Launchers / Automated tests

Microsoft� VisualStudio Coded UI Launcher
(visualstudio_codedui.jar)

The Microsoft� VisualStudio Coded UI launcher allows interfacing with VisualStudio Coded UI tests.

Configuration

The visualstudio_codedui.xml file is just a template and must NOT be edited. It's used by the system to build dynamically the form that the user will be able to fill in from the GUI when creating a custom execution configuration.
Parameter Description
Selenium - HTML
Test root path This must indicate where are located the tests. This is a root path. Each test in XStudio has a canonical path that will be appended to this path.
This path MUST not include an ending slash.
Default value is: C:/my_test_repository
Library name Default value is: my_tests.dll
VisualStudio
Runner path This must indicate where is the Visual Studio Coded UI runner
Default value is: C:/Program Files (x86)/Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0/Common7/IDE/CommonExtensions/Microsoft/TestWindow/vstest.console.exe
Options This must indicate the options to pass to the runner
Default value is: /InIsolation

These values can be changed while creating the campaign session from XStudio.
Note about file path parameters:
Any parameter referring to a file or folder path (for instance Test root path) can be provided either using \ separator (if the tests are going to be executed on a Windows agent) or / separator (if the tests are going to be executed on a linux or MacOSX agent).

On windows, if you provide a path containing an OS-localizable folder such as C:\Program Files, always prefer the English version (i.e. NOT C:\Programmes if you're using a french-localized Windows) or the corresponding native environment variable (i.e. %PROGRAMFILES%).


Process

The tests are executed by the launcher using this syntax:
<runnerPath> <testRootPath>/<libraryName> /tests:<testName> <options> /Logger:trx
And this is executed from the working directory <testRootPath>
The test will be marked as passed or failed depending on the log file generated by VisualStudio in <testRootPath>/TestResults. The xml file (a .trx file) is parsed by the launcher. The xml log and the execution trace of the command are also attached to the testcase execution in XStudio.

Permissions

WARNING: if you're running your tests on Windows, it may be required to run the tests as administrator.
Having an account with Administrators permissions may even not be enough in some cases (especially if you're using Windows 10) and you may need to disable completely the UAC (User Access Control) on your computer.
To do so:
  • Press the Windows + R key combination
  • Type in regedit
  • Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
  • In the right-side pane, look for EnableLUA and set the value 0
  • Close the registry editor
  • Restart your computer

Debug

If your tests are not executed correctly or are reporting only failures, this is very likely because your configuration is incorrect or because you used a wrong naming convention for your tests and test cases.

The best way to quickly find out what's wrong is to look at the traces generated by XStudio (or XAgent).
The traces always include the detailed description of what the launcher performs (command line execution, script execution, API calling etc.) to run a test case. So, if you experiment some problems, the first thing to do is to activate the traces and look at what's happening when you run your tests.

Then, try to execute manually in a cmd box the exact same commands.
This will normally fail the same way.
At this point, you needs to figure out what has to be changed in these commands in order to have them run properly.

When you have something working, compare these commands to what's described in the Process chapter above. This will tell you exactly what you need to change.

Most of the time, this is related to:
  • some incorrect values in some parameters of your configuration,
  • the name of your tests,
  • the name of your test cases,
  • the canonical path of your tests