Saturday 29 March 2014

Execute Coded UI Test with Console Application

Can a Coded UI test executed with  a Console Application? Yes it is possible. I am going to explain how it can be done.

I am going to execute below simple hand written Coded UI test to launch a notepad, using a Console Application.


Create Console Application in VS 2012. Refer the Coded UI in the Console Application. Then add below references to below assemblies.

Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Common.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITesting.dll
from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\PublicAssemblies\

Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.IE.dll
from C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\VSTT\11.0\

Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Framework.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Logging.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Playback.dll
from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\

Then add below code to Console Application


This Console Application now can run Coded UI test.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

I've written about "hand coded" CUITs on my blog.

Some topics:

-- Keep Your Page Objects Clean and DRY
-- Clean and DRY Verifiers
-- Getters and Setters

Rasool Mohammed said...

Hi..

I am getting Type.Initialization Error while executing Playback.Initialize() method.

Chaminda Chandrasekara said...

Hi Rasool,

In the console application project properties make sure it is selected as ".net framework 4.5" for Target Framework. This could be that the target framework is set to ".net Framework 4.5 Client Profile"

Wiktor Zychla said...

Thanks for this, I've been scratching my head over it for a while. My problem was the lack of Playback.Initialize().

Anonymous said...

Hi Chaminda, I am getting null reference exception inside the Test method, where i am calling TestContext.WriteLine(""). How can i fix this?

Sameeraj said...

Thanks. This is exactly what i was looking for.... :)

Unknown said...

Thanks. This post was very helpful.....

AlexW said...

Thanks a lot...

I was missing the Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.IE.dll ...

my program was always throwing exceptions at "Playback.Initialize();"

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I am getting following error

An unhandled exception of type 'System.AggregateException' occurred in Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Framework.dll

Please help..

Sam

Sam said...

Hi,

I got the solution of above problem.

I needed to add the reference of following dll as well

Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.IE.Communication.Interop.dll

Sam

Anonymous said...

Thanks,
those few lines of you just made my day. Been looking for way to long to solve this.... THX

Anonymous said...

Hi,

I am getting following exception on running the program

AggregateException was unhandled. I have added all the mentioned dll including Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.IE.Communication.Interop.dll

Please help

Chaminda Chandrasekara said...

Hi Anonymous,

AggregateException is actually hiding the original exception. You can follow instructions in below links and find the original exception.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11122092/how-to-fix-system-aggregateexception-occurred-in-mscorlib-dll

Sabarish said...

Can we run this console application in machines without visual studio 2013 with only .NET 4.5.1 installed

Anonymous said...

Hi ppl,

I'm getting the issue with Playback.Initialize().
Can anyone help me downloading the Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.IE.Communication.Interop.dll

My mailId - sumithan.7989@gmail.com

Regards,
N. Sumitha

Anonymous said...

Hi Chaminda,

I have a requirement to run coded ui test from WPF application. I am trying to initialize playback and call test method as you mentioned. However, my test cases are data driven and i need to access the testcontext. but the testcontext in this case comes out to be null. Could you please provide some inputs what can be done in this regard?

Many thanks.

Unknown said...

There are a few additional DLLs required for doing this in VS2015 CodedUI.

Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.WindowsStoreUtility
Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.MSAA

I *think* that's the additional ones I had to add as per exceptions thrown.

Any ideas on how can you determine the success/failure of the running test programmatically?

Unknown said...

As per my previous comment, I *think* the following http://stackoverflow.com/a/33920372/2312877 will allow you to see the success/failure of the actual test within the console app (sounded right in theory anyway). I'm still playing around with trying to figure out how to write out the test results to the "TestResults" folder as per a normal run of the coded UI test.

If you have any ideas it's most appreciated! :)

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