How to display an It approval statement in MSpec

Question

We use MSpec for unit tests after MbUnit was previously used.

I'm used to what I can say

Assert.IsTrue(status, "Status should be true"); 

in MbUnit, that is, adding a message to the statement that is displayed if it fails.

I can not find the corresponding functionality in MSpec. I am testing some XML validations and, if that fails, I want to report a validation error message. So my MSpec code looks like

 string message; bool isValid = ValidateXml(myXml, out message); isValid.ShouldBeTrue(); 

But I want to be able to add message to the test output if ShouldBeTrue() fails.

Is it possible?

Answer 1

Looking at the source for MSpec, no. Extension methods do not accept the string parameter for the message.

You can trivially add functionality yourself, in terms of code for writing; the code is in machine.specifications / Source / Machine.Specifications / ExtensionMethods.cs . I do not know how difficult it is to do it.

For example, you can create Overloads ShouldBeFalse and ShouldBeTrue as follows:

 [AssertionMethod] public static void ShouldBeFalse([AssertionCondition(AssertionConditionType.IS_FALSE)] this bool condition, string message) { if (condition) throw new SpecificationException(message); } [AssertionMethod] public static void ShouldBeTrue([AssertionCondition(AssertionConditionType.IS_TRUE)] this bool condition, string message) { if (!condition) throw new SpecificationException(message); } 

Answer 2

There is currently no infrastructure for this, but, like Matt, I would suggest implementing my own “reports” on the version of the built-in MSpec claims library (possibly in the <Product>.ForTesting class library).

In all other cases, the It field indicates what should be observable, hence the missing message parameter.