Feedback Edit

Publish Test Results task

  • Article
  • 14 minutes to read

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server 2020 | Azure DevOps Server 2019 | TFS 2018

Note

In Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2018 and previous versions, build and release pipelines are called definitions, runs are called builds, service connections are called service endpoints, stages are called environments, and jobs are called phases.

This task publishes test results to Azure Pipelines or TFS when tests are executed to provide a comprehensive test reporting and analytics experience. You can use the test runner of your choice that supports the results format you require. Supported results formats include CTest, JUnit (including PHPUnit), NUnit 2, NUnit 3, Visual Studio Test (TRX), and xUnit 2.

Other built-in tasks such as Visual Studio Test task and Dot NetCore CLI task automatically publish test results to the pipeline, while tasks such as Ant, Maven, Gulp, Grunt, .NET Core and Xcode provide publishing results as an option within the task, or build libraries such as Cobertura and JaCoCo. If you are using any of these tasks, you do not need a separate Publish Test Results task in the pipeline.

The published test results are displayed in the Tests tab in the pipeline summary and help you to measure pipeline quality, review traceability, troubleshoot failures, and drive failure ownership.

The following example shows the task configured to publish test results.

Open the test history page

You can also use this task in a build pipeline to publish code coverage results produced when running tests to Azure Pipelines or TFS in order to obtain coverage reporting.

Check prerequisites

If you're using a Windows self-hosted agent, be sure that your machine has this prerequisite installed:

Demands

[none]

YAML snippet

# Publish Test Results
# Publish test results to Azure Pipelines
- task: PublishTestResults@2
  inputs:
    #testResultsFormat: 'JUnit' # Options: JUnit, NUnit, VSTest, xUnit, cTest
    #testResultsFiles: '**/TEST-*.xml' 
    #searchFolder: '$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)' # Optional
    #mergeTestResults: false # Optional
    #failTaskOnFailedTests: false # Optional
    #testRunTitle: # Optional
    #buildPlatform: # Optional
    #buildConfiguration: # Optional
    #publishRunAttachments: true # Optional

The default option uses JUnit format to publish test results. When using VSTest as the testRunner, the testResultsFiles option should be changed to **/TEST-*.trx.

testResultsFormat is an alias for the testRunner input name. The results files can be produced by multiple runners, not just a specific runner. For example, jUnit results format is supported by many runners and not just jUnit.

To publish test results for Python using YAML, see Python in the Ecosystems section of these topics, which also includes examples for other languages.

Arguments

Note

Options specified below are applicable to the latest version of the task.

Argument Description
testRunner
Test result format		 (Required) Specify the format of the results files you want to publish. The following formats are supported:
- CTest, JUnit, NUnit 2, NUnit 3, Visual Studio Test (TRX) and xUnit 2
Default value: JUnit
Argument alias: testResultsFormat
testResultsFiles
Test results files		 (Required) Use this to specify one or more test results files.
- You can use a single-folder wildcard (*) and recursive wildcards (**). For example, **/TEST-*.xml searches for all the XML files whose names start with TEST- in all subdirectories. If using VSTest as the test result format, the file type should be changed to .trx e.g. **/TEST-*.trx
- Multiple paths can be specified, separated by a newline.
- Additionally accepts minimatch patterns.
For example, !TEST[1-3].xml excludes files named TEST1.xml, TEST2.xml, or TEST3.xml.
Default value: **/TEST-*.xml
searchFolder
Search folder		 (Optional) Folder to search for the test result files.
Default value: $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)
mergeTestResults
Merge test results		 When this option is selected, test results from all the files will be reported against a single test run. If this option is not selected, a separate test run will be created for each test result file.
Note: Use merge test results to combine files from same test framework to ensure results mapping and duration are calculated correctly.
Default value: false
failTaskOnFailedTests
Fail if there are test failures		 (Optional) When selected, the task will fail if any of the tests in the results file is marked as failed. The default is false, which will simply publish the results from the results file.
Default value: false
testRunTitle
Test run title		 (Optional) Use this option to provide a name for the test run against which the results will be reported. Variable names declared in the build or release pipeline can be used.
platform
Build Platform		 (Optional) Build platform against which the test run should be reported.
For example, x64 or x86. If you have defined a variable for the platform in your build task, use that here.
Argument alias: buildPlatform
configuration
Build Configuration		 Build configuration against which the Test Run should be reported. For example, Debug or Release. If you have defined a variable for configuration in your build task, use that here.
Argument alias: buildConfiguration
publishRunAttachments
Upload test results files		 (Optional) When selected, the task will upload all the test result files as attachments to the test run.
Default value: true

Result formats mapping

This table lists the fields reported in the Tests tab in a build or release summary, and the corresponding mapping with the attributes in the supported test result formats.

