I'm trying to get acquainted with test automation using Microsoft TFS Api.
I've created the program which runs my test set - it uses code similar to one described here, e.g.:
var testRun = _testPoint.Plan.CreateTestRun(false);
testRun.DateStarted = DateTime.Now;
// ...
testRun.Save();
I believe this forces them to start as soon as any of agents can run them, instead of being delayed to certain time. Am I wrong? Anyway, it works all right.
But I was told by my lead that the task should be started each time the new input files are copied to certain folder (on the network I think, or perhaps in TFS).
So I'm searching for a way which allow to trigger tests on some condition - but currently without any luck. Probably I miss proper keywords.
I only found something vaguely related here but it seems they say it is not possible in a proper way.
So are there any facilities in TFS / MTM, any ways or approaches to achieve my goal? Thanks in advance for any hints / links.
You would need to write a system service (or other) that uses the file system watcher. Then when the file changes you can run your code above.
There is no built in feature in TFS to watch a folder for changes.
Related
Recently, my company started to focus Extension_v2 development for Dynamics NAV BC. We store our code in an internal Git-Server. So far, so good.
But startig a new project is still a very fiddly task. You have to create a repository, clone it, execute the AL Code-Task, move the files to the fitting location push the repository to the correct upstream etc. And all this does not include the first initial Steps (README, CHANGELOG and all other fundamental files...).
So I wanted to write a small PowerShell-Script, to do all these initial steps before being able to start working on the Project.
The Problem: I could not find a way to execute the "AL-GO!" task via script.
I have already searched the Internet and some forums for an answer... but it seems like microsoft did not consider the possibility to execute tasks from the AL-Language-Extension via script.
I also played around with the New-NAVAppManifest and the New-NAVAppManifestFile command for the old Extension_V1 development, but that did not do the trick.
I am looking for a fair and easy way to combine the creation of the app.json file and the launch.json file with other commands to easily initialize a new Project without haveing to write all commands manually. Maybe I did not recognize the easy solution. Or maybe this is just the way we have to do it in Extension_v2.
Anyway, thanks for all your help nevertheless.
Greetings.
Stay away from Ext V1. It's highly deprecated at this point.
First of all, why do you need to execute the "AL-Go!" via script? The "AL-Go!" command should already include all necessary steps to create an empty project including the launch.json and app.json. (minimal adjuments required dependent on your BC environment)
There is an extension/plugin for Git in Visual Studio Code which will handle all the repository stuff for you. You don't need to change file locations if everything is set up for Git. I rarely use it yet, but saw a demo for it on the Directions EMEA last year and I'm pretty sure it works at its current state (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
A way to implement the "AL-GO!" command for a script or for setting up additional steps in your project setup might be to write your own visual studio code extension/plugin which requires some additional know-how for that.
OR
You just change the settings/files of the default project, I bet there is at least a file for creating the initial AL project. Just change that to your requirements
This is a bit high-level solution based question: I have a website, and what I need to do is login->navigate->click category->check whether the specific content has come; every 10 mins.
There are quite a few third-party services, but they only checking the website uptime, which is not what I need.
Currently, I am thinking of silly way: create a selenium UI test, and run it every 10 mins, which seems pretty complex.
Feels like need some tool, so that I can run some extra js on a particular web to test my functionality. Any good solution for this? even some js framework, or even third-party payable service that I can direct make use of?
Thanks.
The best way to do this is :
Create a selenium test - Single main method that does all the steps.
Export it as a runnable jar
Schedule the .jar execution using windows scheduler.
Before scheduling the jar, once just double click the .jar file and see if the steps run smoothly.
Alternately you can try using vbscript (.vbs) file also.
I have managed to do Continuous deployment for my Web project using TFS Msbuild.
I have goggled for few hours but couldn't find a relative link to achieve Continuous Deployment for windows service.
Possible to do CD for windows service using TFS Build Definitions? i.e for every check in below steps should be performed, I am using TFS2010 with Windows Server 2008 R2
1] Stop Service,
2] Copy respective Project folder from (Source) Build server to (Destination Server)'staging server1' or 'staging server2'
3] Start Services (willing to do this step manually)
Any blog,tutorial references to achieve this? My guess is need to use Power shell scripts but not sure.
Should be ok, you'll need to install an agent on the box you're deploying to. And you'll need to be able to exit the XAML templates (you'll probably want to copy your existing template that does your build and just add the stop/copy/start stuff onto the end of it).
After your CI build, you'll need to edit it (the XAML template) to start and stop the service you can use the "invoke process" activity (you'll probably want to do something like make it generic and pass in the service name as an argument - note you can change the display names etc in the Metadata argument so it appears meaningful in your build definition).
