How to use user secrets in a dotnet core test project

Question

I want to store a database connection string for my integration tests as a user secret. My project.json looks like this:

{
  ...

  "dependencies": {
    ...
    "Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.UserSecrets": "1.1.0"        
  },

  "tools": {
    "Microsoft.Extensions.SecretManager.Tools": "1.1.0-preview4-final"
  },

  "userSecretsId": "dc5b4f9c-8b0e-4b99-9813-c86ce80c39e6"
}

I've added the following to the constructor of my test class:

IConfigurationBuilder configurationBuilder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
    .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json")
    .AddUserSecrets();

However when I run the tests the following exception is thrown when it hits that line:

An exception of type 'System.InvalidOperationException' occurred in Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.UserSecrets.dll but was not handled in user code

Additional information: Could not find 'UserSecretsIdAttribute' on assembly 'dotnet-test-nunit, Version=3.4.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

Have I missed something or is what I'm trying to do not supported?

Solution 1

See instructions in https://patrickhuber.github.io/2017/07/26/avoid-secrets-in-dot-net-core-tests.html, in particular in InitialiseTest add

// the type specified here is just so the secrets library can 
            // find the UserSecretId we added in the csproj file
            var builder = new ConfigurationBuilder()
                .AddUserSecrets<HttpClientTests>();

            Configuration = builder.Build()

However note that it will not allow to run tests on build server

Solution 2

You must specify the UserSecretsId in Startup of your application.

[assembly: UserSecretsId("xxx")]
namespace myapp
{
    public class Startup
    {
    ...

Then you have to use the overload of .AddUserSecrets(Assembly assembly) in your test project. Example:

.AddUserSecrets(typeof(Startup).GetTypeInfo().Assembly)

Source: https://stackoverflow.com/a/40775511/5270073

Comments

[Paul Hunt]

This just seems to tell me how to use secrets in an ASP.NET project which is not what I'm doing here. I already have a separate web project in which I'm successfully using secrets, what I'm asking about is a class library test project.

[kloarubeek]

Sorry, I overlooked that one, I'll see if there's a solution for that.

[kloarubeek]

this one should do the trick :-). I think you forgot the copyToOutput.

[Aage]

Make sure you use the Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.UserSecrets nuget package to be able to use the AddUserSecrets method.