How to adjust test configuration in TFS 2015 Visual Studio Test task

Question

I'm trying to setup our TFS 2015 server to run automated tests. I've got it running, but we need to run our tests in Debug mode (for various reasons I can't really adjust). The problem is that I can't seem to figure out a way to switch the configuration in the Test task.

The help that the task links to (here) says that it's as easy as selecting Platform and Configuration, but the problem is that those options don't exist for me (they exist under Reporting, but the help there suggests that they will simply compare the results to other builds with that configuration).

I've also investigated the vstest.console.exe parameters (help I found was this one) as well as modifying the runsettings file, but these only allow me to modify the platform.

Overall, my question is a)is there a reason why I don't see the Platform/configuration options in TFS, and b) given that I don't see them, how can I modify the configuration that the tests are running under? If it helps, TFS is reporting the version as Version 14.95.25122.0, which corresponds to Update 2. I checked the logs for 2.1 and 3, but wasn't able to find anything that suggested that this was added in later versions (though I could be wrong).

UPDATE: I've realized that I misread the Test documentation and that the Platform/Configuration options were always for reporting only.

My question is then if I can actually set this in the tests somehow. Thank you very much for any help.

Answer 1

Assuming you want to compile your test project in Debug mode. You can add a VS Build step to specify the BuildConfiguration variable, and define debug for variable BuildConfiguration. Check the screenshots below:

Then in VS Test step, specify the Test Assembly as **\$(BuildConfiguration)\*test*.dll to test the assemble under Debug folder: