diff --git a/service-mybatis/src/main/java/fi/nls/oskari/mybatis/MyBatisHelper.java b/service-mybatis/src/main/java/fi/nls/oskari/mybatis/MyBatisHelper.java
index 223e8821f4..78c2d4e4aa 100755
--- a/service-mybatis/src/main/java/fi/nls/oskari/mybatis/MyBatisHelper.java
+++ b/service-mybatis/src/main/java/fi/nls/oskari/mybatis/MyBatisHelper.java
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@
 import org.apache.ibatis.transaction.TransactionFactory;
 import org.apache.ibatis.transaction.jdbc.JdbcTransactionFactory;
 import javax.sql.DataSource;
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.List;
 
 public class MyBatisHelper {
 
@@ -15,6 +18,10 @@ public static SqlSessionFactory initMyBatis(DataSource ds, Class<?>... mappers)
     }
 
     public static Configuration getConfig(DataSource ds, Class<?>... mappers) {
+        if (ds == null) {
+            // TODO: anything better to detect that we are in test env?
+            ds = getTestDS();
+        }
         if (ds == null) {
             throw new NullPointerException("Tried initializing MyBatis without a datasource");
         }
@@ -26,6 +33,18 @@ public static Configuration getConfig(DataSource ds, Class<?>... mappers) {
         return configuration;
     }
 
+    private static DataSource getTestDS() {
+        try {
+            // try to dig up TestHelper that is only available while testing to get a mem-based datasource
+            Class helper = Class.forName("fi.nls.test.util.TestHelper");
+            Method m = helper.getMethod("createMemDBforUnitTest", List.class);
+            // TODO: call with DB initializing scripts to actually use this
+            return (DataSource) m.invoke(null, (Object) Collections.emptyList());
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            throw new RuntimeException("Not testing");
+        }
+    }
+
     public static void addAliases(Configuration config, Class<?>... aliases) {
         for (Class<?> alias : aliases) {
             config.getTypeAliasRegistry().registerAlias(alias);