I have seen a couple blog entries about executing MSTest unit tests from MSBuild. Most recently I saw the entry by Scott A. Lawrence. So I decided to share how I execute MSTest unit tests from MSBuild

I created a file named Build.Common.UnitTest.targets which contains all the behavior that will execute the test cases. This file can then be imported into whatever scripts that need to execute test cases. The entire file is shown below. We will discuss afterwards.

Build.Common.UnitTest.targets

xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Project ToolsVersion="3.5" DefaultTargets="Build" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">

  <PropertyGroup>

    <RunMSTest Condition="'$(RunMSTest)'==''">trueRunMSTest>

    <BuildInParallel Condition="'$(BuildInParallel)'==''">trueBuildInParallel>

  PropertyGroup>

  <Target Name="MSTestValidateSettings">

    <ItemGroup>

      <_RequiredProperties Remove="@(_RequiredProperties)"/>

      <_RequiredItems Remove="@(_RequiredItems)"/>

    ItemGroup>

    <ItemGroup>

      <_RequiredProperties Include="BuildContribRoot">

        <Value>$(BuildContribRoot)Value>

      _RequiredProperties>

      <_RequiredProperties Include="OutputRoot">

        <Value>$(OutputRoot)Value>

      _RequiredProperties>

      <_RequiredItems Include="MSTestProjects">

        <RequiredValue>@(MSTestProjects)RequiredValue>

        <RequiredFilePath>%(MSTestProjects.FullPath)RequiredFilePath>

      _RequiredItems>

      <_RequiredItems Include="AllConfigurations">

        <RequiredValue>@(AllConfigurations)RequiredValue>

      _RequiredItems>

      <_RequiredItems Include="AllConfigurations.Configuration">

        <RequiredValue>%(AllConfigurations.Configuration)RequiredValue>

      _RequiredItems>

    ItemGroup>

    <Error Condition="'%(_RequiredProperties.Value)'==''"

           Text="Missing required property [%(_RequiredProperties.Identity)]"/>

    <Error Condition="'%(_RequiredItems.RequiredValue)'==''"

           Text="Missing required item value [%(_RequiredItems.Identity)]" />

    <Error Condition="'%(_RequiredItems.RequiredFilePath)' != '' and !Exists('%(_RequiredItems.RequiredFilePath)')"

           Text="Unable to find expeceted path [%(_RequiredItems.RequiredFilePath)] on item [%(_RequiredItems.Identity)]" />

  Target>

  <UsingTask

      TaskName="TestToolsTask"

      AssemblyFile="$(BuildContribRoot)TestToolsTask-1.3\Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.MSBuildTasks.dll"/>

  <PropertyGroup>

    <MSTestDependsOn>

      BuildMSTestProjects;

      BeforeMSTest;

      CoreMSTest;

      AfterMSTest

      $(MSTestDependsOn);

    MSTestDependsOn>

  PropertyGroup>

  <Target Name="MSTest" DependsOnTargets="$(MSTestDependsOn)"/>

  <Target Name="BeforeMSTest"/>

  <Target Name="AfterMSTest"/>

  <Target Name="CoreMSTest" Outputs="%(MSTestProjects.Identity)">

    <Message Text="Running MSTest for project [%(MSTestProjects.Identity)]"/>

    <Message Text="MSTestProjects.Directory: %(MSTestProjects.RootDir)%(MSTestProjects.Directory)" />

    <PropertyGroup>

      <_CurrentConfig>Debug_CurrentConfig>

    PropertyGroup>

    <PropertyGroup>

      <_SearchPath>$(OutputRoot)$(_CurrentConfig)\%(MSTestProjects.Filename)\_SearchPath>

      <_TestContainers>_TestContainers>

    PropertyGroup>

    <TestToolsTask

      SearchPathRoot="%(MSTestProjects.RootDir)%(MSTestProjects.Directory)"

      TestContainers="$(OutputRoot)$(_CurrentConfig)\%(MSTestProjects.Filename)\bin\%(MSTestProjects.Filename).dll"/>

  Target>

  <PropertyGroup>

    <BuildMSTestProjectsDependsOn>

      BeforeBuildMSTestProjects;

      CoreBuildMSTestProjects;

      AfterBuildMSTestProjects;

      $(BuildMSTestProjectsDependsOn);

    BuildMSTestProjectsDependsOn>

  PropertyGroup>

  <Target Name="BuildMSTestProjects" DependsOnTargets="$(BuildMSTestProjectsDependsOn)"/>

  <Target Name="BeforeBuildMSTestProjects"/>

  <Target Name="AfterBuildMSTestProjects"/>

  <Target Name="CoreBuildMSTestProjects" Outputs="%(AllConfigurations.Configuration)"

          DependsOnTargets="CleanMSTest">   

    <PropertyGroup>

      <_CurrentConfig>%(AllConfigurations.Configuration)_CurrentConfig>

    PropertyGroup>

    <Message Text="Building (MSTestProjects.Identity) %(MSTestProjects.Identity)" Importance="high"/>

    <MSBuild Projects="%(MSTestProjects.Identity)"

             Properties="Configuration=$(_CurrentConfig);

                          OutputPath=$(OutputRoot)$(_CurrentConfig)\%(MSTestProjects.Filename)\bin\;

                          BaseIntermediateOutputPath=$(OutputRoot)$(_CurrentConfig)\%(MSTestProjects.Filename)\obj\;

                          GenerateResourceNeverLockTypeAssemblies=true;

                          %(ProjectsToBuild.Properties);

                          $(AllProjectProperties);"

             BuildInParallel="$(BuildInParallel)"

             >

    MSBuild>

  Target>

  <Target Name="CleanMSTest">

    <MSBuild Projects="@(MSTestProjects)"

         Targets="Clean"

         Properties="Configuration=$(_CurrentConfig);

                          OutputPath=$(OutputRoot)$(_CurrentConfig)\%(MSTestProjects.Filename)\bin\;

                          BaseIntermediateOutputPath=$(OutputRoot)$(_CurrentConfig)\%(MSTestProjects.Filename)\obj\;

                          GenerateResourceNeverLockTypeAssemblies=true;"

         BuildInParallel="$(BuildInParallel)"

             />

  Target>