info". Also supplied is the name of a handling method - in this case "MessageBoxTestHandler". This method should create a "MessageBoxTester" and (most likely) click the OK button:

public void MessageBoxTestHandler()
{
  MessageBoxTester messageBox = new MessageBoxTester("No Item Selected");
  messageBox.ClickOk();
}

Other useful methods of the MessageBoxTester class are "ClickCancel" and "SendCommand(cmd)" where "cmd" is an enum value of type MessageBoxTester.Command:

• OK
• Cancel
• Abort
• Retry
• Ignore
• Yes
• No
• Close
• Help

For example:

public void MessageBoxTestHandler()
{
  MessageBoxTester messageBox = new MessageBoxTester("Cancel, are you sure?");
  messageBox.SendCommand(Command.Yes);
}

A practical application of this could be tests where for example if search criteria is not supplied a "no criteria" message box is displayed. Boundary checks in methods are common places for bugs to occur so make sure you perform the same boundary check on the GUI layer!