Question

I have made a generic databuilder for unit test, because I got tired of implementing constructors and Build methods again and again. Does this obscure the beauty of the pattern (that I really DO love)?

Here is my generic builder (built in C# with Moq):

public class GenericMockBuilder<T> where T: class
{
    private readonly Mock<T> _objectMock = new Mock<T>(); 

    protected Mock<T> ObjectMock
    {
        get { return _objectMock; }
    }

    public T Build()
    {
        return _objectMock.Object; 
    }
}

And here is an example interface and its concrete builder that inherrits the generic one:

public interface IFoo
{
    int Bar();
}

public class FooBuilder: GenericMockBuilder<IFoo>
{
    public FooBuilder WithBar(int barValue)
    {
        base.ObjectMock.Setup(x => x.Bar()).Returns(barValue);
        return this;
    }

}

The builder will construct a foo mock like this:

        IFoo fooMock = new FooBuilder().WithBar(12).Build();

I would love to hear oppinions and suggestions for improvement.

EDIT (Eventraising example added):

public class FooBuilderWithEvent: GenericMockBuilder<IFoo>
{

    public FooBuilderWithEvent RaiseEvent(FooEventArgs fooEventArgs)
    {
        base.ObjectMock.Raise(m => m.FooEvent += null, fooEventArgs); 
        return this; 
    }

}

Building Mock and raising event would look like this:

        FooBuilderWithEvent fooBuilderWithEvent = new FooBuilderWithEvent(); 
        IFoo fooMock = fooBuilderWithEvent.Build();

        //Create testobject and prepare for event here

        fooBuilderWithEvent.RaiseEvent(new FooEventArgs()); 

Answer 1

pros

• Nice domain-specific fluent interface

cons

• Another interface, which nobody familiar with (me, and I think many other developers do not see anything complex on mock setup with standard fluent interface of Moq)
• Creating builder class for each mocked interface (yes, you can create builders only for complex mocks, but using of two different mocking interfaces could confuse developers)
• Creating setup method for each mocked member

Don’t know why you are asking for Moq sample, because you already have all this code inside builder:

var mock = new Mock<IFoo>();
mock.Setup(foo => foo.Bar()).Returns(42);

If lambdas and mock.Object calls are confusing to you, try RhinoMocks:

Exect.Call(foo.Bar()).Return(42);

Also I have a question – how are you going to raise events with only mocked object instance?