I have a project that is pretty small. Despite the small size, it is well-designed, using multiple layers, and interfaces, dependency injection, and unit tests. I need to create a production object at runtime and a mocked object at test time. I could easily use an IOC container. The problem with that is that most IOC containers (Autoface, Castle Windsor, Unity, etc.) are larger than my entire project. While I am a proponent of using IOC containers in large projects, I’m not a big proponent of using them in very small projects.

To make my code more unit testable, I am using a project called SystemWrapper that wraps standard system calls in an Interface and a Wrapper. Again, because my project is small, I didn’t bring in the SystemInterfaces and SystemWrapper dlls. This wrapper includes an ISmtpClient and an SmtpClientWrap object and I only brought in those two class files. The business logic uses the interface, ISmtpWrapper. This allows for me to unit test it by injecting a mock ISmtpClient.

I needed a simple factory that creates a new SmptClient in production runtime but allows for my unit test to create and use a mock ISmptClient during unit test time.

Here is what my factory should do:

Production

1. Create a new SmptClientWrap object (which wraps an System.Net.SmptClient oject).
2. Use setting from the app.config or web.config for the mail server, domain, user, and password.

Unit Test

1. Create an mock of ISmptClient (using Moq).

Here is the simple factory class that I wrote:

using System.Configuration;
using System.Net;
using SystemInterface.Net.Mail;
using SystemWrapper.Net.Mail;

namespace Rhyous.System.Factory
{
    public class SmtpClientFactory
    {
        public ISmtpClient GetNewSmtpClient()
        {
            return CreateCredentialsMethod();
        }

        public delegate ISmtpClient CreateCredentialsDelegate();

        public CreateCredentialsDelegate CreateCredentialsMethod = () => new SmtpClientWrap(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpServer"])
        {
            Credentials = new NetworkCredential
            {
                Domain = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpDomain"],
                UserName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpUser"],
                Password = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpPassword"]
            }
        };
    }
}

In the above class, the GetNewSmptClient returns an ISmtpClient. I use a delegate to create a concrete ISmtpClient called SmtpClienWrap. The default delegate implementation gets the data from the app.config or web.config.

Now I can inject a concrete ISmtpClient into my code:

    using (var smtpClient = SmtpClientFactory.GetNewSmtpClient())
    {
        var mailer = new Mailer(smtpClient);
    }

Note: I could make SmptClientFactory static or make it a singleton. I’m thinking about both.

Now in a test, I am able to create a mock ISmtpClient. Here is an example.

        [TestMethod]
        public void ReplacingTheCreateCredentialsDelegateWorks()
        {
            var factory = new SmtpClientFactory();
            bool _wasCalled = false;
            factory.CreateCredentialsMethod = () =>
            {
                _wasCalled = true;
                return new Mock<ISmtpClient>().Object;
            };
            var client = factory.GetNewSmtpClient();
            Assert.IsTrue(_wasCalled);
        }

The one problem with my factory is that it is pretty specific to one class. It might be interesting to make it more generic.

using System;

namespace Rhyous.Factory
{
    public class ObjectFactory<TInterface, TObject>
        where TInterface : class
        where TObject : TInterface, new()
    {
        public TInterface GetNewObject()
        {
            if (!typeof(TInterface).IsInterface)
            {
                throw new Exception("The first generic, TInterface, must be an interface.");
            }
            return CreateObjectMethod();
        }

        public delegate TInterface CreateObjectDelegate();

        public virtual CreateObjectDelegate CreateObjectMethod
        {
            get
            {
                return _CreateObjectMethod ?? (_CreateObjectMethod = () => Activator.CreateInstance<TObject>());
            }
            set { _CreateObjectMethod = value; }
        }
        public CreateObjectDelegate _CreateObjectMethod;
    }
}

Now I move my delegate (which is creation method of the factory) upstream to where I instantiate the factory.

    var smtpClientFactory = smtpClientFactory = new ObjectFactory<ISmtpClient, SmtpClientWrap>
                    {
                        CreateObjectMethod = () => new SmtpClientWrap(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpServer"])
                        {
                            Credentials = new NetworkCredential
                            {
                                Domain = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpDomain"],
                                UserName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpUser"],
                                Password = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SmtpPassword"]
                            }
                        }
                    };

    // Then later use the factory...

    using (var smtpClient = smtpClientFactory.GetNewSmtpClient())
    {
        var mailer = new Mailer(smtpClient);
    }

Anyway, have fun with this mini-factory. It might be useful on small projects where you don’t want an entire IOC container.