Add option to not generate fake data

[jchannon]

Hi,

Would it be possible to add a checkbox to not generate fake data so you get the class serialized but with empty values?

[jfloodnet]

I had a feeling this would be your request :) Which types would you like to apply this too? Strings only?

This is simple enough to do for strings I believe, have a read of http://blog.ploeh.dk/2009/04/27/ReplacingAutoFixturesDefaultAlgorithms/

[jchannon]

I was going to say all of them but just looked at the code so not sure what will work.

If you returned return MakeTypes.From(source); would that do the trick?

[jfloodnet]

Well not really, MakeTypes literally makes an array of "Type", you would still need an instance for serialisation. AutoFixture is what generates the instances, so you want to customise the data it injects when creating instances.

You could configure AutoFixture to return "default(T)" for every property, you would then get null for strings and 0 for ints. The problem with this approach is it will also generate null for any nested type you have defined.

I'm assuming what you want is a fully defined Json structure covering all the types defined, but with default values for primitive types?

[jchannon]

yeah that or just empty strings for each property

On 7 May 2015 at 11:57, Joe Flood notifications@github.com wrote:

Well not really, MakeTypes literally makes an array of "Type", you would
still need an instance for serialisation. AutoFixture is what generates the
instances, so you want to customise the data it injects when creating
instances.

You could configure AutoFixture to return "default(T)" for every property,
you would then get null for strings and 0 for ints. The problem with this
approach is it will also generate null for any nested type you have
defined.

I'm assuming what you want is a fully defined Json structure covering all
the types defined, but with default values for primitive types?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#1 (comment).

[jfloodnet]

So inside, MakeObjects - something like this would do the trick:

        var fixture = new Fixture();
        if (!withFakeData)
        {
            fixture.Register(() => "");
        }
        var context = new SpecimenContext(fixture);
        foreach (var item in types)
            yield return fixture.Create(item, context);

But you still get random values for Guid / int / Enum / bool etc -

[jchannon]

I'd still want those types to empty too

On 7 May 2015 at 12:05, Joe Flood notifications@github.com wrote:

So inside, MakeObjects - something like this would do the trick:

    var fixture = new Fixture();
    if (!withFakeData)
    {
        fixture.Register(() => "");
    }
    var context = new SpecimenContext(fixture);
    foreach (var item in types)
        yield return fixture.Create(item, context);

But you still get random values for Guid / int / Enum / bool etc -

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#1 (comment).

[jfloodnet]

Yep - so you could carry on the same way registering an empty value for each of the built in types:

i.e. fixture.Register(() => Guid.NewGuid()); fixture.Register(() => 0) etc

OR you can look into creating a custom ISpecimenBuilder that checks if the request is for a primitive type and generates an "empty" value suitable for that type.

This article is not bad to get you started:

http://thomasardal.com/customizations-for-autofixture-my-new-best-friend/