What is Mocks Record and Playback?

Question

Hi I have a mock as below:

        MockRepository mocks = new MockRepository();
        ILoanRepository loanRepo = mocks.StrictMock<ILoanRepository>();
        SetupResult.For(loanRepo.GetLoanExtended("sdfsdf")).Return(list.AsEnumerable<Loan>());
        mocks.ReplayAll();

My question is I have seen the above being use in using statements e.g

 using (mocks.Record()) { // code here }
 using (mocks.Playback()) { // code here }

What is the purpose of this and difference to what I've done?

Answer 1

The Record block is used to record expectations, so what comes before the ReplayAll.

The Playback block is actually calling the test, so what comes after the ReplayAll.

You can read more about it here: link text

Answer 2

These are just another syntax to do the same thing. The following are equivalent:

MockRepository mocks = new MockRepository();
ILoanRepository loanRepo = mocks.StrictMock<ILoanRepository>();
SetupResult.For(loanRepo.GetLoanExtended("sdfsdf")).Return(list.AsEnumerable<Loan>());
mocks.ReplayAll();
//test execution

and:

MockRepository mocks = new MockRepository();
using (mocks.Record()) {
    ILoanRepository loanRepo = mocks.StrictMock<ILoanRepository>();
    SetupResult.For(loanRepo.GetLoanExtended("sdfsdf")).Return(list.AsEnumerable<Loan>());
}
using (mocks.Playback()) {
    //test execution
}

To make things even more complicated there is a new, third syntax where you don't have explicit record and playback phases called Arrange, Act, Assert Syntax, see e.g. http://ayende.com/blog/archive/2008/05/16/rhino-mocks--arrange-act-assert-syntax.aspx