AutoTest.NET is a cross-platform continuous testing Visual Studio Add-in, console application, and desktop application for the .NET and Mono frameworks.

It improves test-driven development (TDD) by automatically compiling code and running tests in the background. It can be configured to determine exactly which tests are affected from the code changes since the last build and only run those tests to provide real-time feedback faster than running all the tests in the project. Automatically generated graphs help visualize the relations between methods and the tests that call them. Annotations alongside the code help to immediately see the level of risk when changing pieces of code.

Supported Visual Studio versions: 2008 2010 2012

Supported build frameworks: MSBuild XBuild

Supported projects: C# Visual Basic F#

Supported test runners: NUnit XUnit MSTest MSpec MbUnit

Supported notification systems: notify-send (Linux) Snarl through it's tcp interface (Windows) Growl (Mac, Windows)

File system watchers: Solution file Directory Files \ Assemblies

Getting started

Download the windows installer or binaries from http://continuoustests.com or clone or fork and build from the source code repository https://github.com/continuoustests/AutoTest.Net.

The Windows installer will install the Visual Studio Add-in, console application, and desktop application. Once installed, a dialog will be displayed the next time a solution file is opened to allow configuring the settings for the solution. Refer to the ContinuousTests menu item in Visual Studio to change configuration settings, perform actions, display output windows, and get additional help.

AutoTest.NET can be configured to detect changes to files in the project once they are saved and automatically start to build the code and run the affected tests. It can also be configured to start running tests only when assemblies are built. Changes from specific files and paths can be ignored to avoid an infinite loop for example.

NUnit and XUnit are configured out of the box with AutoTest.NET’s internal runner.

See the instructional videos on http://continuoustests.com for working with ContinuousTests inside Visual Studio.

The console and desktop applications can be used to run continuous tests outside of Visual Studio.

A watch directory must be specified which is the root directory from where AutoTest.NET recursively watches for file/assembly changes.

The watch directory path can be passed as the first command line parameter to AutoTest.Console.exe and AutoTest.WinForms.exe.

Configuration Files

There are two types of configuration files, global and project. Project configuration settings will be merged with the global configuration.

The global configuration file can be found here: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MightyMoose\AutoTest.config

Solution configuration files are specific to each solution file and can be found here: %LOCALAPPDATA%\MightyMoose\storage\Configuration%SolutionName%_%hash%\AutoTest.config

An AutoTest.config can be placed in the root of the watch directory when using the console or desktop application.

AutoTest.config template:

https://github.com/continuoustests/AutoTest.Net/blob/master/src/AutoTest.Core/AutoTest.config.template

A project specific configuration file can look something like this:

Notifications

On non-Windows operating systems notify-send can be installed by running: sudo apt-get install notify-osd. The Growl application can be configured with the growlnotify configuration setting. AutoTest.NET can automatically send notifications when test runs have started and finished.

Ignore File Configuration

The IgnoreFile option can be set to an absolute path or a path relative to the watch directory of the file where paths AutoTest.NET should ignore when detecting changes are configured. This file uses .gitignore syntax and existing .gitignore files are compatible with AutoTest.NET.

An example ignore file:

Making sure the file IgnoreThisOne.xml is ignored

IgnoreThisOne.xml

Should ignore any file or directory called TestResults

TestResults

Should ignore all output xmls

*output.xml

Building from source

1. Clone or fork the repository.
2. Run package.bat (Windows) or package.sh (non-Windows)

The built binaries will be located under the ReleaseBinaries folder. On Windows, the windows installer will be located in the Installer subfolder.

Wiki:

https://github.com/continuoustests/AutoTest.Net/wiki

Keyboard Shortcuts CheatSheet:

http://continuoustests.com/cheatsheet.html

Discussion Group:

http://groups.google.com/group/autotestnet

Special Thanks:

Thanks to Philip Laureano for letting us embed the Linfu Dynamic Proxy source into the MSpec runner enabling us to support all MSpec versions out of the box.

AutoTest.NET is based off of autotest which is a popular Ruby tool for running unit tests as soon as your save your files. This project was originally started by James Avery at http://code.google.com/p/autotestnet/