How to programmatically generate a trx file?

I have searched on this topic, didn't find any good info to do it step by step, so I studied it and shared it here. Here is an easy solution.

Find the vstst.xsd file in your VisualStudio installation, use xsd.exe to generate a .cs file:

xsd.exe /classes vstst.xsd

The resulted vstst.cs file contains all classes defining every fields/elements in a trx file.

you can use this link to learn some fields in a trx file: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dhopton/archive/2008/06/12/helpful-internals-of-trx-and-vsmdi-files.aspx

you can also use an existing trx file generated from a mstest run to learn the field.

with the vstst.cs and your knowledge of trx file, you can write code like following to generate a trx file.

TestRunType testRun = new TestRunType();
ResultsType results = new ResultsType();
List<UnitTestResultType> unitResults = new List<UnitTestResultType>();
var unitTestResult = new UnitTestResultType();
unitTestResult.outcome = "passed";
unitResults.Add( unitTestResult );

unitTestResult = new UnitTestResultType();
unitTestResult.outcome = "failed";
unitResults.Add( unitTestResult );

results.Items = unitResults.ToArray();
results.ItemsElementName = new ItemsChoiceType3[2];
results.ItemsElementName[0] = ItemsChoiceType3.UnitTestResult;
results.ItemsElementName[1] = ItemsChoiceType3.UnitTestResult;

List<ResultsType> resultsList = new List<ResultsType>();
resultsList.Add( results );
testRun.Items = resultsList.ToArray();

XmlSerializer x = new XmlSerializer( testRun.GetType() );
x.Serialize( Console.Out, testRun );

note that you may get InvalidOperationException due to some inheritance issues on "Items" fields, like GenericTestType and PlainTextManualTestType (both derived from BaseTestType). There should be a solution by googling. Basically put all "Items" definition into BaseTestType. Here is the link: Serialization of TestRunType throwing an exception

to make the trx file be able to open in VS, there are some fields you need to put in, including TestLists, TestEntries, TestDefinitions and results. You need to link up some of the guids. By looking into an existing trx file, it's not hard to find out.

Good luck!