Testing Data

Overview

Validate data access behavior with integration tests against a real or ephemeral database.

Core areas

• Test database orchestration
• Migrations and schema setup
• Repository integration tests

Definition of done (DoD)

• Each test gets isolated DB instance (in-memory or temp file)
• Migrations applied automatically before tests run
• Test data seeded via explicit setup, not global fixtures
• No test depends on another test's data
• Tests clean up connections/resources in Dispose
• Repository tests cover CRUD + edge cases (not found, duplicates)

Workflow

1. Provision a test database per test run.
2. Apply migrations before tests.
3. Seed minimal data for each scenario.
4. Tear down and clean after tests.

Guidance

• Prefer isolated databases per test suite.
• Avoid shared mutable state across tests.
• Keep tests slower but reliable.

References

• references/test-db.md for DB setup options.
• references/migrations.md for test migration usage.