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* Add 4 more AL/BC testing patterns from Luc van Vugt's fluxxus.nl blog Fourth batch from CURABIS ApS, mined from an external BC/NAV testing expert's blog archive (fluxxus.nl). Confirm+StrSubstNo interaction with ConfirmHandler, Table Relation Test's OnAfterRemoveTableRelation exclusion hook (verified against BCApps source, codeunit 134926), committing shared lazy-Initialize fixture data, and Assert.IsFalse vs asserterror for boolean checks. * Address Jesper Schulz-Wedde's review on PR #159 - transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.md: the "Commit causes an error" behavior is specific to an explicitly declared AutoRollback attribute. A test method with no TransactionModel attribute at all is a distinct, valid shape — BCApps' own codeunit 134915 "ERM Online Mapping Setup" commits inside a lazy Initialize() with no attribute declared, cleaning up via a manual asserterror at the end. Evidence for commit-shared-test-fixture- inside-lazy-initialize.md (this PR), which is correct as submitted. - confirm-needs-strsubstno-before-confirmhandler-sees-substituted-text.md: reframe as a known, unconfirmed-fix platform defect (microsoft/ALAppExtensions#23935) rather than designed behavior; add the Message/MessageHandler asymmetry as supporting evidence. - table-relation-test-exclude-known-invalid-relations-via-event.md: note the test-app-only consumer dependency; correct "walks every TableRelation field property in the app" to the actual tenant-wide Table Relations Metadata scope across installed apps. - Wire confirm-needs-strsubstno, commit-shared-test-fixture-inside- lazy-initialize, and table-relation-test-exclude-known-invalid- relations-via-event into al-testing-review.md's candidate-selection cues. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * Address second round of Jesper Schulz-Wedde's review on PR #159 - commit-shared-test-fixture-inside-lazy-initialize.md: fundamentally rewritten. AutoCommit is the documented default TransactionModel, not AutoRollback. Explains the real mechanism (Commit() protects a fixture from the test method's own later deliberate rollback, per Codeunit.Run/ TransactionModel-property semantics) and the TestIsolation dependency (Disabled/Codeunit survive across methods, Function does not). Fixtures rewritten to demonstrate the actual failure/success shape. - transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.md: now states the AutoCommit default explicitly and agrees with the article above, closing the contradiction Jesper flagged between the two testing articles. - Deleted confirm-needs-strsubstno-before-confirmhandler-sees-substituted-text (.md/.good.al/.bad.al): the underlying platform bug (microsoft/ ALAppExtensions#23935) was closed as completed in Feb 2024; cannot be reproduced or bc-version-pinned on any currently supported version. - table-relation-test-exclude-known-invalid-relations-via-event.md: added the [Scope('OnPrem')] boundary verified against BCApps' Table Relation Test codeunit. - use-assert-isfalse-not-asserterror-for-boolean-checks.md: added a Scope section resolving the overlap with asserterror-needs-expectederror-and-code. - al-testing-review.md: fixed the shared-fixture cue to catch the actual anti-pattern instead of the compliant shape, added the missing cue for use-assert-isfalse-not-asserterror-for-boolean-checks, wired precedence between it and the generic asserterror rule, and removed the cue for the deleted article. - Added in-file Source provenance (specific fluxxus.nl post per article, with what was independently verified vs. taken from the post) to the three surviving externally-inspired articles, per Jesper's request that provenance live in the knowledge file itself, not only the PR description. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * Fix remaining correctness issues from Jesper's 2026-09-15 re-review - commit-shared-test-fixture-inside-lazy-initialize: three sub-issues. Recommended TestIsolation = Codeunit instead of listing Disabled as an equal option - Disabled never rolls back at all ("tests are not isolated from each other" per the property's own docs), so a fixture this pattern commits under Disabled is permanent database contamination unless something else tears it down; Disabled is now only mentioned alongside that explicit teardown requirement. Added precedence in al-testing-review.md so the deliberate end-of-test asserterror Error(...) rollback sentinel isn't also flagged by the generic asserterror-needs-expectederror-and-code rule. Rewrote both fixtures to actually demonstrate the pattern: persisted fixture data (an Item record) instead of an empty comment, a second [Test] method that depends on the fixture surviving into it, and an explicit Subtype = TestRunner / TestIsolation = Codeunit runner codeunit. - table-relation-test-exclude-known-invalid-relations-via-event: the length/type rule was stated as one global requirement. Verified ValidateFieldRelation in codeunit 134926 directly (BCApps reference clone) and split it into the two branches the source actually has: a field with any unconditional relation needs exact length and exact resolved type; a field whose relations are all conditional only fails on being shorter (longer is fine) than the largest related field, and when the required type is specifically Code, a Text source passes too - a tolerance that does not apply on the unconditional side and does not extend to a required Text. Rebased onto upstream/main (one conflict in transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.md - upstream had already linked its sample references via the READ convention, ours added a Source section; merged both). Also converted the 3 remaining plain-backtick sample references in this PR to the READ-convention markdown-link form, same fix as #156/#157/#158. * Fix four merge-critical issues from Jesper's 2026-09-22 review - al-testing-review.md: the generic ExpectedError cue's asserterror Assert.IsTrue/IsFalse exclusion was unconditional, but the specialized rule it deferred to only claims the pure-inversion shape. A test expecting the guarded Boolean-returning call itself to raise fell through both routes. Narrowed the exclusion to the same inversion-only condition the specialized cue already uses. - asserterror-needs-expectederror-and-code.md: the rollback-sentinel exception (a trailing asserterror Error(...) used purely to force a fixture rollback, not to verify a specific failure) previously lived only in skill routing prose. Encoded it directly in the article's Anti Pattern section so every consumer of the knowledge base sees it, not just this one skill. - commit-shared-test-fixture-inside-lazy-initialize.good.al/.bad.al: replaced hand-rolled Item.Init()/Insert(true) with LibraryInventory.CreateItem, so the canonical fixture doesn't itself trigger