TFS 2010 - How to fix the issue with automated tests getting aborted in Test Manager

I had been running all my tests for a long time using Build-Deploy-Test workflow (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/tfs-2010-build-deploy-test.aspx)

Suddenly one day, the test runs started getting aborted and there was no specific log which pointed to the root cause.

To find the root cause, I ran all the tests locally from Visual Studio and tried to publish the results against a build from the Test Results window.

The publish failed with the error:
Failed Invalid character in Assert.AreEqual failed. Expected:xxx Actual:yyy

The problem was that xxx and yyy had some invalid characters which was causing the publish to fail. I fixed the test by comparing expected and actual and doing Assert.Fail() if they didn't match. Thus, the invalid characters were not logged to console and the publish started to succeed.

Problem solved and the test runs started getting completed.

Congratulations 2012 Microsoft MVP!

I am so excited to receive the MVP award again. I received an email from Microsoft  today which states:

Dear Anuj Chaudhary,

Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2012 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in Visual Studio ALM technical communities during the past year.

Here is the link to my profile https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Anuj

Visual Studio 2012 RC – Manage Test Controllers

Unlike Visual Studio 2010, Manage Test Controllers option is not available under Test->Manage Test Controllers

There are three options to go to Manage Test Controllers.

The first option is the same which is available in Visual Studio 2010. You can open the Test Settings file and go to Roles Tab

The second option is a newly available in Visual Studio 2012. Open the Load Test and click on Manage Test Controllers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third option is a also newly available in Visual Studio 2012. Open the Load Test, right click on it and select Manage Test Controllers

Visual Studio Web Test - Default Proxy

Learned a new trick today from one of the forums.
If you want your web tests to use the same proxy as the one set in your browser, you can set the Proxy property in the web test to Default

Visual Studio 2012 RC - Test Explorer

Test Explorer allows you to view all the tests in the test project. It also classifies the tests based on the test results. The time taken to execute the test can also be seen in the Test Explorer. We can also search the tests by Test Result, Test File Path and Fully Qualified Name.

To open Test Explorer, click on Test->Windows->Test Explorer

Until we build the test project, no tests are visible in Test Explorer

Once we build the test project, all test appear in "Not Run Tests"

Once we run the testsusing Run, Run All or Run Selected, the execution time for each test can be seen and the tests are classified based on the test results

If we add new tests and build the test project, the new tests appear in "Not Run Tests"

We can search the tests by Test Result, Test File Path and Fully Qualified Name

TFS 11 Beta – Team Explorer

Team Explorer in TFS 2011 allows you to view My Work, Pending Changes, Work Items, Builds, Reports and Settings

You can view the following using Team Explorer:

• In Progress Work Items, Shelvesets and Code Review Requests
• Pending Changes
• Work Items and Queries
• Builds
• Reports
• Team Project and Team Project Collection settings

TFS 11 Beta – Web Access

Web Access in TFS 2011 allows you to view Work Items, Source Control and Builds without launching visual studio.

• You can create and manage work items and view backlog, board and reports.
• You can manage members, iterations and area paths.
• You can also add team favorites.

The web access path looks like http://Server:8080/tfs/TeamProjectCollection/TeamProject