Running a generic test after a successful build using vs and TFS 2010

Question

I'm using team explorer under vs2010 to queue a build that is configured to run an automated test after the build. The automated test section is configured to use a vsmdi file that defines one testlist with one generic test that only opens calc.exe.

Looking in the log, after the successful build, mstest generates the following error log and calc is not running on the build agent:

Run MSTest for Metadata File

The MSTestActivity was invoked without a value for Platform or Flavor. The values Mixed Platforms and Debug were used.
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\MSTest.exe /nologo /usestderr /searchpathroot:"C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\Binaries" /resultsfileroot:"C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\TestResults" /testmetadata:"C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\Sources\AUT1.vsmdi" /testlist:"TestList1" /publish:"http://vmftrnd70.devlab.ad:8080/tfs/QTPCollection" /publishbuild:"vstfs:///Build/Build/82" /teamproject:"CITest" /platform:"Mixed Platforms" /flavor:"Debug" 
Loading C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\Sources\AUT1.vsmdi...

Search path(s) for tests:
C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\Binaries
C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\Sources
Search path(s) for default test settings:
C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\Sources

Failed to load tests from 'C:\Builds\4\CITest\CI_AUT_1\Binaries\generictest1.generictest': Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.InvalidStorageExtensionException: File extension specified '.generictest' is not a valid test extension.
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.Tmi.GetTestTypeInfosForExtension(String ext)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.Tmi.GetTestTypesNotManagedInStorage(String storage)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.Tmi.LoadTestsFromTipsHelper(IEnumerable`1 locations, ProjectData projectData)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.Tmi.LoadTests(IEnumerable`1 locations, ProjectData projectData, TestConflictHandler vetoingHandler)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.Tmi.LoadTests(String location, ProjectData projectData, TestConflictHandler vetoingHandler)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.Tmi.LoadTestLinkStorageHelper.LoadTests(String fullStoragePath, ProjectData projectData)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestManagement.Tmi.SimpleLoadTestLinkStorageHelper.Load(String fullStoragePath, ProjectData projectData)
Starting execution...
Test GenericTest1 cannot be found.
No tests to execute.

I've tried all possible ways to get the generic test to run after the build with no success... Nothing about this on msdn\google, Thank you for any clue you can think of.

Answer 1

I haven't used generic tests myself, but from the msdn documentation it looks like they have to be treated as test containers.

In your build definition, change the process to use a test container and use **.generictest instead of **test*.dll and see if that works.

As a note, if you are firing up a GUI tool like calc.exe, then your build server will need to be running interactively otherwise you'll have test failures.