Run data driven coded ui from console app

Question

I have a requirement to run Coded UI test that is data driven from console application. If I run the Coded UI test as a standalone, then [DataSource] can access the values from the CSV file. Whereas if I call Coded UI from the console app, I get the unhandled exception: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. - since TestContext.DataRow is null.

Here’s snippet from the code

Program.cs (console app):

public class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Playback.Initialize();
        CodedUITestWarmup test = new CodedUITestWarmup();
        test.WarmUp();
        Playback.Cleanup();
    }
}

CodedUITestWarmup.cs (coded ui test):

public class CodedUITestWarmup
{
    [TestMethod]    
    [DataSource("Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.DataSource.CSV", @"|DataDirectory|\DataFiles\warmup.csv", "warmup#csv", DataAccessMethod.Sequential)] 
    public void WarmUp()
    {
        InitializeVendorTest();
        ...
    } 

    private void InitializeVendorTest()
    {      
        caseV = new CaseVariables(TestContext);
        ...
    }      
}

class CaseVariables
{
    public string lastNameID;
    ...

    public CaseVariables(TestContext TestContext)
    {
        lastNameID = TestContext.DataRow["lastNameID"].ToString();
         ...
    }
}

Could you please provide some inputs what can be done in this regard?

Has the CSV file been deployed to the TestContext.DeploymentDirectory directory as wanted by the |DataDirectory| part of the DataSource attribute. You should examine the contents of TestContext.DeploymentDirectory in both the successful and the unsuccessful runs. — AdrianHHH

qchar90 qchar90 · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-21T14:44:21

You cannot run codded ui test without vstestconsole.exe or from visual studio.

You can try run vstestconsole.exe with parameter (path to your test dll) eg. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TestWindow\vstestconsole.exe

Dll file will be created during each build the codedui test project

Run data driven coded ui from console app

2 Answers