bcquality/microsoft/knowledge/testing/ui-test-codeunit-naming.md
Michael Dieringer 67962727f6 Fix ten focused correctness items plus sample links from Jesper's 2026-09-15 re-review
Six carried-over threads:
- api-page-least-privilege-write-access fixtures: added the mandatory
  EntityName/EntitySetName properties (AL0485).
- pages-must-not-contain-business-logic fixtures: Sales Line has no
  "Total Amount" field; replaced with the real "Line Amount" (field 103).
- test-feature-scenario-tags.good.al and test-one-when-per-test.good.al:
  CreatePriceHeader leaves a price list in Draft status, which price
  calculation ignores. Added Validate(Status, Active) + Modify before the
  sales line that depends on it. Verified Status field/enum against
  PriceListHeader.Table.al and PriceStatus.Enum.al in the BCApps clone.
- exposed-objects-must-be-in-a-permission-set.md: a published codeunit is
  a SOAP endpoint (SOAP is deprecated), not OData - Page/Query are the
  OData object types. Corrected and pointed new integrations at API
  pages/queries instead.
- al-error-handling-review.md: the log-writes-must-survive-rollback cue
  selected on Session.StartSession, which only appears in the compliant
  fix, never in the anti-pattern - the bad fixture could never be
  worklisted. Recued on the actual risk shape (log insert around a
  failed TryFunction/GetLastError* path, then raise/propagate), with
  StartSession as an explicit compliant discriminator instead.
- page-design-must-match-bc-page-type-conventions.md: the enum value is
  NavigatePage, not Navigate; noted the type list is a selected subset,
  not an exhaustive PageType catalogue (PromptDialog, ConfigurationDialog,
  UserControlHost, XmlPort also exist, out of this article's scope).

Four new correctness gaps:
- release-must-update-app-version.md: "the version is the only identity"
  was backwards - id is the app's stable identity, version identifies a
  release/code-state of it.
- defensive-vs-offensive-code-must-match-blast-radius.good.al: the "low
  blast radius" example had no else branch, so a failed Customer.Get()
  left the field at its prior/default value instead of the explicit
  chosen fallback the article claims to demonstrate. Added the else.
- bcpt-scenarios-must-be-app-specific.good.al: InitTest and both measured
  StartScenario/EndScenario sections were empty/comment-only, so the
  "app-specific" fixture measured no actual work. Filled in a real,
  self-contained header+line creation path.
- upgrade-tag-logic-must-not-nest-deeply.good.al: the flattened version
  dropped both safety conditions the bad fixture had (Discount % = 0,
  nonblank posting group), silently changing behavior instead of just
  removing nesting. Extracted the guarded update into a helper with both
  conditions preserved as early exits.

Also converted this PR's remaining plain-backtick "See sample:" sample
references (16 articles) to the READ-convention markdown-link form,
matching the fix already made on #156/#158.

Rebased onto upstream/main (conflicts in al-ui-review.md, al-style-review.md,
al-upgrade-review.md against merged upstream PRs - all additive, both
sides' worklist cues retained).
2026-09-21 22:44:17 +02:00

2 KiB

bc-version domain keywords technologies countries application-area
all
testing
ui-test
testpage
naming
suffix
codeunit
page-testing
team-convention
al
w1
all

Separate UI-layer and logic-layer tests into different codeunits

Description

A test codeunit that drives pages through TestPage — opening pages, reading FactBox parts, triggering field OnValidate through the page — is testing a different layer than a codeunit that calls business-logic procedures directly. Readers need to know which layer a given test exercises without opening it, and a single codeunit that mixes both kinds of test hides that distinction: a failure could mean the logic broke, the page broke, or both. The _UT suffix and adjacent-object-ID pairing below are one team's naming convention for making that split visible, not a BCApps-wide naming standard — BCApps itself uses UT for unit tests generally, not specifically to mean "UI layer," and does not treat adjacent object IDs as a semantic pairing mechanism. Apply the suffix only on a project that has explicitly adopted this convention.

Best Practice

Keep UI-layer (TestPage-driven) and logic-layer tests in separate codeunits regardless of naming. Projects that adopt a _UT-style suffix convention should apply it consistently to every UI-layer test codeunit, keep the corresponding logic-only codeunit unsuffixed, and document the convention where the team's other naming rules live.

See sample: ui-test-codeunit-naming.good.al.

Anti Pattern

One codeunit that mixes a direct logic-call test and a TestPage-driven test side by side — a failing test no longer tells a reader which layer actually broke. On a project that has adopted the _UT convention, a UI-layer codeunit missing the suffix is also an instance of this anti-pattern; on a project that has not adopted it, the suffix itself is not required.

See sample: ui-test-codeunit-naming.bad.al.