Simple Test Approach for HttpClient

It's pretty common practice in .NET Core to take a dependency on HttpClient in your constructor and using the built-in DI container extension to register this. When it comes to unit testing it can always be a bit fiddly when you depend on a concrete class rather than an interface. After solving this problem several times when it comes to HttpClient based unit tests I've create a simple TestHttpClient and TestHttpClientBuilder to simplify the process:

public class TestHttpClientBuilder
{
        private readonly HttpResponseMessage _stubHttpResponseMessage = new(HttpStatusCode.OK);
        private Exception? _exception;
 
        public TestHttpClientBuilder WithStatusCode(HttpStatusCode statusCode)
        {
            _stubHttpResponseMessage.StatusCode = statusCode;
            return this;
        }
 
        public TestHttpClientBuilder WithJsonContent<T>(T expectedResponseObject)
        {
            _stubHttpResponseMessage.Content = new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(expectedResponseObject), Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
            return this;
        }
 
        public TestHttpClientBuilder WithException(Exception ex)
        {
            _exception = ex;
            return this;
        }
 
        public TestHttpClient Build()
        {
            return new TestHttpClient(
                _exception != null ? 
                    new FakeHttpMessageHandler(_exception) : 
                    new FakeHttpMessageHandler(_stubHttpResponseMessage));
        }
 
        public class TestHttpClient : HttpClient
        {
            private readonly FakeHttpMessageHandler _httpMessageHandler;
 
            internal TestHttpClient(FakeHttpMessageHandler httpMessageHandler) : base(httpMessageHandler)
            {
                _httpMessageHandler = httpMessageHandler;
                BaseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost.com");
            }
 
            public IReadOnlyList<HttpRequestMessage> CapturedRequests => _httpMessageHandler.CapturedRequests;
        }
}
 
public class FakeHttpMessageHandler : HttpMessageHandler
{
        private readonly Exception? _exception;
        private readonly HttpResponseMessage _response = new();
        private readonly List<HttpRequestMessage> _capturedRequests = new List<HttpRequestMessage>();
 
        public FakeHttpMessageHandler(Exception exception)
        {
            _exception = exception;
        }
 
        public FakeHttpMessageHandler(HttpResponseMessage response)
        {
            _response = response;
        }
 
        public IReadOnlyList<HttpRequestMessage> CapturedRequests => _capturedRequests;
 
        protected override Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request,
            CancellationToken cancellationToken)
        {
            _capturedRequests.Add(request);
 
            if (_exception != null)
            {
                throw _exception;
            }
 
            return Task.FromResult(_response);
        }
}

Given this code is available to your unit tests, you can now use the builder when instantiating the SUT and use the builder methods to configure the possible responses and/or inspect the captured requests to test your outbound calls. e.g.

public class UnitTestClass
{
	private TestHttpClientBuilder? _testHttpClientBuilder;
	private Lazy<TestHttpClientBuilder.TestHttpClient>? _testHttpClient;

	public void SetUp()
	{
		_testHttpClientBuilder = new TestHttpClientBuilder()
			.WithStatusCode(HttpStatusCode.OK)
			.WithJsonContent(new MyDataType()); // use AutoFixture, test data builder etc. to create a default response

		_testHttpClient = new Lazy<TestHttpClientBuilder.TestHttpClient>(() => _testHttpClientBuilder.Build());
	}

	// Now create tests on the SUT using "_testHttpClient.Value" for the HttpClient ctor argument.
	
	// Make assertions based on changing the response status code / content, or by inspecting "_testHttpClient.Value.CapturedRequests"
}