CODEWITHSUNDEEP
coded-ui-testsautoit
Bhavani Kannan
Bhavani Kannan

Reputation: 1279

Windows Automation needs interaction with a .net application

I really don't know how to better explain this situation I'm running into but I'll try my best.

This is what I'm trying to do...

I currently have a batch file that does some set of actions such as downloading files from FTP, Folder creation, modifying some text files etc. This was taking us 45 minutes to do manually and with the batch script automation it's easier.

The next step I want to do is, launch our .net Windows application, login to it and do some actions in it and then log out of it. This is actually a regression test case which I've automated using VS Coded UI on another machine. The problem I'm running into is, there is a separate support team who will need to do that 45mins of job which I've already automated followed by some actions after logging into the application. That support team's machines will not have VS or Coded UI installed in it.

So, how do I go about it? Any idea, please?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 101

Answers (1)

Ryanman
Ryanman

Reputation: 880

You can execute the CodedUI tests you've written without Visual Studio/CodedUI being installed on the machines. Remember that you can run tests through controllers and agents in TFS or Microsoft Test Manager. You can take those principles to run them manually, even if it's a strange corner case. This takes two steps, if I recall correctly:

  1. Design your CodedUI tests to reference the CodedUI .dlls as part of the solution, rather than the GAC. By this I mean copy and paste the required .dlls into a solution folder and replace the existing references with ones that point to the .dlls in the folder. When you distribute your tests, be sure to include this soln folder of course. (UPDATE: After some more experience wit this, I've found it much easier to use NuGet Packages instead. Project level references are an absolute NIGHTMARE)
  2. Install the "Test Agent" software that Microsoft provides for free on the tester's machine. This will install the other testing .dlls your tester will probably need in their GAC. You could do step 1 with these as well but to be honest I think this is less trouble. In addition, it installs the necessary mstest executables.

Your testers will then have to use mstest.exe (UPDATE: Once you've installed agents, you can/should use vstest.console.exe as an alternative) in the console to run your CodedUI tests. Alternatively you canprobably use powershell or your batch files to execute your tests and your other tests in one neat package.

Please let me know if this gave you a potential solution for your problem.

Upvotes: 1

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