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What is BDTest?

BDTest is a testing and reporting framework for .NET built around behaviour-driven testing. You write scenarios as Given / When / Then chains in plain C#. BDTest runs them inside your normal test runner and turns the results into reports that non-developers can read.

Illustrative fragment
[Story(AsA = "account holder", IWant = "to withdraw money", SoThat = "I can use my savings")]
public class WithdrawalTests : TUnitBDTestBase<AccountContext>
{
    [Test]
    [ScenarioText("Withdrawing money reduces the account balance")]
    public async Task WithdrawMoney()
    {
        await Given(() => Account.CreateAnAccount(100m))
            .When(() => Account.Withdraw(25m))
            .Then(() => AccountAssertions.TheBalanceIs(75m));
    }
}

The report for this test reads:

As an account holder I want to withdraw money so that I can use my savings

Withdrawing money reduces the account balance — Passed

  • Given I have an account with a balance of 100
  • When I withdraw 25
  • Then the account balance is 75

Goals​

BDTest structures tests so that they:

  • are clear, concise and easy to understand.
  • are easy to run and debug.
  • do not share state. Each test is independent and free of side effects, so tests can run in parallel.
  • describe business acceptance criteria: how an end user uses the system under test.
  • produce results that you can share with your team or the business.

Why not SpecFlow?​

BDTest started as a reaction to SpecFlow. Think of BDTest as a pure code alternative:

  • No Gherkin files. There is no second language to learn and keep in sync with the code.
  • No generated tests. Your test bodies are your code and run as written, inside your usual runner. The bundled source generator only records step metadata for reports.
  • Easier debugging. Stack traces point at your step methods, not at generated classes. You can step into every method from any IDE.
  • Richer arguments. Pass enums, models, collections and other objects into steps.
  • Reusable steps. A method is not tied to Given, When or Then. Use the same method in any position without extra attributes.

"Non-technical team members can write SpecFlow tests" is the usual counter-argument. In practice they can only combine steps that a developer already wrote. With BDTest, readable method names give them the same building blocks.

You still get business-readable output. Mark classes and methods with [Story], [ScenarioText] and [StepText], or let BDTest convert method names into text.

What is in the box​

PackagePurpose
BDTestCore framework: builders, context, step text, settings and bundled compile-time step metadata.
BDTest.NUnit, BDTest.xUnit, BDTest.MSTest, BDTest.TUnitBase classes that connect BDTest to each test framework.
BDTest.Razor.ReportsReport server controllers and views for an ASP.NET Core app.
BDTest.Reports.Storage.AzureBlobPersistent Azure Blob report storage.

Next steps​