Jose Escrich

Extensibility Thoughts

Testing T4 templates using the GAX host


Download Sample Package

I guess that there are not a best approach to do the tests without a built in support in the T4 template host. Nevertheless in the Web Service Software Factory we did a very first approach of how you could write test units for t4 templates.

Suppose that we have a template which the output is a simple class, in the following example I did a simple package which contains a T4 template called Programs.cs.t4 so, the idea is, run the transformation and then try to compile the class to get its Type in order to make asserts using reflection.

In the attached sample fixture it has an ExecuteTemplate helper method which has the logic to run the transformation and then try to compile it. (considering that the output is a .cs class, if not, it could return an XmlDocument in case that the transformation results in an xml file).



In the next picture you've the TestMethod which runs the transformation, gets the returned type and then perform different asserts over it.


Notice that you should have created a link to the T4 template file and set the *Copy to Output* property as "Copy if newer" as showing in the following image, this is an important thing because the TestMethod is marked with the DeploymentItemAttribute in order to have the t4 file in the test context. Also you have to reference the Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.VisualStudio.Library and Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating assemblies which are located in the PublicAssemblies folder.




Download Sample Package

Posted: May 03 2007, 03:56 PM by jescrich | with 35 comment(s) |

Comments

steve said:

Just wanted to say thanks for this and your other posts on GAX/GAT, I have just started working with these tools and these posts are very informative!

# October 30, 2007 10:07 PM

jakew said:

Microsoft has a template engine bundled in with its DSL tools and with GAT (Guidance Automation Toolkit).

# December 27, 2007 4:30 PM

Oleg Sych - » How to generate multiple outputs from single T4 template said:

Pingback from  Oleg Sych  -   » How to generate multiple outputs from single T4 template

# March 28, 2008 8:34 AM

Oleg Sych - » Test runner for T4 unit tests said:

Pingback from  Oleg Sych  -   » Test runner for T4 unit tests

# June 19, 2008 8:06 PM

VS2010学习 said:

Update: A new version of the code described in this article is available in T4 Toolbox . For details

# June 5, 2009 6:59 AM

VS2010学习 said:

I noticed a clear trend of increasing complexity in the T4 text templates I wrote over the last few months

# June 5, 2009 7:06 AM

Learningcyberchic said:

I am currently having problems with running this code to pass me template file with an input parameter.

When  it hits the following line of code:

engine.ProcessTemplate(template, host);

it throws up the following error:

 System.Exception occurred

 Message="The method or operation is not implemented."

 Source="Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.VisualStudio.Library"

 StackTrace:

      at Microsoft.Practices.RecipeFramework.VisualStudio.Library.Templates.TemplateHost.GetHostOption(String optionName)

 InnerException:

within my template file I have set the following attributes:

hostspecific="True" debug="True"

I am new to T4 so does anyone have a clue where I may be going wrong :-()

# December 4, 2009 11:11 AM

Eric said:

Hello.

I'have two problems.

Firstly; the sample package linked on this page is not available. (but it's not really important)

Secondly; I do not arrive to declare PropertyDate and HostTemplate in my code; and this is really important. Have you an idea ?

I'm using VS 2010 pro beta 2; and i add Microsoft.Practives.RecipeFramework.VisualStudio.Library as reference.

Thanks by advance.

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