Asp.net-mvc – Request.GetOwinContext returns null within unit test – how to test OWIN authentication within a unit test

asp.net-mvcasp.net-web-apiauthenticationowinunit-testing

I am currently trying to unit test the authentication for a new WebAPI project I am writing using OWIN to authenticate, and I am having problems with running it in a unit test context.

This is my test method:

[TestMethod]
public void TestRegister()
{
    using (WebApp.Start<Startup>("localhost/myAPI"))
    using (AccountController ac = new AccountController()
        {
            Request = new System.Net.Http.HttpRequestMessage
                (HttpMethod.Post, "http://localhost/myAPI/api/Account/Register")
        })
    {
        var result = ac.Register(new Models.RegisterBindingModel()
        {
            Email = "testemail@testemail.com",
            Password = "Pass@word1",
            ConfirmPassword = "Pass@word1"
        }).Result;
        Assert.IsNotNull(result);
    }
}

I'm getting an AggregateException on getting the .Result with the following inner exception:

Result Message: 
Test method myAPI.Tests.Controllers.AccountControllerTest.TestRegister 
    threw exception: 
System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null.
Parameter name: context
Result StackTrace:  
at Microsoft.AspNet.Identity.Owin.OwinContextExtensions
    .GetUserManager[TManager](IOwinContext context)
at myAPI.Controllers.AccountController.get_UserManager()
...

I have confirmed via debugging that my Startup method is being called, calling ConfigurAuth:

public void ConfigureAuth(IAppBuilder app)
{
    HttpConfiguration config = new HttpConfiguration();
    config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();
    app.UseWebApi(config);

    // Configure the db context and user manager to use a single 
    //  instance per request
    app.CreatePerOwinContext(ApplicationDbContext.Create);
    app.CreatePerOwinContext<ApplicationUserManager>
        (ApplicationUserManager.Create);

    // Enable the application to use a cookie to store information for 
    //  the signed in user
    //  and to use a cookie to temporarily store information about a 
    //  user logging in with a third party login provider
    app.UseCookieAuthentication(new CookieAuthenticationOptions());
    app.UseExternalSignInCookie(DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalCookie);

    // Configure the application for OAuth based flow
    PublicClientId = "self";
    OAuthOptions = new OAuthAuthorizationServerOptions
    {
        TokenEndpointPath = new PathString("/Token"),
        Provider = new ApplicationOAuthProvider(PublicClientId),
        AuthorizeEndpointPath = new PathString("/api/Account/ExternalLogin"),
        AccessTokenExpireTimeSpan = TimeSpan.FromDays(14),
        AllowInsecureHttp = true
    };

    // Enable the application to use bearer tokens to authenticate users
    app.UseOAuthBearerTokens(OAuthOptions);
}

I've tried a few things, but nothing seems to work – I can never get an OWIN context. The test is failing on the following code:

// POST api/Account/Register
[AllowAnonymous]
[Route("Register")]
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> Register(RegisterBindingModel model)
{
    if (!ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        return BadRequest(ModelState);
    }

    var user = new ApplicationUser() 
       { UserName = model.Email, Email = model.Email };

    IdentityResult result = await UserManager.CreateAsync(user, model.Password);

    if (!result.Succeeded)
    {
        return GetErrorResult(result);
    }

    return Ok();
}

This calls the UserManager property:

public ApplicationUserManager UserManager
{
    get
    {
        return _userManager ?? Request.GetOwinContext()
           .GetUserManager<ApplicationUserManager>();
    }
    private set
    {
        _userManager = value;
    }
}

It fails on:

return _userManager ?? Request.GetOwinContext()
    .GetUserManager<ApplicationUserManager>();

with a NullReferenceException – Request.GetOwinContext is returning null.

So my question is: am I approaching this wrong? Should I just be testing the JSON responses? Or is there a good way to "internally" test OWIN authentication?

Best Solution

GetOwinContext calls context.GetOwinEnvironment(); which is

  private static IDictionary<string, object> GetOwinEnvironment(this HttpContextBase context)
    {
        return (IDictionary<string, object>) context.Items[HttpContextItemKeys.OwinEnvironmentKey];
    }

and HttpContextItemKeys.OwinEnvironmentKey is a constant "owin.Environment" So if you are add that in your httpcontext's Items, it will work. 

var request = new HttpRequest("", "http://google.com", "rUrl=http://www.google.com")
    {
        ContentEncoding = Encoding.UTF8  //UrlDecode needs this to be set
    };

    var ctx = new HttpContext(request, new HttpResponse(new StringWriter()));

    //Session need to be set
    var sessionContainer = new HttpSessionStateContainer("id", new SessionStateItemCollection(),
        new HttpStaticObjectsCollection(), 10, true,
        HttpCookieMode.AutoDetect,
        SessionStateMode.InProc, false);
    //this adds aspnet session
    ctx.Items["AspSession"] = typeof(HttpSessionState).GetConstructor(
        BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance,
        null, CallingConventions.Standard,
        new[] { typeof(HttpSessionStateContainer) },
        null)
        .Invoke(new object[] { sessionContainer });

    var data = new Dictionary<string, object>()
    {
        {"a", "b"} // fake whatever  you need here.
    };

    ctx.Items["owin.Environment"] = data;
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