CodedUI tests - start a browser once for the entire set of tests

Question

I'm writing some codedUI tests in VS2010 to test a web application. I'd like to be able to open the browser once for the entire set of tests in the solution and then close it again when the tests finish.

I've tried AssemblyInitialize attribute on a method, with my BrowserWindow.Launch in there, but it gives me the following exception when I run it:

Assembly Initialization method OrdersGridTesting.SuiteSetup.Login threw exception. Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.TechnologyNotSupportedException: Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UITest.Extension.TechnologyNotSupportedException: The browser is currently not supported.. Aborting test execution.

This same code works fine when I put it into a TestMethod, which leads me to believe that this isn't possible. Can someone suggest another method of doing this if so? I'd like a method that doesn't involve adding the same code to every test class in the project, if possible.

Thanks!

Solution

If using ClassInitialize, you need to initialize the playback engine with Playback.Initialize()

  [ClassInitialize]
  public static void LaunchBroswer(TestContext context)
  {         
     Playback.Initialize(); 
     BrowserWindow browser = BrowserWindow.Launch(new System.Uri("about:blank"));
  }

Comments

[rythos42]

I continued working with TestInitialize after I asked the question...and realized that I didn't want to load the browser before the entire test run anyway. If I did, I wouldn't have the test conditions reset before each test run! But I'm glad to know this for the future.

[rythos42]

I'm afraid that's an overly simplistic answer. I'm not going to run it, but the 'Playback.Initialize()' is required in order for the 'Launch' to not throw an exception when you run it in 'AssemblyInitialize'.

[Ciaran Gallagher]

I added Playback.Initialize() function to my AssemblyInitialize method and it didn't make a difference - I'm still getting the error. I'm using an ordered test list to run all my tests.

[hirosht]

I even tried this where I couldn't get it solved. It still keeps closing the browser after testing the step.