Handling Workflow Dependencies

A workflow usually has dependencies on one or more external services. For example, a workflow may read a message from a Service Bus queue using a trigger, or read data from a SQL Server database using a SQL Server action, or send an email using a SMTP action. To test a workflow in an isolated environment, these dependencies need to be removed and replaced with something else that enables an action's inputs and outputs to be validated by the test case, without affecting the functionality or behaviour of the workflow.

The testing framework will automatically remove the following dependencies when a workflow is tested:

• Workflow Triggers that use a non-HTTP connector
• Invoke Workflow actions that call a child workflow
• Actions that use a non-HTTP Built-In Service Provider Connector
• Actions that use a Managed API Connector
• External URLs configured in the Settings file

The testing framework will also remove any retry policies for actions to improve the run-time execution of tests.

These features are described in the next sections.