As far as copying stuff across goes, you can do this fairly easily by accessing properties like the drop location.
Should be fairly straight forward - once you get your head round modifying the templates!
Edit:
Sorry for not responding sooner, I'd have to revise my earlier comment, this isn't as straight forward as it seems unless you really know what you want, I have been thinking about this and like skinning cats, there are more than one ways to achieve this... I've rewritten this a few times so I hope the edit's make sense :)
Boils down to the following:
1) Pass into your template the build agent/machine you want to run this on (this can be done as a simple string, or as an AgentReservationSpec - up to you), since it's unlikely to be the machine that you run your actual CI build on. This is done in the Arguments section of the XAML, as noted before, if you want to edit the display name/description you can edit the Metadata Argument. This machine needs a TFS agent installed of course.
2) Run the task on the remote machine, this is done by adding the Agent Scope activity into your template, you will have to use the info from step 1 to get the ReservationSpec (so would be easier if you add the argument as an AgentReservationSpec or you'll need to resolve this in the template)
2.1) Run the stop/uninstall, this is done via dropping in a (two actually) Invoke Process activity, Invoke Process can take arguments and you need to point it to the executable you're executing, so you'll want to use this, one for the NET command (i.e. NET STOP ), and one for InstallUtil.exe.
2.2) Copy the files from your CI to the remote server, you can use the Copy Directory activity for this, it needs a couple of parameters, the main one is the source location, you should be able to drop in a GetBuildDetail activity, give it a name then reference .DropLocation to get this, destination is wherever you like you're installing to.
2.3) Install the new service as step 2.1, you need to use Invoke Process to install the service, then you can use another to start the service up.
I haven't covered everything, but I haven't set this up myself so I'm sure there are a few pitfalls or things I haven't though of. Off the top of my head this makes sense, but maybe someone that knows better can poke a few holes in it :)
I have a small VB .Net application that, among other things, attempts to substitute system wide typed text by the user(hotstrings concept). To achieve that, I have deployed 'ahk2exe' and 'AutoHotkeySC.bin' with my application and did the following:
When a user assignes a new 'hotstring':
Kill 'hotstring' exe script file if running
Append new hotstring to the script file (if non exist then create a new one)
Convert edited/new script file to exe (using ahk2exe)
Run the newly converted script exe
(somewhere there I also check if the hotstring has been already assigned)
However, I am not totally satisfied with this method for the following two main reasons:
The extra resources deployed with the application.
Lag: The time it takes for the system to kill the process and then restart it takes a minimum of 5 seconds on my fast computer and more on other computers. That amount of time is much more than the time it takes the user to assign the hotstring, minimize/close the window and then test his/her new hotstring. When the user does so initially with no success they will think the process failed. So this method is not very good for user experience.
So, I am looking for a different method or implementation. May be using keyboard hooks? Or maybe adding a .dll library that achieves the same. Are there any resources you know about that might help (free or commercial)? What is the best way to achieve my desired goal?
Many thanks for your help.
Implementing what Autohotkey does would be a pretty non trivial task.
But I'm pretty sure that AHK supports an "autoreload" option for scripts
googling "autohotkey auto reload" turned up several pages discussing that very concept. IF that worked, all you'd have to do is update the script file and that's it, AHK should automatically reload the script.
We have a particular file, say X.zip that is only modified by 1 or 2 people. Hence we don't want the build to trigger on every check-in, as the other files are mostly untouched.
I need to check for a condition prior to building, whether the checked-in item is "X.zip" or not.. if yes, then trigger a build, else don't. We use only CI builds.
Any idea on how to trigger the build only when this particular file is checked-in? Any other approaches would be greatly appreciated as i am a newbie in TFS...
Tara.
I don't know of any OOTB feature which can do this, what you would need to do is write your own custom MSBuild task which is executed prior to the build running (pre-build action).
The task will then need to use the TFS API to check the current check in for the file you want and if it's not found you'll have to set the task to failed.
This isn't really ideal as it'll indicate to Team Build a build failure, which, depending on whether you're using check in policies, may be unhelpful. It'd also be harder to at-a-glance work out which builds failed because of the task and which failed because of a real problem.
You can change the build to occur less frequently rather than every check in, which will reduce load on your build server.
Otherwise you may want to dig into Cruise Control .NET, it may support better conditional builds.
If you could move X.zip into it's own folder, then you could set up a CI build with a workspace that only looked at the folder containing X.zip.
You would then need to add an explicit call to tf get to download the rest of the code as Team Build only downloads what the workspace is looking at.
But this might be simpler than the custom task approach?