Are mocks better than stubs?

Question

A while ago I read the Mocks Aren\'t Stubs article by Martin Fowler and I must admit I\'m a bit scared of external dependencies with regards to added complexity so I would like

Answer 1

It just depends on what type of testing you are doing. If you are doing behavior based testing you might want a dynamic mock so you can verify that some interaction with your dependancy occurs. But if you are doing state based testing you might want a stub so you verify values/etc

For example, in the below test you notice that I stub out the view so I can verify a property value is set (state based testing). I then create a dynamic mock of the service class so I can make sure a specific method gets called during the test (interaction / behavior based testing).

 _
Public Sub Should_Populate_Products_List_OnViewLoad_When_PostBack_Is_False()
    mMockery = New MockRepository()
    mView = DirectCast(mMockery.Stub(Of IProductView)(), IProductView)
    mProductService = DirectCast(mMockery.DynamicMock(Of IProductService)(), IProductService)
    mPresenter = New ProductPresenter(mView, mProductService)
    Dim ProductList As New List(Of Product)()
    ProductList.Add(New Product())
    Using mMockery.Record()
        SetupResult.For(mView.PageIsPostBack).Return(False)
        Expect.Call(mProductService.GetProducts()).Return(ProductList).Repeat.Once()
    End Using
    Using mMockery.Playback()
        mPresenter.OnViewLoad()
    End Using
    'Verify that we hit the service dependency during the method when postback is false
    Assert.AreEqual(1, mView.Products.Count)
    mMockery.VerifyAll()
End Sub