What is Automated Testing in Azure DevOps?

Test automation in Azure DevOps refers to executing test scripts automatically as part of the build and release pipeline. These tests can include unit tests, integration tests, UI tests, etc. Automated testing in Azure DevOps helps teams to efficiently manage the testing process across different environments and stages of the development lifecycle.

Azure DevOps uses Azure Pipelines as its CI/CD service, which automates the build, test, and deployment phases. Automated tests are typically run during the build (CI) phase to validate code changes and during the release (CD) phase to ensure the application behaves as expected in different environments.One powerful feature of Azure DevOps is Azure Test Plans, a feature that helps teams plan, execute, and track their testing efforts systematically.

Integrating Automated Tests with Azure Pipelines

Now, this allows users to run tests automatically whenever a code is committed or according to a scheduled trigger. Let us go through this step by step:

1. Prepare the testing environment

Before integrating tests, ensure your testing framework and test projects are properly set up. Common testing frameworks compatible with Azure Pipelines include NUnit, xUnit, and MSTest for .NET projects, JUnit for Java, and PyTest for Python. The test projects need to be organized and ready to be executed.

2. Create a Build Pipeline

A build pipeline compiles code runs tests and produces artifacts. Here, Here's it can be set using the:

 

yamlCopy code 

trigger: - main  

pool: vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'  

steps: - script: dotnet restore displayName: 'dotnet restore' 

 - script: dotnet build --configuration Release  

displayName: 'dotnet build' 

 - script: dotnet test --logger "trx;LogFileName=test_results.xml"  

displayName: 'dotnet test' 

In this example, dotnet test runs the tests in the project, and the results are output in the trx format. The script commands can be adjusted based on project requirements and the programming language used.

1)Publish Test Results: To make test results visible in Azure DevOps, use the PublishTestResults task:

 

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- task: PublishTestResults@2 

 inputs: testResultsFormat: 'VSTest'  

testResultsFiles: '**/*.xml'  

failTaskOnFailedTests: true