I have a xUnit.net Test as follows:
static class MyTestClass
{
[Fact]
static void MyTestMethod()
{
}
}
The xUnit plugin for VS 2012 says:
No tests found to run.
TestDriven.net runs it fine but mentions something about Ad hoc:
1 passed, 0 failed, 0 skipped (see 'Task List'), took 0.47 seconds (Ad hoc)
TeamCity, xunit.gui.exe
and xunit.console.exe
and Visual Studio also can't find TestMethod
(I've got xunit.runner.visualstudio
installed and VS is seeing some tests.)
What gives?
Best Answer
TL;DR your Test Classes must be
public
(but your Test Methods can beprivate
and/orstatic
)For reasons of efficiency, the xUnit authors have opted to not use
BindingFlags.NonPublic
when searching for Test Classes in the runner (the MSIL metadata tables don't indexprivate
(/internal
) classes to the same degree hence there is a significant performance difference in the relative efficiency that Reflection can thus achieve).As a result of the above, the fact that your
class
isprivate
means it doesn't get picked up.The fact that the Test Method is
private
andstatic
is fine - xUnit by design since 1.0 has supported both those aspects.Note that the Visual Studio xUnit Runner extension,
xunit.console.exe
(and the GUI), thexunit
MSBuild task, Resharper and CodeRush are all consistent in honouring this (although arguably they [especially the latter two] could do more to flag when a Test Class (i.e. class [potentially indirectly] containingFact
-derived annoations) isprivate
).The reason TestDriven.net runs your test is that the Author of TestDriven.net has put great effort into making it Just Work. It internally uses a special Test Runner wrapper/shim (termed the Adhoc Runner) to run your test. Be aware that the method is actually not being run via the xUnit.net runner and hence any attributes you put on your test that have side effects will not be triggered.
Notably NUnit (and I'm pretty sure MSTest) do use private reflection [and hence pick up tests in
private
classes] which is probably why it never seemed an important thing for you to worry about before.Note: A side effect / trick enabled by this is that you can make a Test Class
private
as a quick way ofSkip
ping all tests in a Test Class [and any nested classes]. (Sadly the cases on this planet of this being used unintentionally vastly outnumber the intentional cases of this though!)