Test class is not visible. Can I not call a test class from a separate test class?

Question

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my question. I am getting near the end of finally testing my new trigger, and started to clean up my code. I decided(as recommended by others in this community) to create a separate class that contains methods to fill Accounts, Opportunities and other objects. However, when I call the class and it's method I get the error: Type is not visible

This is my class with the methods described above.

@isTest
public class TestUtil 
{
    public static Contact initContact(){
    /**
        *   Create a Contact
        *   Insert Contact into DB
        *   Return Contact back into testPage in order to use information
    **/             
        Contact testContact = new Contact (
                    firstName = 'Firstly', lastName = 'Lastly', email = 'test@test.com'
                    );
        insert testContact;
        return testContact;
    }

My test class calling this:

@isTest
private class Test_Trig_Opportunity_CreateServContract {                
    static testMethod void testTriggerOpp() {
        //  Initiliazed Class that contains methods to create SF Objects(Account, Opportunity, etc. )
      TestUtil initObj = new TestUtil();    
        //initialize test variables (called from test variable class)        
      Contact testContact = initObj.initContact();                                                                  

I also tried without calling the class at first:

@isTest
private class Test_Trig_Opportunity_CreateServContract {                
    static testMethod void testTriggerOpp() {               
        //initialize test variables (called from test variable class)        
     Contact testContact = TestUtil.initContact();  

Both bring the same error. Thank you again for your time.

Answer 1

Hi you're second attempt is correct. Since your initContact() method is static you don't need to initialize an instance of TestUtil to access it, i.e. TestUtil.initContact()

If you're still getting the method visibility issue you should log a case with support. I've been using that exact same technique for the past 5 years and haven't had any issues, so it sounds like you may have hit a bug.