Moq: how to create a HttpRequest object containing a HttpPostedFile?

Question

I am working with ASP.NET/.NET 4.8 application.

My action method is as follows:

public class TestController: System.Web.Http.ApiController
{
    // pseudo code
    public async Task<IHttpActionResult> Upload()
    {
        var request = HttpContext.Current.Request;
        var file = request.Files[0];//I want to mock this
    }
}

How to mock a HttpRequest which has a file in it?

var mockedRequest = new Mock<HttpRequest>();//not allowed: Type to mock (HttpRequest) must be an interface, a delegate, or a non-sealed, non-static class.

I wonder if both HttpContext and HttpRequest classes are sealed and does not inherit from anything, then how does .NET itself creates objects of these classes (n00b question).

As a workaround, I am trying to construct HttpRequest object. Unfortunately it has only one constructor and it does not take Files as parameter:

var Request = new HttpRequest("Upload", "https://www.google.com", "Id=1");
HttpContext.Current = new HttpContext(
    Request, new HttpResponse(new StringWriter())
);

How do I set this FormData to the HttpRequest object?

string filePath = @"D:\login.txt";
var form = new MultipartFormDataContent();
var fileContent = new ByteArrayContent(File.ReadAllBytes(filePath));
fileContent.Headers.ContentType = MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse("multipart/form-data");
form.Add(fileContent, "file", Path.GetFileName(filePath));

Or is there any other way to mock HttpRequest?

Update I realize HttpContext and HttpRequest has no base class and isn't virtual, and hence is unusable for testing, cannot mock it.
https://www.splinter.com.au/httpcontext-vs-httpcontextbase-vs-httpcontext/
I wonder how do I test my code

Have you tried using the testable base classes that Microsoft provides in ASP.NET Framework, such as HttpContextBase, HttpRequestBase, or HttpPostedFileBase instead of the sealed classes? — Alparslan ŞEN
– Alparslan ŞEN, Commented Sep 29 at 15:38

Nitin S · Accepted Answer · 2025-09-30 06:42:45Z

1

I introduced a HttpContextBase property and modified my code

private HttpContextBase _httpContextBase;
public HttpContextBase HttpContextBase
{
    get {
        return _httpContextBase?? new HttpContextWrapper(HttpContext.Current);
    }
    set {
        _httpContextBase = value;
    }
}

modified code

public class TestController: System.Web.Http.ApiController
{
    // pseudo code
    public async Task<IHttpActionResult> Upload()
    {
        var request = HttpContextBase.Request;
        var file = request.Files[0];
    }
}

now I am able to mock the HttpContextBase, HttpRequestBase and HttpResponseBase
as mentioned in this post https://stackoverflow.com/a/1228208/223752

answered Sep 30 at 6:42

Nitin S

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