The SpecFlow+ Runner is out of maintenance. Read more about it here.

Build Servers

You can set up SpecFlow+ Runner to execute your tests whenever a build is created on your build server.

Note: When running tests on a build server with SpecRun.exe (legacy), use the buildserverrun command line option.

For general information on configuring builds, refer to the vendor-specific documentation. The following sections only cover configuring the build to execute your SpecFlow+ tests, not the full configuration process:

SpecFlow+ and TFS/VSTS

By default, TFS looks for a profile named TFS.srprofile to execute your tests; if none is found, TFS uses Default.srprofile instead. If you have changed the name of your profile, you need to enter the name of your profile in your runner settings (<Profile> element) and enter the path to your .runsettings file in the Run Settings File field.

SpecFlow+ LivingDoc

If you are using TFS/VSTS to build your projects, you may want to includes a step to build your living documentation|Generating Documentation using SpecFlow+ LivingDoc.

TFS 2015+/VSTS

Note: General information on running tests with your builds in TFS can be found here.

To configure your build process to execute tests using SpecFlow+ Runner:

  1. Open TFS and switch to your build definition.
  2. Click on Add build step to add a new step to the build definition. Click on Test in the list of categories and click on Add next to “Visual Studio Test”.
  3. Configure the build step as follows:
    • Enter the path to your Test Assembly (the DLL containing your compiled specifications project with the test bindings).
    • If you are using both MSTest and SpecFlow+ Runner, enter the path to NuGet package folder in the Path to Custom Test Adapters field. If you do not enter the path here, only your MSTest tests will be executed as TFS cannot find the SpecFlow+Runner test adapter.
    • If you have renamed your .srprofile file (i.e. the name is not TFS.srprofile or Default.srprofile), ensure the profile is specified in your .runsettings file and enter the name of the .runsettings file in the Run Settings File field.
  4. Save your changes.
  5. You may also want to add an additional build step to generate living documentation from your feature files, see Generating Documentation.

Once the test run is complete, links to the report file and logs generated by SpecFlow+ Runner are available from the test run as attachments.

TFS and XAML

To configure your build process in TFS with XAML:

  1. Define your build definition as described here
  2. In order for the tests to execute, the binaries (DLLs in the various SpecFlow packages) need to be available to the build agent. Either:
    • Enable NuGet restore, in which cases the files are downloaded automatically
    • Check in the DLLs in the corresponding SpecFlow, SpecRun and SpecFlow+ packages. These DLLs are located in the corresponding sub-folders of your solution’s packages directory.
  3. Enter the name of your .srprofile file in the Run Settings File field if the name is not TFS.srprofile or Default.srprofile (see above).

Known Issues

  • The build agents cache the test adapters, which means that the last test adapter to be used is used for each build. You can thus only use a single SpecFlow+ Runner version with the same build agent, as the cached version is always used. If you want to use a different version of SpecFlow+ Runner for different builds, you need to define separate build agents.
  • Upgrading SpecFlow to a newer version requires a restart to purge the cache.

SpecFlow+ and TeamCity

Information on on configuring build steps in TeamCity can be found here. Select VSTest as your test engine type and configure your build step as described in the TeamCity documentation.

You may also want to install the custom logger (the link is on the documentation page).

SpecFlow+ and Jenkins

Note: General information on installing Jenkins can be found here.

The following steps assume that you are using the Git plugin to handle your source files. You will also need to install the MS Build plugin. You probably also want to install the HTML Publisher plugin to handle reports.

If Visual Studio is not installed on the build server, you will also need to install nuget.exe and the Agents for Visual Studio.

To configure your build process in Jenkins to execute tests using SpecFlow+ Runner:

  1. Start the Jenkins web interface.
  2. Click on New Item to add a new project if you have not already set up a project:
  3. Enter a name for your project.
  4. Choose “Freestyle project” from the list.
  5. On the Jenkins main screen, select Manage Jenkins and then Global Tool Configuration.
  6. Add a configuration for MSBuild. Give it a meaningful Name (e.g. “MSBuild”) and enter the Path to MSBuild.
  7. Add a configuration for VSTest as well, including the Path to VSTest.
  8. Select Configure From the project’s main page.
  9. Enable Git under Source Code Management.
  10. Enter your Repository URL, e.g. “https://github.com/Me/MyProject.git”. You can also enter your login credentials.
  11. Specify which branch to build under Branches to build, e.g. “*/master”.
  12. Enable Delete workspace before build starts under Build Environment, otherwise your test results may be incorrect due to the existing TRX files.
  13. Click on the Advanced button.
  14. Click on Add next to Patterns for files to be deleted: Exclude the following:.git/**, TestResults, TestResult/*.html
  15. Click on Add build step under Build and select Execute Windows batch command.
  16. Add the following Command:“C:\PATH\nuget.exe” restore “C:\PATH\MySpecs.sln”Replace “PATH” with the full path to nuget.exe and your solution. This ensures that your NuGet packages are restored each build.
  17. Select the MSBuild configuration you defined in the MSBuild Version field under Build a Visual Studio project or solution using MSBuild.
  18. Enter the path to your solution in the MSBuild Build File field.
  19. Configure your unit tests to run with VSTest.console:
  • Select the configuration you defined earlier in the VStest Version field.
  • Test Files: Enter the path to the assemblies to be tested here.
  • Specify a logger for test results: Select trx.
  • Command Line Arguments: Enter /TestAdapterPath:”C:\PATH\packages” (replace “C:\PATH\” with the path to your solution’s directory).

SpecFlow+ Execution Reports (optional)

The SpecFlow+ execution reports are stored in the TestResults directory of your project. To be able to easily access these reports from the project overview in Jenkins:

  1. Under Post-build Actions, click on Add post-build action and select “Publish HTML reports”.
  2. Enter the path to your project’s TestResults directory under HTML dir to archive.
  3. Set the Index Pages to “ProjectName_ProfileName*.html” (replace “ProjectName and ProfileName with the name of your project and profile respectively) to reflect the SpecFlow+ report naming convention.

The results of your tests are also visualized by the Jenkins interface, e. g. in the build history and graphs. This information is taken from the TRX file generated by MSTest, which needs to be published as well:

  1. Under Post-build Actions, click on Add post-build action and select “Publish MSTest test result report”.
  2. Enter “**/TestResults/*.trx” in the Test report TRX file field under Publish MSTest test result report.

SpecFlow+ and AppVeyor

Note: General information on AppVeyor can be found here.

To configure your AppVeyor build process to execute your test using SpecFlow+ Runner:

  1. Create a new appveyor.yml file or open your existing file.
  2. Add the following before_build section to restore the NuGet packages:
  before_build:
    - appveyor DownloadFile https://dist.nuget.org/win-x86-commandline/latest/nuget.exe
    - appveyor DownloadFile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/appveyor/ci/master/scripts/nuget-restore.cmd
    - nuget-restore MyProject.sln

Replace MyProject.sln with the full path to your solution, relative to the location of the appveyor.yml file.
3. Add the following test_script section to execute the tests and generate the test output for AppVeyor: 

  test_script:
    - ps: vstest.console /logger:Appveyor "AssemblyPath\MyAssembly.dll" /TestAdapterPath:"PackagesPath\packages"

Replace AssemblyPath with the path to your assembly and replace MyAssembly.dll with the name of your assembly.
Replace PackagesPath with the path to the packages folder of your solution.
4. Save appveyor.yml and use the file to build your application with AppVeyor.

A sample project is available here.