How to add claims in a mock ClaimsPrincipal

Question

I am trying to unit test my controller code which gets the information from the ClaimsPrincipal.Current. In the controller code I

public class HomeController {
    public ActionResult GetName() {
        return Content(ClaimsPrincipal.Current.FindFirst("name").Value);
    }
}

And I am trying to mock my ClaimsPrincipal with claims but I still don't have any mock value from the claim.

// Arrange
IList<Claim> claimCollection = new List<Claim>
{
    new Claim("name", "John Doe")
};

var identityMock = new Mock<ClaimsIdentity>();
identityMock.Setup(x => x.Claims).Returns(claimCollection);

var cp = new Mock<ClaimsPrincipal>();
cp.Setup(m => m.HasClaim(It.IsAny<string>(), It.IsAny<string>())).Returns(true);
cp.Setup(m => m.Identity).Returns(identityMock.Object);

var sut = new HomeController();

var contextMock = new Mock<HttpContextBase>();
contextMock.Setup(ctx => ctx.User).Returns(cp.Object);

var controllerContextMock = new Mock<ControllerContext>();
controllerContextMock.Setup(con => con.HttpContext).Returns(contextMock.Object);
controllerContextMock.Setup(con => con.HttpContext.User).Returns(cp.Object);

sut.ControllerContext = controllerContextMock.Object;

// Act
var viewresult = sut.GetName() as ContentResult;

// Assert
Assert.That(viewresult.Content, Is.EqualTo("John Doe"));

The viewresult.Content is empty as I run the unit test. Any help if I can add the mock claim. Thanks.

trailmax · Answer 1 · 2023-07-20T10:40:29.753

174

You don't need to mock ClaimsPrincipal it has no outside dependencies and you can create it un-mocked:

var claims = new List<Claim>() 
{ 
    new Claim(ClaimTypes.Name, "username"),
    new Claim(ClaimTypes.NameIdentifier, "userId"),
    new Claim("name", "John Doe"),
};
var identity = new ClaimsIdentity(claims, "TestAuthType");
var claimsPrincipal = new ClaimsPrincipal(identity);

And I'm not sure what you are testing here. Certainly "John Doe" will not be part of viewResult.Content because it is never been set to this.

edited Jul 20 '23 at 10:40

answered Jul 12 '16 at 09:34

trailmax

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10

Can't vote this up enough, should be the accepted answer! – Shawn Jan 16 '19 at 17:54
1

Glad this is the answer. I wouldn't want to have to mock this https://referencesource.microsoft.com/#mscorlib/System/security/claims/ClaimsPrincipal.cs – Simon_Weaver Jan 28 '19 at 23:17
2

You are my savior today – Jrow Apr 09 '19 at 19:45
2

You are the hero. – Ronald Abellano Oct 23 '19 at 12:59
1

No human has ever been more attractive, thank you for this lovely answer :) – dEv93 Jun 27 '22 at 19:00

felix-b · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-12T10:05:57.920

First, you are missing this line in your test:

Thread.CurrentPrincipal = cp.Object;

(and then cleaning it up in TearDown).

Second, as @trailmax mentioned, mocking principal objects is impractical. In your case, ClaimsPrincipal.FindFirst (according to decompiled source) looks into private fields of its instance, that's the reason mocking didn't help.

I prefer using two simple classes that allow me to unit test claims-based functionality:

    public class TestPrincipal : ClaimsPrincipal
    {
        public TestPrincipal(params Claim[] claims) : base(new TestIdentity(claims))
        {
        }
    }

    public class TestIdentity : ClaimsIdentity
    {
        public TestIdentity(params Claim[] claims) : base(claims)
        {
        }
    }

then your test shrinks down to:

    [Test]
    public void TestGetName()
    {
        // Arrange
        var sut = new HomeController();
        Thread.CurrentPrincipal = new TestPrincipal(new Claim("name", "John Doe"));

        // Act
        var viewresult = sut.GetName() as ContentResult;

        // Assert
        Assert.That(viewresult.Content, Is.EqualTo("John Doe"));
    }

and it now passes, I've just verified.

Thanks! I think I was making it complicated. So when do we actually need to mock `ClaimsPrincipal`? Since when I check on google, many people is mocking `ClaimsPrincipal`. Such as this, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14190066/is-there-any-way-i-can-mock-a-claims-principal-in-my-asp-net-mvc-web-application. — Henry, Jul 12 '16 at 10:16
You're welcome :) in that answer, the assumption that SUT will only call HasClaim method, is too fragile. If one day SUT (maybe 3rd party code) needs to access additional members of the principal, the test will break. I often prefer manually subclassing dependencies and implementing them in a "test way", while I ensure they still behave consistently. — felix-b, Jul 12 '16 at 10:40

How to add claims in a mock ClaimsPrincipal

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