Error CS0234 when building solution using TFS 2017 BuildAgent

Question

I ran into the following probem, when trying to build using a TFS build definition.

When executing a Build the agent logs following errors:

Error CS0234: The type or namespace name 'VisualStudio' does not exist in the namespace 'Microsoft' (are you missing an assembly reference?)

Error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'TestInitializeAttribute' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'TestCleanupAttribute' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'TestCleanup' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

Error CS0246: The type or namespace name 'TestMethodAttribute' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

So i understand the message that way, that the buildAgent is unable to find the following .dll

Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;

I have installed Visual Studio 2017 RC and Visual Studio 2017 Build Tools on the server, that runs TFS and the Buildagents.

I have also installed .net 4.6.1 on that mashine.

This accepted answer is not a solution for me.

There must be some kind of solution, that does not include to copy that dll into the git trunk and reference it from there.

Update

I am able to locally build the Solution using Visual Studio 2017 RC on that mashine. But the build agent still throws the same errors.

Are you able to build your project locally in VS 2017 RC? Go to your build agent machine and use msbuild command line to run your project manually to see what result would you get? Also, check causes of Error CS0234 and Error CS0246 on websites below to see whether they can help: docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/articles/csharp/…, docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/articles/csharp/… — Cece Dong - MSFT
Thx for the hint with trying to build it using msbuild from command line. I'll also check that and give feedback — Tobias Theel

Tobias Theel Tobias Theel · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-02T15:16:25

I finaly figured out how to solve this issue.

I added the following nuget package as reference to my project:

https://www.nuget.org/packages/MSTest.TestFramework/

That is the mstestv2 Framework.

Afterwards i had to remove the old reference to the mstestv1 framework.

The build errors are gone now.

Update:

If you want to have your tests discoverable add MSTest TestAdapter to your project.

Thanks to Maciej for that Information.

Error CS0234 when building solution using TFS 2017 BuildAgent

3 Answers