OrchardCore Unit & Integration Testing

This skill guides you through writing and running OrchardCore tests following project conventions.

OrchardCore uses xUnit v3 (Microsoft Testing Platform — test projects are Exe). Tests live under test/:

Project	Kind
OrchardCore.Tests	unit + in-process integration (main)
OrchardCore.Abstractions.Tests	pure unit tests for core abstractions
OrchardCore.Tests.Integration	external-service integration (S3, etc.)
OrchardCore.Tests.Functional	Playwright browser automation
OrchardCore.Benchmarks	BenchmarkDotNet (not xUnit)

Decide the test type

Testing…	Type	Harness
Pure logic, a single class	unit	plain xUnit + Moq
A driver/service needing DI	unit	build a small ServiceCollection
Content APIs, recipes, tenant behavior	integration	SiteContext
Admin/front-end through a browser	functional	OrchardTestFixture + Playwright

Workflow A: unit test

Step 1: Add a test class

Naming: {Subject}Tests; methods {Action}_{Condition}_{ExpectedResult}, for example Write_WithinLimit_Succeeds.

namespace OrchardCore.Json.Nodes.Test;

public class Base64Tests
{
    [Theory]
    [InlineData("YTw+OmE/", "a<>:a?")]
    [InlineData("SGVsbA==", "Hell")]
    public void DecodeToString_ValidBase64_ReturnsDecodedString(string source, string expected)
    {
        Assert.Equal(expected, Base64.FromUTF8Base64String(source));
    }
}

Use [Fact] for single cases, [Theory] + [InlineData]/[MemberData] for parameterized. Assertions are xUnit Assert.* (no Shouldly in this repo).

Step 2: Mock dependencies with Moq

using Moq;

// Quick stub:
var clock = Mock.Of<IClock>(c => c.UtcNow == DateTime.UtcNow);

// With setup/verify:
var shellHost = new Mock<IShellHost>();
shellHost.Setup(h => h.GetScopeAsync(It.IsAny<string>())).ReturnsAsync(scope);
// ...
shellHost.Verify(h => h.GetScopeAsync("Default"), Times.Once);

Build a service provider when the unit needs DI:

var httpContext = new DefaultHttpContext
{
    RequestServices = new ServiceCollection()
        .AddSingleton(myService.Object)
        .BuildServiceProvider(),
};

Workflow B: integration test with SiteContext

SiteContext spins up a real tenant (SQLite by default) from a recipe and gives you an HttpClient + tenant scope.

public class BlogPostApiControllerTests
{
    [Fact]
    public async Task CreateDraft_ExistingContentItem_CreatesDraft()
    {
        using var context = new SiteContext();
        await context.InitializeAsync();

        var response = await context.Client.PostAsJsonAsync("api/content?draft=true", contentItem);
        var draft = await response.Content.ReadAsAsync<ContentItem>();

        Assert.True(draft.Latest);
        Assert.False(draft.Published);
    }
}

Resolve tenant services inside a scope:

await context.UsingTenantScopeAsync(async scope =>
{
    var session = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<ISession>();
    var posts = await session.Query<ContentItem, ContentItemIndex>(x => x.ContentType == "BlogPost").ListAsync();
    Assert.Equal(2, posts.Count());
});

Customize the recipe by subclassing or WithRecipe:

public class AgencyContext : SiteContext
{
    public AgencyContext() => this.WithRecipe("Agency");
}

Defaults: RecipeName = "Blog", DatabaseProvider = "Sqlite", a random tenant name + table prefix per test.

Workflow C: functional test (Playwright)

OrchardTestFixture starts a CMS server and a headless Chromium browser.

var page = await fixture.CreatePageAsync();
await page.GotoAsync("/");
await Expect(page.Locator("h1")).ToBeVisibleAsync();

Set PLAYWRIGHT_TRACING to capture screenshots/snapshots/sources into traces/.

Running tests

# All tests in a project (from repo root)
dotnet test test/OrchardCore.Tests/OrchardCore.Tests.csproj

# Filter by name (xUnit / MTP)
dotnet test test/OrchardCore.Tests/OrchardCore.Tests.csproj --filter "FullyQualifiedName~BlogPost"

CI requires all tests green. If you change CSS/JS, run yarn build first (asset tests).

Quick Reference

xUnit attributes

Attribute	Use
[Fact]	one test case
[Theory] + [InlineData]	inline parameter sets
[Theory] + [MemberData(nameof(X))]	computed parameter sets

Common assertions

Assert.Equal, Assert.True/False, Assert.Null/NotNull, Assert.Contains, Assert.Throws<T>, await Assert.ThrowsAsync<T>(...).

SiteContext members

Member	Purpose
InitializeAsync()	create + set up the tenant
Client	HttpClient bound to the tenant
UsingTenantScopeAsync(fn)	run code in the tenant's DI scope
GraphQLClient	GraphQL API client
RecipeName / DatabaseProvider	override before InitializeAsync

Moq cheatsheet

Need	Code
Stub a property	Mock.Of<I>(x => x.P == v)
Setup a method	m.Setup(x => x.F(It.IsAny<T>())).ReturnsAsync(r)
Verify a call	m.Verify(x => x.F(arg), Times.Once)
Pass the object	m.Object

Gotchas

• Test projects are Exe (MTP) — keep that OutputType when adding one; don't switch to library.
• SiteContext is IDisposable — always using var context = ....
• Resolve tenant services only inside UsingTenantScopeAsync; the outer scope isn't the tenant.
• Integration tests use SQLite + a fresh per-test table prefix; tests must not assume shared state.
• Guard refactors with tests — the contributing guide requires new tests for refactoring.

References

• references/testing.md — SiteContext internals, fixtures, Playwright, project layout
• src/docs/contributing/contributing-code.md (repo) — test expectations
• test/OrchardCore.Tests/ (repo) — real examples
• AGENTS.md (repo root) — build commands