{"id":159552,"date":"2010-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/msr-research-item\/moles-tool-assisted-environment-isolation-with-closures\/"},"modified":"2018-10-16T22:13:05","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T05:13:05","slug":"moles-tool-assisted-environment-isolation-with-closures","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/moles-tool-assisted-environment-isolation-with-closures\/","title":{"rendered":"Moles: tool-assisted environment isolation with closures"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"asset-content\">\n<p>Isolating test cases from environment dependencies is often desirable, as it increases test reliability and reduces test execution time. However, code that calls non-virtual methods or consumes sealed classes is often impossible to test in isolation. Moles is a new lightweight framework which addresses this problem. For any .NET method, Moles allows test-code to provide alternative implementations, given as .NET delegates, for which C# provides very concise syntax while capturing local variables in a closure object. Using code instrumentation, the Moles framework will redirect calls to provided delegates instead of the original methods. The Moles framework is designed to work together with the dynamic symbolic execution tool Pex to enable automated test generation. In a case study, testing code programmed against the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation API, we achieved full code coverage while running tests in isolation without an actual SharePoint server. The Moles framework integrates with .NET and Visual Studio.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .asset-content --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Isolating test cases from environment dependencies is often desirable, as it increases test reliability and reduces test execution time. However, code that calls non-virtual methods or consumes sealed classes is often impossible to test in isolation. Moles is a new lightweight framework which addresses this problem. For any .NET method, Moles allows test-code to provide [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","footnotes":""},"msr-content-type":[3],"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13560],"msr-publication-type":[193716],"msr-product-type":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-platform":[],"msr-download-source":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[],"msr-field-of-study":[],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-159552","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-programming-languages-software-engineering","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_publishername":"Springer Verlag","msr_edition":"TOOLS'10","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2010-07-01","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"","msr_volume":"","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":1,"msr_main_download":"221332","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"file","title":"moles.pdf","viewUrl":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/moles.pdf","id":221332,"label_id":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_attachments":[],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"jhalleux","user_id":32253,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=jhalleux"},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"nikolait","user_id":33102,"rest_url":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=nikolait"}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[],"msr_project":[170993,170392,169746],"publication":[],"video":[],"download":[],"msr_publication_type":"inproceedings","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":170993,"post_title":"Tools for Software Engineers","post_name":"tools-for-software-engineers","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2012-06-29 06:20:39","post_modified":"2021-11-12 09:09:39","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/tools-for-software-engineers\/","post_excerpt":"The mission of Microsoft's One Engineering System (formerly known as Tools for Software Engineers) team is to enable the world's best product engineering teams with world-class tools and systems that help them ship products their customers love. 1ES provides tools and services to cover the full spectrum of the engineering life-cycle, from the developer desktop to product deployment. 1ES focuses on engineering solutions that mitigate the unique scale challenges that Microsoft teams face, both in&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/170993"}]}},{"ID":170392,"post_title":"Moles - Isolation framework for .NET","post_name":"moles-isolation-framework-for-net","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2010-01-25 15:55:21","post_modified":"2017-05-31 15:38:32","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/moles-isolation-framework-for-net\/","post_excerpt":"Moles allows to replace any .NET method with a delegate. Moles supports static or non-virtual methods. Moles works well with Pex. The Fakes Framework in Visual Studio\u00a02012 is the next generation of Moles &amp; Stubs. Fakes is different from Moles, however, so moving from Moles to Fakes will require some modifications to your code. The Moles framework\u00a0will\u00a0not be supported in Visual Studio 2012. Read the blog post from Peter Provost about Stubs. Read the blog&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-project\/170392"}]}},{"ID":169746,"post_title":"Pex and Moles - Isolation and White Box Unit Testing for .NET","post_name":"pex-and-moles-isolation-and-white-box-unit-testing-for-net","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2007-02-21 17:06:41","post_modified":"2017-06-02 11:21:12","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/project\/pex-and-moles-isolation-and-white-box-unit-testing-for-net\/","post_excerpt":"Pex automatically generates test suites with high code coverage using automated white box analysis. Pex is a Visual Studio add-in for testing .NET Framework applications. Moles supports unit testing by providing isolation by way of detours and stubs. The Moles framework is provided with Pex, or can be installed by itself as a Microsoft Visual Studio add-in. NEW: IntelliTest in Visual Studio 2015 is the evolution of Pex. 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