CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studionugetxunitvisual-studio-test-runner
James B
James B

Reputation: 9605

Installing test runner on Visual Studio without NuGet

I recently installed XUnit and the XUnit VS runner (i.e. xunit.runner.visualstudio) on Visual Studio following the documentation. The installation process uses NuGet and on completion I can successfully see all tests in the MS Test Explorer.

However, if I start a new solution and reference all the required XUnit dll's, i.e., I want to use XUnit without using NuGet to install it, the tests never show up in MS Test Explorer (no problems seeing them in the ReSharper test explorer).

I think this has something to do with the XUnit test adapter that Visual Studio uses to find XUnit tests. It appears that NuGet somehow instructs Visual Studio to create the VisualStudioTestExplorerExtensions folder on each build putting the necessary XUnit test adapter dll's (e.g.xunit.runner.visualstudio.testadapter.dll) in that folder. The MS Test Explorer then uses this test adapter to find XUnit test (see SO Question).

When I attempt to use XUnit without NuGet, the VisualStudioTestExplorerExtensions folder never gets created on build. Adding the folder manually with all XUnit dll's in it also doesn't work. It's almost as if i need to instruct Visual Studio to look in that folder, but I can't see any obvious way of doing that.

How do I use/install XUnit without using NuGet? Or, how do I get VS to look in the `VisualStudioTestExplorerExtensions' when looking for tests?

Upvotes: 3

Views: 770

Answers (1)

thebeekeeper
thebeekeeper

Reputation: 364

If you want to install a test runner manually, copy all the necessary dlls to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio {version}\Common7\IDE\CommonExtensions\Microsoft\TestWindow\Extensions

Replacing {version} with the appropriate number.

The drawback here is that this is machine wide (maybe desirable in your case), and that you can't quite as easily replicate this setup on a build server. You also will probably have to restart VS whenever you make changes to these files.

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions