Using a config file to override targets in a Visual Studio test project

I wanted one of my coded UI tests to work in different environments, and to do that I wanted to override one of the URLs. I wanted to set that up in a config file rather than a data source. So, I created my own configuration data class for a custom section in App.Config (MSDN Article here):

Configuration Data Class

1. public class TestSiteConfigurationData : ConfigurationSection
2. {
3.     private static ConfigurationPropertyCollection _Properties;
4.     private static bool _ReadOnly;
5.     private static readonly ConfigurationProperty _WebServerName = new ConfigurationProperty("WebServerName", typeof(string), "localhost", ConfigurationPropertyOptions.IsRequired);
6.     private static readonly ConfigurationProperty _WebServerPort = new ConfigurationProperty("WebServerPort", typeof(int), 80);
7.     private static readonly ConfigurationProperty _WebApplicationRootName = new ConfigurationProperty("WebApplicationRootName", typeof(string), "");
8.  
9.     public TestSiteConfigurationData()
10.     {
11.         //init properties
12.         _Properties = new ConfigurationPropertyCollection();
13.         _Properties.Add(_WebServerName);
14.         _Properties.Add(_WebServerPort);
15.         _Properties.Add(_WebApplicationRootName);
16.     }
17.  
18.     // Properties
19.     protected override ConfigurationPropertyCollection Properties
20.     {
21.         get
22.         {
23.             return _Properties;
24.         }
25.     }
26.  
27.     private new bool IsReadOnly
28.     {
29.         get
30.         {
31.             return _ReadOnly;
32.         }
33.     }
34.  
35.     // use this to disable property setting
36.     private void ThrowIfReadOnly(string propertyName)
37.     {
38.         if (IsReadOnly) throw new ConfigurationErrorsException("the property " + propertyName + " is read only.");
39.     }
40.     // this enables the ThrowIfReadOnly method
41.     protected override object GetRuntimeObject()
42.     {
43.         // to enable property setting just assign true to the following flag:
44.         _ReadOnly = true;
45.         return base.GetRuntimeObject();
46.     }
47.  
48.     public string WebServerName
49.     {
50.         get { return (string)this["WebServerName"]; }
51.         set
52.         {
53.             ThrowIfReadOnly("WebServerName");
54.             this["WebServerName"] = value;
55.         }
56.     }
57.  
58.  
59.     [IntegerValidator(MinValue=1, MaxValue=64000, ExcludeRange=false)]
60.     public int WebServerPort
61.     {
62.         get { return (int) this["WebServerPort"]; }
63.         set
64.         {
65.             ThrowIfReadOnly("WebServerPort");
66.             this["WebServerPort"] = value;
67.         }
68.     }
69.  
70.     public string WebApplicationRootName
71.     {
72.         get { return (string)this["WebApplicationRootName"]; }
73.         set
74.         {
75.             ThrowIfReadOnly("WebApplicationRootName");
76.             this["WebApplicationRootName"] = value;
77.         }
78.     }
79.  
80. }

You’ll need to add a reference to the System.Configuration assembly for that to work. Adding annotations to validate the properties would also be a good idea.

Then I added the custom elements to my app.config file (which I added to my test project):

App.Config

1. <?xml version="1.0"?>
2. <configuration>
3.   <configSections>
4.     <section name="TestSiteConfigurationData"
5.              type="Ordermanagement.web.uitest.TestSiteConfigurationData, Ordermanagement.web.uitest, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null"
6.              allowExeDefinition="MachineToApplication" restartOnExternalChanges="true"/>
7.   </configSections>
8.   <!--<TestSiteConfigurationData WebServerName="ordermanagement.hol.net" WebServerPort="80" WebApplicationRootName="" />-->
9.   <TestSiteConfigurationData WebServerName="ordermgtweb.hol.net" WebServerPort="80" WebApplicationRootName="OrderManagementWeb" />
10. </configuration>

The “type” attribute is “[Configuration Class], [assembly holding your extension without the dll/exe suffix], [version], [culture], [key]”.

Next, I created a helper class to format the URL for me:

Helper Class

1. public class TestSiteConfigurationHelper
2. {
3.      TestSiteConfigurationData config;
4.  
5.      public TestSiteConfigurationData Config
6.      {
7.          get { return config; }
8.          set { config = value; }
9.      }
10.  
11.      public string RootUrl
12.      {
13.          get
14.          {
15.              UriBuilder urlBuilder = new UriBuilder();
16.              urlBuilder.Host = config.WebServerName;
17.              urlBuilder.Port = config.WebServerPort;
18.              urlBuilder.Path = config.WebApplicationRootName;
19.              return urlBuilder.Uri.ToString();
20.          }
21.      }
22.  
23.      public TestSiteConfigurationHelper()
24.      {
25.          config = (TestSiteConfigurationData)System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection("TestSiteConfigurationData");
26.      }
27. }

And I called the helper class to replace the recorded URL with the configured one (see lines 1 and 7 below):

Updated Coded UI block

1. TestSiteConfigurationHelper configHelper = new TestSiteConfigurationHelper();
2. // To generate code for this test, select "Generate Code for Coded UI Test" from the shortcut menu and select one of the menu items.
3. // For more information on generated code, see go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=179463
4. this.UIMap.LaunchBrowser();
5.  
6. //override url
7. this.UIMap.NavigatetohttpordermgtholnetParams.UIBlankPageWindowsInteWindowUrl = configHelper.RootUrl; //default "ordermanagement.hol.net/";
8. this.UIMap.Navigatetohttpordermgtholnet();
9.  
10. this.UIMap.ClickonLoginlink();
11. this.UIMap.LoginasusernameusernamepasswordpasswordParams.UIUsernameEditText = TestContext.DataRow["username"].ToString();
12. this.UIMap.LoginasusernameusernamepasswordpasswordParams.UIPasswordEditPassword = Playback.EncryptText(TestContext.DataRow["password"].ToString());
13. this.UIMap.Loginasusernameusernamepasswordpassword();

There are more properties you’d want to overload, but I haven’t done that here. Vishal Joshi has a blog post that describes how to transform the app.config file for different build configurations, and that’s something else I’d like to do.

Some housekeeping is probably a good idea, but this is just a simple example.