Testing a method that sends e-mail without sending the mail

Posted by SnOrfus on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by SnOrfus
Published on 2010-05-12T19:52:06Z Indexed on 2010/05/12 19:54 UTC
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I have a method like

public abstract class Base
{
    public void MethodUnderTest();
}

public class ClassUnderTest : Base
{
    public override MethodUnderTest()
    {
        if(condition)
        {
            IMail mail = new Mail() { /* ... */ };
            IMailer mailer = new Mailer() { /* ... */ }

            mailer.Send(mail);
        }
        else
        {
            /* ... */
        }
    }
}

I have unit tests for this method, and the mail gets sent to myself, so it's not terrible (better than no test) but I'd prefer not to send the mail.

  • The problem I have is that I don't want test specific code in the class (ie. if (testMode) return; instead of sending the mail)
  • I don't know lots about DI, but I considered passing a mock IMailer into MethodUnderTest except that it overrides the base class, and no other class that derives from Base needs an IMailer object (I don't want to force implementers of Base to take an unnecessary IMailer in MethodUnderTest)

What else can I do?

(note: IMail and IMailer are part of an external library for sending e-mail. It's written in house, so I can modify it all I like if necessary, though I can't see a need to in this situation)

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