Capturing Human Intelligence - ApprovalTests is an open source assertion/verification library to aid unit testing.

It is compatible with most .Net unit testing frameworks (Nunit, MsTest, Xunit, MBUnit)

Approval Tests can be used for verifying objects that require more than a simple assert. They also come prepackaged with utilities for some common .Net scenarios including

• Dictionaries & Collections
• Long Strings
• Log Files
• Asp.Net
• Asp.Net Mvc
• Winforms
• Wpf
• Entity Framework
• Rdlc reports

You can watch a bunch of short videos on getting started and using ApprovalTests in .Net at YouTube

If you prefer auditory learning, you might enjoy the following podcast

• [Hanselminutes] (http://www.hanselminutes.com/360/approval-tests-with-llewellyn-falco)
• Herding Code
• The Watir Podcast

Install-Package ApprovalTests

Nightly (CI) Builds available at myget.org:

ApprovalTests on the MyGet Gallery

Sample Code

[UseReporter(typeof(DiffReporter))]
[TestFixture]
public class SampleTest
{
	[Test]
	public void TestList()
	{
		var names = new[] {"Llewellyn", "James", "Dan", "Jason", "Katrina"};
		Array.Sort(names);
		Approvals.VerifyAll(names, "");
	}
}

Will Produce a File

SampleTest.TestList.received.txt
[0] = Dan
[1] = James
[2] = Jason
[3] = Katrina
[4] = Llewellyn

Simply rename this to SampleTest.TestList.approved.txt and the test will now pass.

The *.approved.* files must be checked into source your source control. This can be an issue with git as it will change the line endings. The suggested fix is to add *.approved.* binary to your .gitattributes

Do not add *.received.* files to your source control (they are transitory, and some SCMs like TFS will lock them or mark them read-only, which will break every dependent test).

• Website
• Blog
• Getting Started Doc

Apache 2.0 License

ask on twitter: @LlewellynFalco or #ApprovalTests