Pfthb

I have a simple Windows Form created in VB.NET application. In the form there is a checkbox that changes the visibility of other controls in the form.

I'm trying to create a Unit Test to verify that this functionality works as expected. However, I have several issues. Let's start with the constructor in my Unit Test where I create an instance of the Windows Form:

Dim myWindow = Nothing
Public Sub New()
 myWindow = New APP_NAME.myWindow()
End Sub

That works. I then move to one of the test methods which starts like this:

<TestMethod()> Public Sub myTest()
 Dim checkBox = getFormControl(myWindow, "CHECKBOXNAME")
 checkBox.Checked = True

As you can see I have a method called getFormControl which returns a desired control from the form. That also works as well as setting the checked value to true.

The first problem is that changing the value does not trigger the checkbox's CheckedChanged event so nothing gets hidden or shown on the screen as this event and the corresponding method handle those toggles. As a result I had to make this method in the form Public instead of Private so that I can call it next like this:

myWindow.CHECKBOXNAME_CheckedChanged(myWindow, EventArgs.Empty)

Method definition in myForm:

Public Sub CHECKBOXNAME_CheckedChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles CHECKBOXNAME.CheckedChanged

I would like to trigger the event without having to change the method to Public so any idea on how to do that?

The second problem is that the code in this method goes and changes the Visible property of several other controls. Let's say it looks like this:

Public Sub CHECKBOXNAME_CheckedChanged(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles CHECKBOXNAME.CheckedChanged
 myControl.Visible = True
 MessageBox("Making visible: " & myControl.Name & " - " & myControl.Visible)
 End Sub

The myControl which is let's say a Label has Visible equal to False which is set during initialization of the form.

If I start the application, load the form and click on the checkbox, the MessageBox on the screen shows the name of the control and the value TRUE after. Everything works as expected after.

However, if I run the unit test method, the MessageBox shows the name of the control on the screen followed by FALSE. I think that this is due to the fact that in the second case the main thread running the application is that of the test cases and not the application itself. The test case fails after that as I'm expecting the Visible property to be TRUE.

How can I actually access this properly from the unit test? The code is working just fine and as expected if run from the application but I'm having trouble running it from the unit test project.