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I am using the AutoDataAttribute class within AutoFixture.Xunit2 in a lot of projects. The recommended approach to add your own customizations seems to be a derived attribute like the following (note I am using FakeItEasy):

    public class AutoFakeItEasyDataAttribute : AutoDataAttribute
    {
        public AutoFakeItEasyDataAttribute()
            : base(() => new Fixture().Customize(new DomainCustomization()))
        {
        }
    }

In an effort to reduce code copying/pasting, I wanted to abstract this derived attribute to a package we could consume in our projects. However, despite attempts utilizing dependency injection with this library and running into CLR issues with the DataAttribute not able to take anything beyond basic "primitives", I have ran into the proverbial "brick-wall". Obviously constructor injection doesn't seem to work here nor property injection to my knowledge (although unlikely that matters as the property isn't allocated until after the constructor call anyway).

The bottom line, I am looking for a way to include this derived attribute into a package but in a way where the domains can be customized for each individual project's needs?

Shawn
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1 Answers1

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I don't think what you're trying to achieve is possible due to how attributes work in C#. As you mentioned yourself you cannot pass into the attributes but a small set of primitive values, and in xUnit 2 data attributes don't have access to the test class instance, so you can not inject instances via reflection.

You could theoretically inject the IFixture instance into the test class using the library you mentioned (which I think is a horrible practice, that promotes sloppier tests), but then you'd have to give up the decorator notation of AutoFixture and use the declarative notation, to create your test data.

Andrei Ivascu
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  • that is kind of where I am at as well. I agree I am not a fan of losing the conciseness the attribute provides. – Shawn Jun 18 '21 at 14:28