use-library-codeunits-for-test-fixtures. - table-relation-test-exclude-known-invalid-relations-via-event.good.al/ .bad.al: declared minimal "Sample Setup"/"Sample Header" tables inline instead of referencing undefined symbols, matching this repo's own convention that every fixture is self-contained. * Give the table-relation-test fixtures a real relation to exclude and one to protect The "Category Code" field had no TableRelation at all, so the good subscriber's RemoveTableRelation call targeted metadata that never existed - a no-op. Added a real TableRelation to "Sample Setup" on that field (the one known exception to exclude) and a second, ordinary self-referencing relation ("Parent No." -> "Sample Header"."No.") with no exception. The good fixture now removes only the first; the bad fixture's table-wide removal (field/related table/field all 0) now demonstrably also strips the second, showing the actual anti-pattern instead of removing nothing meaningful. --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-authored-by: Jesper Schulz-Wedde <jesper.schulzwedde@microsoft.com> Co-authored-by: Copilot App <223556219+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com>
30 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
30 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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bc-version: [all]
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domain: testing
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keywords: [transactionmodel, attribute, test, autorollback, autocommit, testisolation]
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technologies: [al]
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countries: [w1]
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application-area: [all]
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---
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# Match TransactionModel to the commit behavior of the code under test
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## Description
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`[TransactionModel(...)]` declares how a test method interacts with the database's write transaction. The attribute applies only to methods inside a codeunit with `SubType = Test` and takes one of three values: `AutoRollback`, `AutoCommit`, or `None`. **`AutoCommit` is the documented default** — a test method with no `[TransactionModel(...)]` attribute at all runs under `AutoCommit`, not `AutoRollback` and not `None` (Microsoft's TransactionModel property reference states this explicitly: "AutoCommit is the default value"). The "a call to `Commit` produces a runtime error" behavior is specific to the *explicitly declared* `AutoRollback` attribute. BCApps' own canonical pattern for a lazily-initialized shared fixture (see `codeunit 134915 "ERM Online Mapping Setup"`) declares no `TransactionModel` attribute at all — so it runs under the `AutoCommit` default — calls `Commit()` inside its `Initialize()` helper, and cleans up manually with a deliberate `asserterror Error(...)` at the end rather than relying on automatic rollback; this is a legitimate, common pattern, not a bug. Per the same reference, under `AutoCommit` an error, even one caught by `asserterror`, still rolls back the transaction — but "only to the point at which `Commit` was called" if the code being tested committed first. When a test method *does* declare `AutoRollback` explicitly, the choice must match the code being exercised: per the platform reference, "if the code that you test includes calls to the COMMIT Method, then set the TransactionModel property on the test method to AutoCommit." Applying `AutoRollback` to a test that drives code which calls `Commit` produces a runtime error on the first Commit, not a meaningful assertion failure.
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## Best Practice
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Leave `[TransactionModel(...)]` undeclared to get the `AutoCommit` default when the codeunit's own tests rely on that default's behavior — for example a lazily-initialized shared fixture that commits once and cleans up its own scratch changes with a manual `asserterror`-based rollback (see `commit-shared-test-fixture-inside-lazy-initialize.md`); do not treat that absence as equivalent to declaring `AutoRollback`. When declaring `[TransactionModel(...)]` explicitly instead, pick `AutoRollback` for a test whose own logic and the code it exercises make no `Commit` call, `AutoCommit` when the code under test genuinely calls `Commit` — posting routines, job-queue handlers, integration flows — and make the test exercise that commit path, and `None` for a read-only test or one that drives UI code without writing from the test method itself. Pair an intentional, suite-wide reliance on `AutoCommit` with a `TestIsolation`-enabled test runner so committed changes are reverted at a higher scope.
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See sample: [`transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.good.al`](transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.good.al).
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## Anti Pattern
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Declaring `[TransactionModel(AutoRollback)]` explicitly on a test method without checking whether the tested business logic calls `Commit`. The test throws at the first Commit, leaving no verdict on the behavior it intended to verify; in a CI run this looks like a flake or a setup bug, not a specification mismatch. The mirror-image anti-pattern is defaulting to `AutoCommit` across the suite "to avoid the error" — without a `TestIsolation` runner this permanently dirties the test database between runs and produces order-dependent test outcomes. Flagging a `Commit()` call in a test method that declares no `TransactionModel` attribute at all is not this anti-pattern — that shape does not error, and is BCApps' own documented pattern for shared lazy fixtures.
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See sample: [`transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.bad.al`](transactionmodel-attribute-governs-test-transactions.bad.al).
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## Source
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The `AutoCommit`-is-default claim and the exact rollback-to-last-`Commit` mechanics are quoted from Microsoft's TransactionModel Property reference: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/dynamicsnav-2018-developer/TransactionModel-Property. The current AL [TransactionModel attribute](https://learn.microsoft.com/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/attributes/devenv-transactionmodel-attribute) page describes the same three values but never states a default; this older property reference is the citable source for that fact.
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