How can I get “Copy to Output Directory” to work w

Question

When I build a unit test project before the tests are executed the test output is copied to a TestResults folder and then the tests are executed. The issue I'm having is that not all the files in the Debug/bin directory are copied to the TestResults project.

How can I get a file that is copied to the Debug/bin directory to also be copied to the TestResults folder?

Answer 1

You can specify deployment attribute like an example shown below; Also you need to set "Content" & "Copy if newer" property ( there is no documentation on the later settings, but you have set those to make it work.

[TestMethod]
[DeploymentItem("mytestdata.xml")]
public void UploadTest()
{



}

Answer 2

[TestMethod]
[DeploymentItem("ProjectName/Folder/SubFolder/file.xml", "Folder/Subfolder")]
public void YourTestMethod()
{
   // in the method you are testing you should have this:
   var filePath = Path.GetDirectoryName(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase) + "/Folder/Subfolder/file.xml";
}

Answer 3

I had to turn on "Enable Deployment" under Test -> Edit Test Settings -> Local -> Deployment for the [DeploymentItem] attribute to work.

Answer 4

The following works in VS2012 for test projects included in multiple solutions without using a testsettings file:

1) Arrange the files and folders you wish to deploy into a folder in the test project directory.

2) In the project properties, create a post build step

xcopy /Y /S /i "$(ProjectDir)<Project_Folder_Name>\*" "$(TargetDir)<Deployment_Folder_Name>"

$(ProjectDir) and $(TargetDir) are macros that will be interpreted by VS and should be included as such.

<Project_Folder_Name> is the name of the folder created in step 1.

<Deployment_Folder_Name> is the name of the folder in which the test files will be deployed and should be named so that it will be unique when multiple test projects are deployed to the same directory, e.g. <Project_Name>_TestInputs.

Test files in shared locations should also be copied to the target directory deployment folder to limit test interactions. Provide the source path relative to the $(ProjectDir) macro. For example "$(ProjectDir)..\..\Common Files\C1219TDL-2008.xml".

3) Add a [DeploymentItem(source, destination)] property to either each test method that uses a deployment file (best practice) or to the test class (easier practice for the lazy or hurried, and the easiest way to update a project the previously used relative paths or a testsettings file).

On a test method, source is the path to the file or directory used in the test method relative to the target directory as created by the xcopy and destination is the path to the directory in which it will be created relative to the deployment directory. So that tests run consistent in either the target directory or a deployment directory. The destination path should be the same as the source path without a file reference. Example: [DeploymentItem("Example_TestInputs\C1219TDL-2008.xml","Example_TestInputs")]. The DeploymentItem should be included on every method that uses that file or directory.

On a class, source and destination are both the name of the folder created in the target directory by the xcopy; this will copy the entire folder to the deployment directory when any test in the class is run. Example: [DeploymentItem("Example_TestInputs","Example_TestInputs")]

4) In the test methods, you can now access files and directories with confidence they will be in the working directory regardless of where Visual Studio has decided to put it that day, e.g. File.Exists(".\Example_TestInputs\C1219TDL-2008.xml").

Answer 5

Would like to just enhance the accepted answer by mentioning a way to get it to deploy specifically for dll's rather then the normal method of using it for data or config etc, for the circumstances where CopyLocal doesn't work:

[DeploymentItem("bin\\release\\iRock.dll")]
[DeploymentItem("bin\\debug\\iRock.dll")]