Getting null in HttpSessionStateBase c# unit test

Question

While running my unit test method, I am getting null values in instance of HttpSessionStateBase. I have mocked the httpcontext like this

var httpRequest = new HttpRequest("", "http://localhost/", "");
var stringWriter = new StringWriter();
var httpResponse = new HttpResponse(stringWriter);
var httpContext = new HttpContext(httpRequest, httpResponse);
var sessionContainer = new HttpSessionStateContainer("id", 
                                                     new SessionStateItemCollection(),
                                                     new HttpStaticObjectsCollection(), 
                                                     10, 
                                                     true,
                                                     HttpCookieMode.AutoDetect,
                                                     SessionStateMode.InProc, 
                                                     false);

SessionStateUtility.AddHttpSessionStateToContext(httpContext, sessionContainer);

Please suggest some ideas to get some dummy values in HttpSessionStateBase

Answer 1

Let's suppose that you have the following controller action that you need to unit test:

public class AccountController: Controller
{
    public ActionResult Login(Customer obj)
    {
        Session.Clear();
        return View();
    }
}

and here's a sample wire-up:

// arrange
var httpRequest = new HttpRequest("", "http://localhost/", "");
var stringWriter = new StringWriter();
var httpResponse = new HttpResponse(stringWriter);
var httpContext = new HttpContext(httpRequest, httpResponse);
var sessionContainer = new HttpSessionStateContainer(
    "id",
    new SessionStateItemCollection(),
    new HttpStaticObjectsCollection(),
    10,
    true,
    HttpCookieMode.AutoDetect,
    SessionStateMode.InProc,
    false);
SessionStateUtility.AddHttpSessionStateToContext(httpContext, sessionContainer);

var controller = new AccountController();
var requestContext = new RequestContext(new HttpContextWrapper(httpContext), new RouteData());
controller.ControllerContext = new ControllerContext(requestContext, controller);

// act
var actual = controller.Login(new Customer());

// assert
...

Notice that you need to populate the controller.ControllerContext property before calling the actions.