Whether you're using Team System Test or NUnit, the best practice is to create a separate Class Library for your tests. Simply adding an App.config to your Test project will automatically get copied to your bin folder when you compile.
If your code is reliant on specific configuration tests, the very first test I would write validates that the configuration file is available (so that I know I'm not insane)
:
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add name="TestValue" value="true" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>
And the test:
[TestFixture]
public class GeneralFixture
{
[Test]
public void VerifyAppDomainHasConfigurationSettings()
{
string value = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["TestValue];
Assert.IsFalse(String.IsNullOrEmpty(value), "No App.Config found.");
}
}
Ideally, you should be writing code such that your configuration objects are passed into your classes. This not only separates you from the configuration file issue, but it also allows you to write tests for different configuration scenarios.
public class MyObject
{
public void Configure(MyConfigurationObject config)
{
_enabled = config.Enabled;
}
public string Foo()
{
if (_enabled)
{
return "foo!";
}
return String.Empty;
}
private bool _enabled;
}
[TestFixture]
public class MyObjectTestFixture
{
[Test]
public void CanInitializeWithProperConfig()
{
MyConfigurationObject config = new MyConfigurationObject();
config.Enabled = true;
MyObject myObj = new MyObject();
myObj.Configure(config);
Assert.AreEqual("foo!", myObj.Foo());
}
}