Unit testing controller that returns ContentResult list object

Question

I am setting up a unit test and having trouble. I've seen the hello world examples, however my return type is more complex.

My controller is returning a list of objects. I am getting back an object with an array of objects as below:

Public Class ItemClass
{
    public int Id,
    public string Name
}

Public ContentResult GetItems(string criteria){
  .
  .
  .
  // List<ItemClass> myItemClass (this will containa list of several ItemClass)
  // ItemInfo myItemInfo (this will contain a single object similar to the return data I have outlined below)
  var model = new { ItemsList = myItemList, ItemInfo = myItemInfo}
  return Content( [here i convert my `model` to json data]);
};


.
.
.

//TestMethod starts here:


//setup code

//act
var result = controller.GetList(criteria)

//assert
    //this is where I'm having trouble

// result.content looks like this:  "{"\"itemList\":[{\"id\":1,\"name\":\"Item 1 Name\"},{\"id\":2,\"name\":\"Item 2 Name\"}],"listInfo":{"info1":1,"info2":"bla"}}"

How can I deserialize result.content into an list of type ItemClass so that I can do assertions against it? For example, I would like to assert that the result is not null, that there is a count of 2 items in the result and I would also want to test the existence of specific ids in the result. If there is a better way to do this type of test I'm open to suggestions.

Answer 1

I have tried the code. Looks like you have wrapped two different types inside a parent class. Please use the Parent type in the Deserialize method. Please refer to the code and image below. Many thanks.

using Newtonsoft.Json;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace ConsoleApp1
{
    class ItemClass
    {
        public int Id;
        public string Name;
    }

    class ListInfo
    {
        public int Info1 { get; set; }
        public string Info2 { get; set; }
    }

    class ItemCol
    {
        public List<ItemClass> ItemList { get; set; }
        public ListInfo ListInfo { get; set; }
    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var output = "{\"itemList\":[{\"id\":1,\"name\":\"Item 1 Name\"},{\"id\":2,\"name\":\"Item 2 Name\"}], \"listInfo\": {\"info1\":1,\"info2\":\"bla\"}}";
            var results = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ItemCol>(output);
            Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
        }
    }
}

Code Output in Visual Studio