Using the WPF Dispatcher in unit tests

I'm having trouble getting the Dispatcher to run a delegate I'm passing to it when unit testing. Everything works fine when I'm running the program, but, during a unit test the following code will not run:

this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new ThreadStart(delegate
{
    this.Users.Clear();

    foreach (User user in e.Results)
    {
        this.Users.Add(user);
    }
}), DispatcherPriority.Normal, null);

I have this code in my viewmodel base class to get a Dispatcher:

if (Application.Current != null)
{
    this.Dispatcher = Application.Current.Dispatcher;
}
else
{
    this.Dispatcher = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;
}

Is there something I need to do to initialise the Dispatcher for unit tests? The Dispatcher never runs the code in the delegate.

By using the Visual Studio Unit Test Framework you don’t need to initialize the Dispatcher yourself. You are absolutely right, that the Dispatcher doesn’t automatically process its queue.

You can write a simple helper method “DispatcherUtil.DoEvents()” which tells the Dispatcher to process its queue.

C# Code:

public static class DispatcherUtil
{
    [SecurityPermissionAttribute(SecurityAction.Demand, Flags = SecurityPermissionFlag.UnmanagedCode)]
    public static void DoEvents()
    {
        DispatcherFrame frame = new DispatcherFrame();
        Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Background,
            new DispatcherOperationCallback(ExitFrame), frame);
        Dispatcher.PushFrame(frame);
    }

    private static object ExitFrame(object frame)
    {
        ((DispatcherFrame)frame).Continue = false;
        return null;
    }
}

You find this class too in the WPF Application Framework (WAF).

We've solved this issue by simply mocking out the dispatcher behind an interface, and pulling in the interface from our IOC container. Here's the interface:

public interface IDispatcher
{
    void Dispatch( Delegate method, params object[] args );
}

Here's the concrete implementation registered in the IOC container for the real app

[Export(typeof(IDispatcher))]
public class ApplicationDispatcher : IDispatcher
{
    public void Dispatch( Delegate method, params object[] args )
    { UnderlyingDispatcher.BeginInvoke(method, args); }

    // -----

    Dispatcher UnderlyingDispatcher
    {
        get
        {
            if( App.Current == null )
                throw new InvalidOperationException("You must call this method from within a running WPF application!");

            if( App.Current.Dispatcher == null )
                throw new InvalidOperationException("You must call this method from within a running WPF application with an active dispatcher!");

            return App.Current.Dispatcher;
        }
    }
}

And here's a mock one that we supply to the code during unit tests:

public class MockDispatcher : IDispatcher
{
    public void Dispatch(Delegate method, params object[] args)
    { method.DynamicInvoke(args); }
}

We also have a variant of the MockDispatcher which executes delegates in a background thread, but it's not neccessary most of the time

You can unit test using a dispatcher, you just need to use the DispatcherFrame. Here is an example of one of my unit tests that uses the DispatcherFrame to force the dispatcher queue to execute.

[TestMethod]
public void DomainCollection_AddDomainObjectFromWorkerThread()
{
 Dispatcher dispatcher = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;
 DispatcherFrame frame = new DispatcherFrame();
 IDomainCollectionMetaData domainCollectionMetaData = this.GenerateIDomainCollectionMetaData();
 IDomainObject parentDomainObject = MockRepository.GenerateMock<IDomainObject>();
 DomainCollection sut = new DomainCollection(dispatcher, domainCollectionMetaData, parentDomainObject);

 IDomainObject domainObject = MockRepository.GenerateMock<IDomainObject>();

 sut.SetAsLoaded();
 bool raisedCollectionChanged = false;
 sut.ObservableCollection.CollectionChanged += delegate(object sender, NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
 {
  raisedCollectionChanged = true;
  Assert.IsTrue(e.Action == NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add, "The action was not add.");
  Assert.IsTrue(e.NewStartingIndex == 0, "NewStartingIndex was not 0.");
  Assert.IsTrue(e.NewItems[0] == domainObject, "NewItems not include added domain object.");
  Assert.IsTrue(e.OldItems == null, "OldItems was not null.");
  Assert.IsTrue(e.OldStartingIndex == -1, "OldStartingIndex was not -1.");
  frame.Continue = false;
 };

 WorkerDelegate worker = new WorkerDelegate(delegate(DomainCollection domainCollection)
  {
   domainCollection.Add(domainObject);
  });
 IAsyncResult ar = worker.BeginInvoke(sut, null, null);
 worker.EndInvoke(ar);
 Dispatcher.PushFrame(frame);
 Assert.IsTrue(raisedCollectionChanged, "CollectionChanged event not raised.");
}

I found out about it here.

I solved this problem by creating a new Application in my unit test setup.

Then any class under test which access to Application.Current.Dispatcher will find a dispatcher.

Because only one Application is allowed in an AppDomain I used the AssemblyInitialize and put it into its own class ApplicationInitializer.

