xUnit Check if method returns true

Question

I have a method that serialises a Json object shown below:

public bool SerializeObject<T>(string fileName, IEnumerable<T> list)
    {
        try
        {
            var listContent = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list, Formatting.Indented);
            var relativeFileName = _httpContext.Server.MapPath(fileName);

            _file.WriteAllText(relativeFileName, listContent);

            return true;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            _logger.LogException(ex);
            return false;
        }
    }

I want to create a unit test to test if the method returns true but cannot think of the logic to do this for a unit test! can anyone make some suggestions to how I do this in xUnit? Thanks

Answer 1

[Fact]
public void SerializeObject_CorrectData_ReturnsTrue()
{
   //arrange
   string fileName = "blah.txt";
   var collect = new List<MyObject>{//add stuff};
   //act
   //nothing here
   //assert
   Assert.True(SerializeObject<MyObject>(fileName, collect));
}

This is basically what you are looking for. You will want to read about mocking to make sure you are correctly isolating your tests to simple units; instead of testing system components. You should not unit test your method, webserver, and logger at the same time, that will lead to a bad experience and unmaintainable test.

If you are a book person, I highly recommend Osherove's The Art of Unit Testing, it is a very quick book and has proven invaluable to me.