Nunit + MSBuild

 
 

I wanted to run the test cases for my libraries as a part of building them, so I will make sure every time I have to build the libraries that they are functioning correctly.

 
 

Unfortunatly, the built-in tasks will not do that be default; the option here is to call the nunit-console using the

 
 

Then doing a simple google search, I found MSBuildCommunityTasks.

 
 

MSBuild Community Tasks Project is an open source project for some missing and useful tasks, one of them is the Nunit task.

 
 

After I got the installer,I tried to find the documentation and see how to use the Nunit task, but I haven't seen any example on how to use it.

 
 

Try and Error; this is the last resort, but I also got some information by looking into the source code of the Nunit task itself to know how to allow the task to find the nunit-console.exe.

 
 

I followed the following steps to actually get my Nunit test cases to run during my build.

 
 

1 - import the MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets files:
 

<Import
Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>

 
 

2 - Copy the Nunit\bin directory to my source code folder tree under a top level folder; example:

 
 

\My-Source-Code

+--\Tools

+--\Nunit

+--\MyLibrary

 
 

3 - Created a property in the Msbuild script to hold the relative path to nunit binaries

 
 

<PropertyGroup>

<NUnit-ToolPath>.\Tools\NUnit</NUnit-ToolPath>

</PropertyGroup>

 
 

 
 

4 - My library and its tests are part of the same solution, so the MSBuild task <<MSBuild> will build the library and the tests at the sametime.

<MSBuild

Projects="MyLibraryWithTests.sln"

Targets="Build"

/>

 
 

5 - Then come the play with Nunit task to actually run the test cases:

 
 

<NUnit

Assemblies=".\bin\Debug\MyLibrary.Tests.exe"

ToolPath="$(NUnit-ToolPath)"

DisableShadowCopy="true"

/>

 
 

Notice that:

I had to set the DisableShadowCopy="true" to run the tests in their original location and instruct nunit-console not to make a copy in a temp folder

 
 

6 - I liked to organize a little bit, so I have created 2 targets; one for the build and one for the test, then a single target to call them both; which makes my build script looks like this:

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

 
 

<Project xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003" DefaultTargets="BuildAll" >

 
 

<Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>

 
 

<!--ToolsSettings-->

<PropertyGroup>

<NUnit-ToolPath>..\Tools\NUnit</NUnit-ToolPath>

</PropertyGroup>

 
 

 

<Target Name="BuildAll" DependsOnTargets="MyLibrary;MyLibrary-Test">

</Target>

 

<Target Name="MyLibrary">

<MSBuild Projects="MyLibrary.sln" Targets="Build" />

</Target>

 
 

 

<Target Name="MyLibrary-Test">

<NUnit

Assemblies=".\bin\Debug\MyLibrary-Test.exe"

ToolPath="$(NUnit-ToolPath)"

DisableShadowCopy="true"

/>

 

 

</Target>

 
 

 
 

</Project>