Connection strings in config files


Default connection string

When you’ve more than a few tests, it’s boring to repeat the same connection string for each test. For this kind of situation, the more efficient way to manage the connection strings is to specify a default value in the settings of your test suite. To achieve this, create a xml element named settings at the top of your test suite definition and define once the connection string for all your system-under-tests.

<testSuite name="The Query TestSuite" xmlns="http://NBi/TestSuite">
  <settings>
    <default apply-to="system-under-test">
      <connection-string>Provider=MSOLAP.4;Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog='Adventure Works DW 2008';localeidentifier=1049</connection-string>
    </default>
  </settings>
  <test name="...">
    ...
  </test>
</testSuite>

When, this setting has been setup, you don’t need anymore to repeat the connection string for each test. If the connection-string attribute is empty (or not specified), the framework will automatically apply the connection string defined in the element default of your settings. You can define one default value for the system-under-tests and another for the asserts (a third for the setup/cleanup is also available).

Note that if you’ve a settings element including a default value for a connection string and that you’ve define a value in the attribute connection-string for one of your tests, the specific value provided in the test will be used (and not the default) . So, even with a default set at the test-suite level, you can override this setting in a specific test.

In this sample, the first test use the default connection string for system-under-tests and the second will use the specific connection-string provided within the test.

<testSuite name="The Query TestSuite" xmlns="http://NBi/TestSuite">
  <settings>
    <default apply-to="system-under-test">
      <connection-string>Provider=MSOLAP.4;Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog='Adventure Works DW 2008';localeidentifier=1049</connection-string>
    </default>
  </settings>
  <test name="'Reseller Order Count' by year before 2006 (csv) on 2008" uid="0001">
    <system-under-test>
      <result-set>
        <query>
        	...
        </query>
      </result-set>
    </system-under-test>
    <assert>
      <equal-to>
        <result-set file="ResellerOrderCountByYearBefore2006.csv"/>
      </equal-to>
    </assert>
  </test>
  <test name="'Reseller Order Count' by year before 2006 (csv) on 2012" uid="0001">
    <system-under-test>
      <result-set>
        <query connection-string="Provider=MSOLAP.4;Data Source=(local);Initial Catalog='Adventure Works DW 2012';">
          ...
        </query>
      </result-set>
    </system-under-test>
    <assert>
      <equal-to>
        <result-set file="ResellerOrderCountByYearBefore2006.csv"/>
      </equal-to>
    </assert>
  </test>
</testSuite>

Reference connection string

It’s more tricky when your test suite is querying several databases and you want to avoid to repeat your connection strings for each tests. A typical case is when you compare the results of a few queries on your cube to the results on the corresponding operational databases. You probably have more than one source (operational database), and so you cannot apply the default value for the connection string to each test. That’s where references are useful. In your xml element settings, at the test-suite level, you can define references where you will specify a connection string. Each reference has a name uniquely identifying this reference in the whole test-suite.

<settings>
  <reference name="first-ref">
    <connection-string>My First Connection String</connection-string>
  </reference>
  <reference name="second-ref">
    <connection-string>My Second Connection String</connection-string>
  </reference>
</settings>

When you’ve defined some references in your test-suite, you can use them in your tests by specifiying the name of the reference prefixed by an arrobas (@) to the attribute connection-string of your test. The framework will automatically apply the connection string’s value of the reference to your test. In this example, the first test uses the first referenced connection string (named first-ref) and the second test the second referenced connection string (named second-ref).

<test name="'Reseller Order Count' by year before 2006 (csv) on 2008" uid="0001">
  <system-under-test>
    <result-set>
      <query connection-string="@first-ref">
         ...
      </query>
    </result-set>
  </system-under-test>
  <assert>
    <equal-to>
      <result-set file="ResellerOrderCountByYearBefore2006.csv"/>
    </equal-to>
  </assert>
</test>
<test name="'Reseller Order Count' by year before 2006 (csv) on 2012" uid="0001">
  <system-under-test>
    <result-set>
      <query connection-string="@second-ref">
       ...
      </query>
    </result-set>
  </system-under-test>
  <assert>
    <equal-to>
      <result-set file="ResellerOrderCountByYearBefore2006.csv"/>
    </equal-to>
  </assert>
</test>

At the opposite of default connection strings which are specific for system-under-tests and asserts, references can be used between both elements.

Other places to define connection strings

External management (config file)

If you want to use your test suite in different stages (development, test, user-acceptance, …), you want to configure different connection strings depending on the targeted stage. To avoid to edit your test suite for each environment (and so have different nbits file), you can externalize the management of connection strings to the config file. In definitive you’ll have one unique nbits file with your test-suite definition and one config file (containing the connection strings) for each stage.

To achieve this, in the settings of your test-suite, at the place where you usually write your connection string, you’ll need to specify an alias (prefixed by an arrobas (@)).

<settings>
  <default apply-to="system-under-test">
    <connection-string>@default-sut</connection-string>
  </default>
  <reference name="first-ref">
    <connection-string>@ref-one</connection-string>
  </reference>
  <reference name="second-ref">
    <connection-string>@ref-two</connection-string>
  </reference>
</settings>

This alias (without the arrobas) must be used in your config file to specify the connection string that will be used. The definition of connection strings must be done in the standard connection-strings element provided by the .Net framework. You can define several alias and this can be done for defaults and references.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="nbi" type="NBi.NUnit.Runtime.NBiSection, NBi.NUnit.Runtime"/>
  </configSections>
  <nbi testSuite="SubDirectory\myTestSuite.nbits"/>
  <connection-strings>
    <clear />
    <add name="def-sut"
      connection-string="..." />
    <add name="ref-one"
      connection-string="..." />
    <add name="ref-two"
      connection-string="..." />
  </connection-strings>
</configuration>

Define your connection-string into an ODC file

It’s possible to configure your connection-string from the content of an ODC file. To achieve this, just reference the path to your ODC file in place of a connection-string. The path of this ODC file must be relative to the test-suite.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<settings>
  <default apply-to="system-under-test">
    <connection-string>../connections/myCube.odc</connection-string>
  </default>
</settings>