TOPIC

Mocking
SYNOPSIS
Pester provides a set of Mocking functions making it easy to fake depend
encies
and also to verify behavior. Using these mocking functions can allow you
to
"shim" a data layer or mock other complex functions that already have th
eir
own tests.
DESCRIPTION
With the set of Mocking functions that Pester exposes, one can:
- Mock the behavior of ANY powershell command.
- Verify that specific commands were (or were not) called.
- Verify the number of times a command was called with a set of specifie
d
parameters.
MOCKING FUNCTIONS
See Get-Help for any of the below functions for more detailed informatio
n.
Mock
Mocks the behavior of an existing command with an alternate
implementation.
Assert-VerifiableMocks
Checks if any Verifiable Mock has not been invoked. If so, this
will
throw an exception.
Assert-MockCalled
Checks if a Mocked command has been called a certain number of t
imes
and throws an exception if it has not.
EXAMPLE
function Build ($version) {
Write-Host "a build was run for version: $version"
}
function BuildIfChanged {
$thisVersion = Get-Version
$nextVersion = Get-NextVersion
if ($thisVersion -ne $nextVersion) { Build $nextVersion }
return $nextVersion
}
$here = Split-Path -Parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path
$sut = (Split-Path -Leaf $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path).Replace(".Tests.", ".")
. "$here\$sut"
Describe "BuildIfChanged" {
Context "When there are Changes" {
Mock Get-Version {return 1.1}
Mock Get-NextVersion {return 1.2}
Mock Build {} -Verifiable -ParameterFilter {$version -eq 1.2}

$result = BuildIfChanged
It "Builds the next version" {
Assert-VerifiableMocks
}
It "returns the next version number" {
$result | Should Be 1.2
}
}
Context "When there are no Changes" {
Mock Get-Version { return 1.1 }
Mock Get-NextVersion { return 1.1 }
Mock Build {}
$result = BuildIfChanged
It "Should not build the next version" {
Assert-MockCalled Build -Times 0 -ParameterFilter {$version -eq 1.1}
}
}
}
MOCKING CALLS TO COMMANDS MADE FROM INSIDE SCRIPT MODULES
Let's say you have code like this inside a script module (.psm1 file):
function BuildIfChanged {
$thisVersion = Get-Version
$nextVersion = Get-NextVersion
if ($thisVersion -ne $nextVersion) { Build $nextVersion }
return $nextVersion
}
function Build ($version) {
Write-Host "a build was run for version: $version"
}
# Actual definitions of Get-Version and Get-NextVersion are not shown here,
# since we'll just be mocking them anyway. However, the commands do need to
# exist in order to be mocked, so we'll stick dummy functions here
function Get-Version { return 0 }
function Get-NextVersion { return 0 }
Export-ModuleMember -Function BuildIfChanged
You wish to write a unit test for this module which mocks the calls to Get-Versi
on
and Get-NextVersion from the module's BuildIfChanged command. In older versions
of
Pester, this was not possible. As of version 3.0, there are two ways you can per
form
unit tests of PowerShell script modules. The first is to inject mocks into a mod
ule:
For these example, we'll assume that the PSM1 file is named "MyModule.psm1", and
that
it is installed on your PSModulePath.

Import-Module MyModule
Describe "BuildIfChanged" {
Context "When there are Changes" {
Mock -ModuleName MyModule Get-Version { return 1.1 }
Mock -ModuleName MyModule Get-NextVersion { return 1.2 }
# Just for giggles, we'll also mock Write-Host here, to demonstrate that y
ou can
# mock calls to commands other than functions defined within the same modu
le.
Mock -ModuleName MyModule Write-Host {} -Verifiable -ParameterFilter {
$Object -eq 'a build was run for version: 1.2'
}
$result = BuildIfChanged
It "Builds the next version and calls Write-Host" {
Assert-VerifiableMocks
}
It "returns the next version number" {
$result | Should Be 1.2
}
}
Context "When there are no Changes" {
Mock -ModuleName MyModule Get-Version { return 1.1 }
Mock -ModuleName MyModule Get-NextVersion { return 1.1 }
Mock -ModuleName MyModule Build { }
$result = BuildIfChanged
It "Should not build the next version" {
Assert-MockCalled Build -ModuleName MyModule -Times 0 -ParameterFilter {
$version -eq 1.1
}
}
}
}
Notice that in this example test script, all calls to Mock and Assert-MockCalled
have had the
-ModuleName MyModule parameter added. This tells Pester to inject the mock into
the module's scope,
which causes any calls to those commands from inside the module to execute the m
ock instead.
When you write your test script this way, you can mock commands that are called
by the module's
internal functions. However, your test script is still limited to accessing the
public, exported
members of the module. If you wanted to write a unit test that calls Build direc
tly, for example,
it wouldn't work using the above technique. That's where the second approach to
script module testing
comes into play. With Pester 3.0's InModuleScope command, you can cause entire s
ections of your test
script to execute inside the targeted script module. This gives you access to no
n-exported members of

the module. For example:

Import-Module MyModule
Describe "Unit testing the module's internal Build function:" {
InModuleScope MyModule {
$testVersion = 5.0
Mock Write-Host { }
Build $testVersion
It 'Outputs the correct message' {
Assert-MockCalled Write-Host -ParameterFilter {
$Object -eq "a build was run for version: $testVersion"
}
}
}
}
Notice that when using InModuleScope, you no longer need to specify a -ModuleNam
e parameter when calling
Mock or Assert-MockCalled for commands within that module. You are also able to
directly call the Build
function, which the module does not export.
SEE ALSO
Mock
Assert-VerifiableMocks
Assert-MockCalled
InModuleScope
Describe
Context
It