Question

I have the following test method:

[TestMethod]
public void TestHarvestMethod()
{
    HarvestTargetTimeRangeUTC time = new HarvestTargetTimeRangeUTC();
    time.StartTimeUTC = new DateTime(2008, 01, 01, 00, 00, 00, DateTimeKind.Utc);
    time.EndTimeUTC = DateTime.UtcNow;
    XElement lIntelexReport = XElement.Parse(rawXml);
    Harvester target = new Harvester();
    target.ConfigureHarvester((System.Configuration.Configuration)null);  
    var res = target.Harvest(time);
    Console.WriteLine(res);
 }

That works in conjunction with this method:

public void ConfigureHarvester(System.Configuration.Configuration configuration)
{
    reportId = Int32.Parse(configuration.AppSettings.Settings["IncidentReport"].Value);
}

to test this method:

public XElement Harvest(HarvestTargetTimeRangeUTC ranges)
{
    XElement lIntelexReport = IntelexServiceCall();  
    return XMLConversion(QueryData(ranges, lIntelexReport));
}

The problem is that I receive Null Exception error stating that “Object reference not set to an instance of an object.” on this line:

reportId = Int32.Parse(configuration.AppSettings.Settings["IncidentReport"].Value);

which I am almost positive is caused by the null value here:

target.ConfigureHarvester((System.Configuration.Configuration)null);

The System.Configuration in the above line is one used commonly in this shop, but normally for a method such as this:

public void ConfigureHarvester(System.Configuration.Configuration configuration)
{
    context = new PlannedOutageFactorDataContext();            
}

So my reportid field is obviously looking for something other than a null value, the problem is I don’t know exactly WHAT it’s looking for. Ive read the MSDN for System.Configuration but it was really no help. I would appreciate it if some one could point me in the right direction.

Answer 1

Its looking for you to pass it a copy of your web.config or app.config value so it can extract the information it requires from this (held in the AppSettings section)

For example

<configuration>
    <appSettings>
        <add key="IncidentReport" value="1" />
    </appSettings> 
</configuration>

If your testing a webpage, a lot of the time you need to set the location of the webservice so that it can grab a copy of the web.config from your website.

If your developing a console/desktop app then make sure you have an app.config file

Alternativly you can manually pass it in using

System.Configuration.Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(exePath);