diff --git a/tests/testthat/helper.R b/tests/testthat/helper.R
index e1e0bcf942722a5d14483a962cc3035aea9ffb06..ab43777471a6e3035a8e77c0556e33151c66cfac 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/helper.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/helper.R
@@ -1,3 +1,24 @@
 ok_return_val <- function(fun_name,...) {
     testthat::test_that(paste("function",fun_name,"returns correct result."),...)
 }
+
+gen_test_dirs <- function() {
+
+    tname = tempfile("shiny_test_dirs")
+    dirs = list(metfrag_db_dir = file.path(tname,"mfdb"))
+    dirs$top_data_dir = file.path(tname,"topdatadir")
+    dirs$projects = file.path(tname,"projects")
+    dir.create(tname)
+    for (dr in dirs) dir.create(dr)
+    dirs$root = tname
+    fn_db = system.file("testdata","example_db.csv",package="shinyscreen")
+    dirs
+}
+
+
+gen_test_project <- function() {
+    dirs = gen_test_dirs()
+    project = file.path(dirs$projects,"test_project")
+    dir.create(project)
+    
+}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-api.R b/tests/testthat/test-api.R
index 7f9b16e2ee2092059c0dfc0a67dd275594ae3815..59687506c5a26c41803a5c19fb0a3b1c37305f53 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-api.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-api.R
@@ -11,11 +11,13 @@ test_that("Preparation for app start",{withr::with_tempdir({
     saveRDS("",file=mrt)
     expect_error(prepare_app(dir_before=dbef,
                              projects="absent",
-                             top_data_dir=ddata),
+                             top_data_dir=ddata,
+                             metfrag_db_dir=""),
                  class="projects-absent")
     expect_error(prepare_app(dir_before=dbef,
                              projects=dproj,
-                             top_data_dir="absent"),
+                             top_data_dir="absent",
+                             metfrag_db_dir=""),
                  class="top-data-dir-absent")
 
 })})