[TestClass]
public class ApplicationInitializer
{
    [AssemblyInitialize]
    public static void AssemblyInitialize(TestContext context)
    {
        var waitForApplicationRun = new TaskCompletionSource<bool>();
        Task.Run(() =>
        {
            var application = new Application();
            application.Startup += (s, e) => { waitForApplicationRun.SetResult(true); };
            application.Run();
        });
        waitForApplicationRun.Task.Wait();        
    }
    [AssemblyCleanup]
    public static void AssemblyCleanup()
    {
        Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(Application.Current.Shutdown);
    }
}
[TestClass]
public class MyTestClass
{
    [TestMethod]
    public void MyTestMethod()
    {
        // implementation can access Application.Current.Dispatcher
    }
}

When you call Dispatcher.BeginInvoke, you are instructing the dispatcher to run the delegates on its thread when the thread is idle.

When running unit tests, the main thread will never be idle. It will run all of the tests then terminate.

To make this aspect unit testable you will have to change the underlying design so that it isn't using the main thread's dispatcher. Another alternative is to utilise the System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker to modify the users on a different thread. (This is just an example, it might be innappropriate depending upon the context).

---

Edit (5 months later) I wrote this answer while unaware of the DispatcherFrame. I'm quite happy to have been wrong on this one - DispatcherFrame has turned out to be extremely useful.

Creating a DipatcherFrame worked great for me:

[TestMethod]
public void Search_for_item_returns_one_result()
{
    var searchService = CreateSearchServiceWithExpectedResults("test", 1);
    var eventAggregator = new SimpleEventAggregator();
    var searchViewModel = new SearchViewModel(searchService, 10, eventAggregator) { SearchText = searchText };

    var signal = new AutoResetEvent(false);
    var frame = new DispatcherFrame();

    // set the event to signal the frame
    eventAggregator.Subscribe(new ProgressCompleteEvent(), () =>
       {
           signal.Set();
           frame.Continue = false;
       });

    searchViewModel.Search(); // dispatcher call happening here

    Dispatcher.PushFrame(frame);
    signal.WaitOne();

    Assert.AreEqual(1, searchViewModel.TotalFound);
}

If you want to apply the logic in jbe's answer to any dispatcher (not just Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher, you can use the following extention method.

public static class DispatcherExtentions
{
    public static void PumpUntilDry(this Dispatcher dispatcher)
    {
        DispatcherFrame frame = new DispatcherFrame();
        dispatcher.BeginInvoke(
            new Action(() => frame.Continue = false),
            DispatcherPriority.Background);
        Dispatcher.PushFrame(frame);
    }
}

Usage:

Dispatcher d = getADispatcher();
d.PumpUntilDry();

To use with the current dispatcher:

Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.PumpUntilDry();

I prefer this variation because it can be used in more situations, is implemented using less code, and has a more intuitive syntax.

For additional background on DispatcherFrame, check out this excellent blog writeup.

If your goal is to avoid errors when accessing DependencyObjects, I suggest that, rather than playing with threads and Dispatcher explicitly, you simply make sure that your tests run in a (single) STAThread thread.

This may or may not suit your needs, for me at least it has always been enough for testing anything DependencyObject/WPF-related.

If you wish to try this, I can point you to several ways to do this :

• If you use NUnit >= 2.5.0, there is a [RequiresSTA] attribute that can target test methods or classes. Beware though if you use an integrated test runner, as for example the R#4.5 NUnit runner seems to be based on an older version of NUnit and cannot use this attribute.
• With older NUnit versions, you can set NUnit to use a [STAThread] thread with a config file, see for example this blog post by Chris Headgate.
• Finally, the same blog post has a fallback method (which I've successfully used in the past) for creating your own [STAThread] thread to run your test on.

I'm using MSTest and Windows Forms technology with MVVM paradigm. After trying many solutions finally this (found on Vincent Grondin blog) works for me:

    internal Thread CreateDispatcher()
    {
        var dispatcherReadyEvent = new ManualResetEvent(false);

        var dispatcherThread = new Thread(() =>
        {
            // This is here just to force the dispatcher 
            // infrastructure to be setup on this thread
            Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() => { }));

            // Run the dispatcher so it starts processing the message 
            // loop dispatcher
            dispatcherReadyEvent.Set();
            Dispatcher.Run();
        });

        dispatcherThread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
        dispatcherThread.IsBackground = true;
        dispatcherThread.Start();

        dispatcherReadyEvent.WaitOne();
        SynchronizationContext
           .SetSynchronizationContext(new DispatcherSynchronizationContext());
        return dispatcherThread;
    }

And use it like:

    [TestMethod]
    public void Foo()
    {
        Dispatcher
           .FromThread(CreateDispatcher())
                   .Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Background, new DispatcherDelegate(() =>
        {
            _barViewModel.Command.Executed += (sender, args) => _done.Set();
            _barViewModel.Command.DoExecute();
        }));

        Assert.IsTrue(_done.WaitOne(WAIT_TIME));
    }

Winforms has a very easy and WPF compatible solution.

From your unit test project, reference System.Windows.Forms.

