XMLUnit is a library that supports testing XML output in several ways.

Some goals for XMLUnit 2.x:

• create .NET and Java versions that are compatible in design while trying to be idiomatic for each platform
• remove all static configuration (the old XMLUnit class setter methods)
• focus on the parts that are useful for testing
  • XPath
  • (Schema) validation
  • comparisons
• be independent of any test framework

We are in the process of finalizing the API for XMLUnit 2.x.

If you are looking for something to work on, we've compiled a list of things that should be done before XMLUnit 2.0 can be released.

Please see the contributing guide for details on how to contribute.

These are some really small examples, more is to come in the user guide

ISource control = Input.FromFile("test-data/good.xml").Build();
ISource test = Input.FromByteArray(CreateTestDocument()).Build();
IDifferenceEngine diff = new DOMDifferenceEngine();
diff.DifferenceListener += (comparison, outcome) => {
            Assert.Fail("found a difference: {}", comparison);
        };
diff.Compare(control, test);

or using the fluent builder API

Diff d = DiffBuilder.Compare(Input.FromFile("test-data/good.xml"))
             .WithTest(CreateTestDocument()).Build();
Assert.IsFalse(d.HasDifferences());

or using the CompareConstraint

Assert.That(CreateTestDocument(), CompareConstraint.IsIdenticalTo(Input.FromFile("test-data/good.xml")));

ISource source = Input.FromString("<foo>bar</foo>").Build();
IXPathEngine xpath = new XPathEngine();
IEnumerable<XmlNode> allMatches = xpath.SelectNodes("/foo", source);
string content = xpath.evaluate("/foo/text()", source);

Validator v = Validator.ForLanguage(Languages.W3C_XML_SCHEMA_NS_URI);
v.SchemaSources = new ISource[] {
        Input.FromUri("http://example.com/some.xsd").Build(),
        Input.FromFile("local.xsd").Build()
    };
ValidationResult result = v.ValidateInstance(Input.FromDocument(CreateDocument()).Build());
bool valid = result.Valid;
IEnumerable<ValidationProblem> problems = result.Problems;

or using ValidationConstraint

Assert.That(CreateDocument(),
            new ValidationConstraint(Input.FromFile("local.xsd")));

XMLUnit requires .NET 3.5 (it is known to work and actually is developed on Mono 4).

The core library provides all functionality needed to test XML output and hasn't got any dependencies. It uses NUnit 2.x for its own tests. The core library is complemented by NUnit constraints.

XMLUnit.NET uses a git submodule for test resources it shares with XMLUnit for Java. You can either clone this repository using git clone --recursive or run git submodule update --init after inside your fresh working copy after cloning normally.

If you have checked out a working copy before we added the submodule, you'll need to run git submodule update --init once.

XMLUnit for .NET builds using NAnt, run nant -projecthelp for the available targets, but mainly you want to run

$ nant

in order to compile core and constraints and build the assemblies.

$ nant test

executes the NUnit tests.