VS 2022 Shims, Stubs, Fakes fail to build

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VS 2022 Shims, Stubs, Fakes fail to build

Robert Hull 6

Just upgraded from VS 2012 Pro to VS 2022 Enterprise. Previously functioning Shims, Stubs and Accessors all fail to be created. ("not declared/defined")

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Answer 1

Michael Taylor 60,346

Did you go through the steps mentioned here? The Fakes framework and entire unit test subsystem was rewritten between 2012 and 2022. You need to make adjustments to your unit test projects (including upgrading them) as discussed in the docs before anything will work.

Once you've done that, and if it still doesn't work, then please provide us the details of your project including the target framework, SDK or legacy project, test framework and version being used, and screenshots and/or example code to replicate the issue.

Robert Hull 6 Reputation points

2022-10-19T13:10:40.723+00:00

Thank you for responding to my question. I'm not sure what upgrades you're referring to (I followed the guide here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/test/mstest-update-to-mstestv2?view=vs-2022 but that resulted in errors that the following method decorations were no longer recognized: TestClass, TestContext, ExpectedException and TestMethod) . Since my project is an older (non-SDK) Winforms project, the procedures for creating Shims and Stubs seem not to have changed since I began working with them several years ago. To that end, I've tried removing the Fakes assemblies/references based on our application code and regenerating them. Although the Fakes assemblies regenerate, I get errors like the following:

1>Case_FileLocationActivityInfoListTest.vb(121,72): error BC30002: Type 'Case_FileLocationActivityInfoList_Accessor' is not defined.

I have the following warning: warning : "Could not recover the Fakes assembly name from Fakes\DCMBO.fakes," yet here is the Fakes file:
<Fakes xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/fakes/2011/" Diagnostic ="true">
<Assembly Name="DCMBO"/>
</Fakes>

Target framework: Net 4.5
VS version 2012 Premium (not Pro, as mentioned in question - my bad)
Will continue working on this. Thanks.
Michael Taylor 60,346 Reputation points

2022-10-19T13:40:23.667+00:00

(Original) Accessor functionality was removed quite a few years ago IIRC. There was an article on how to move away from it but I cannot find it now. I'm thinking that happened back in the VS 2017 timeframe though. Since 2012 the entire test subsystem was rewritten to support test adapters/test frameworks. So I don't know that you'll get any of the old test code from 2012 to work anymore.

Here is what I recommend you do. Create a new unit test project. Use the template called MSTest Test Project so that it uses the newer SDK format. This will set up the project to use the new test adapters/framework. You can use whatever framework you want but I suspect you're using MSTest.

Next add the references to the projects you are testing. Since you are currently targeting .NET 4.5 in your main projects you'll need to adjust the test project as well. Select the unit test project in Solution Explorer and it should open the project file. Find the line that says <TargetFrameworks></TargetFrameworks>. It will say something about net6.0. Change that to the framework moniker your projects are targeting. For .NET 4.5 it would be net45. Build your project to ensure everything is correct. Note that if the project file doesn't have the line `<AutoGenerateBindingRedirects>true</AutoGenerateBindingRedirects> then you should add it.
Michael Taylor 60,346 Reputation points

2022-10-19T13:52:18.287+00:00

Now comes the fun part. Copy your first unit test file to the new project and build. This is where you'll be fixing compiler errors. The migration docs are useful here but here are some highlights.

TestContext is not automatically part of tests anymore. If you need that functionality then add a TestContext property of the same name and make it read/writable. The test framework is supposed to set it when it runs.

I don't remember how to work around private accessors test code. I think the general recommendation is to either not test them, use mocking or change the accessibility.

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VS 2022 Shims, Stubs, Fakes fail to build

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