From your unit test when you want to wait for dispatcher events to finish processing, call

        System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();

If you have a background thread that keeps adding Invokes to the dispatcher queue, then you'll need to have some sort of test and keep calling DoEvents until the background some other testable condition is met

        while (vm.IsBusy)
        {
            System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
        }

I suggest adding one more method to the DispatcherUtil call it DoEventsSync() and just call the Dispatcher to Invoke instead of BeginInvoke. This is needed if you really have to wait until the Dispatcher processed all frames. I am posting this as another Answer not just a comment, since the whole class is to long:

    public static class DispatcherUtil
    {
        [SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, Flags = SecurityPermissionFlag.UnmanagedCode)]
        public static void DoEvents()
        {
            var frame = new DispatcherFrame();
            Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Background,
                new DispatcherOperationCallback(ExitFrame), frame);
            Dispatcher.PushFrame(frame);
        }

        public static void DoEventsSync()
        {
            var frame = new DispatcherFrame();
            Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Background,
                new DispatcherOperationCallback(ExitFrame), frame);
            Dispatcher.PushFrame(frame);
        }

        private static object ExitFrame(object frame)
        {
            ((DispatcherFrame)frame).Continue = false;
            return null;
        }
    }

I accomplished this by wrapping Dispatcher in my own IDispatcher interface, and then using Moq to verify the call to it was made.

IDispatcher interface:

public interface IDispatcher
{
    void BeginInvoke(Delegate action, params object[] args);
}

Real dispatcher implementation:

class RealDispatcher : IDispatcher
{
    private readonly Dispatcher _dispatcher;

    public RealDispatcher(Dispatcher dispatcher)
    {
        _dispatcher = dispatcher;
    }

    public void BeginInvoke(Delegate method, params object[] args)
    {
        _dispatcher.BeginInvoke(method, args);
    }
}

Initializing dispatcher in your class under test:

public ClassUnderTest(IDispatcher dispatcher = null)
{
    _dispatcher = dispatcher ?? new UiDispatcher(Application.Current?.Dispatcher);
}

Mocking the dispatcher inside unit tests (in this case my event handler is OnMyEventHandler and accepts a single bool parameter called myBoolParameter)

[Test]
public void When_DoSomething_Then_InvokeMyEventHandler()
{
    var dispatcher = new Mock<IDispatcher>();

    ClassUnderTest classUnderTest = new ClassUnderTest(dispatcher.Object);

    Action<bool> OnMyEventHanlder = delegate (bool myBoolParameter) { };
    classUnderTest.OnMyEvent += OnMyEventHanlder;

    classUnderTest.DoSomething();

    //verify that OnMyEventHandler is invoked with 'false' argument passed in
    dispatcher.Verify(p => p.BeginInvoke(OnMyEventHanlder, false), Times.Once);
}

How about running the test on a dedicated thread with Dispatcher support?

    void RunTestWithDispatcher(Action testAction)
    {
        var thread = new Thread(() =>
        {
            var operation = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.BeginInvoke(testAction);

            operation.Completed += (s, e) =>
            {
                // Dispatcher finishes queued tasks before shuts down at idle priority (important for TransientEventTest)
                Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.BeginInvokeShutdown(DispatcherPriority.ApplicationIdle);
            };

            Dispatcher.Run();
        });

        thread.IsBackground = true;
        thread.TrySetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
        thread.Start();
        thread.Join();
    }

I'm late but this is how I do it:

public static void RunMessageLoop(Func<Task> action)
{
  var originalContext = SynchronizationContext.Current;
  Exception exception = null;
  try
  {
    SynchronizationContext.SetSynchronizationContext(new DispatcherSynchronizationContext());

    action.Invoke().ContinueWith(t =>
    {
      exception = t.Exception;
    }, TaskContinuationOptions.OnlyOnFaulted).ContinueWith(t => Dispatcher.ExitAllFrames(),
      TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext());

    Dispatcher.Run();
  }
  finally
  {
    SynchronizationContext.SetSynchronizationContext(originalContext);
  }
  if (exception != null) throw exception;
}

Simplest way I found is to just add a property like this to any ViewModel that needs to use the Dispatcher:

public static Dispatcher Dispatcher => Application.Current?.Dispatcher ?? Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;

That way it works both in the application and when running unit tests.

I only had to use it in a few places in my entire application so I didn't mind repeating myself a bit.

It's a bit old post, BeginInvoke is not a preferable option today. I was looking for a solution for mocking and had't found anything for InvokeAsync:

await App.Current.Dispatcher.InvokeAsync(() => something );

I've added new Class called Dispatcher, implementing IDispatcher, then inject into viewModel constructor:

public class Dispatcher : IDispatcher
{
    public async Task DispatchAsync(Action action)
    {
        await App.Current.Dispatcher.InvokeAsync(action);
    }
}
public interface IDispatcher
    {
        Task DispatchAsync(Action action);
    }

Then in test I've injected MockDispatcher into viewModel in constructor:

internal class MockDispatcher : IDispatcher
    {
        public async Task DispatchAsync(Action action)
        {
            await Task.Run(action);
        }
    }

Use in the view model:

await m_dispatcher.DispatchAsync(() => something);