Scope Field Visual Studio Test (TRX)
Test run Title Test run title specified in the task
Date started /TestRun/Times.Attributes["start"].Value
Date completed /TestRun/Times.Attributes["finish"].Value
Duration Date completed - Date started
Attachments Refer to Attachments support section below
Test result Title /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult.Attributes["testName"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult.Attributes["testName"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation.Attributes["testName"].Value
Date started /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult.Attributes["startTime"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult.Attributes["startTime"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation.Attributes["startTime"].Value
Date completed /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult.Attributes["startTime"].Value + /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult.Attributes["duration"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult.Attributes["startTime"].Value + /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult.Attributes["duration"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation.Attributes["startTime"].Value + /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation.Attributes["duration"].Value
Duration1 /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult.Attributes["duration"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult.Attributes["duration"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation.Attributes["duration"].Value
Owner /TestRun/TestDefinitions/UnitTest/Owners/Owner.Attributes["name"].Value
Outcome /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult.Attributes["outcome"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult.Attributes["outcome"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation.Attributes["outcome"].Value
Error message /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult/Output/ErrorInfo/Message.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResultOutput/ErrorInfo/Message.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation/Output/ErrorInfo/Message.InnerText
Stack trace /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult/Output/ErrorInfo/StackTrace.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResultOutput/ErrorInfo/StackTrace.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation/Output/ErrorInfo/StackTrace.InnerText
Attachments Refer to Attachments support section below
Console log /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult/Output/StdOut.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResultOutput/Output/StdOut.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation/Output/StdOut.InnerText
Console error log /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult/Output/StdErr.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResultOutput/Output/StdErr.InnerText Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation/Output/StdErr.InnerText
Agent name /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult.Attributes["computerName"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult.Attributes["computerName"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation.Attributes["computerName"].Value
Test file /TestRun/TestDefinitions/UnitTest.Attributes["storage"].Value
Priority /TestRun/TestDefinitions/UnitTest.Attributes["priority"].Value

1 Duration is used only when Date started and Date completed are not available.

2 The fully Qualified name format is Namespace.Testclass.Methodname with a character limit of 512. If the test is data driven and has parameters, the character limit will include the parameters.

Docker

For Docker based apps there are many ways to build your application and run tests:

  • Build and test in a build pipeline: build and tests execute in the pipeline and test results are published using the Publish Test Results task.
  • Build and test with a multi-stage Dockerfile: build and tests execute inside the container using a multi-stage Docker file, as such test results are not published back to the pipeline.
  • Build, test, and publish results with a Dockerfile: build and tests execute inside the container and results are published back to the pipeline. See the example below.

Build, test, and publish results with a Docker file

In this approach, you build your code and run tests inside the container using a Docker file. The test results are then copied to the host to be published to the pipeline. To publish the test results to Azure Pipelines, you can use the Publish Test Results task. The final image will be published to Docker or Azure Container Registry

Get the code

  1. Create a Dockerfile.build file at the root of your project directory with the following:

    # Build and run tests inside the docker container
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:2.1
WORKDIR /app
# copy the contents of agent working directory on host to workdir in container
COPY . ./
# dotnet commands to build, test, and publish
RUN dotnet restore
RUN dotnet build -c Release
RUN dotnet test dotnetcore-tests/dotnetcore-tests.csproj -c Release --logger "trx;LogFileName=testresults.trx"
RUN dotnet publish -c Release -o out
ENTRYPOINT dotnet dotnetcore-sample/out/dotnetcore-sample.dll

    This file contains the instructions to build code and run tests. The tests are then copied to a file testresults.trx inside the container.

  2. To make the final image as small as possible, containing only the runtime and deployment artifacts, replace the contents of the existing Dockerfile with the following:

    # This Dockerfile creates the final image to be published to Docker or
# Azure Container Registry
# Create a container with the compiled asp.net core app
FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspnet:2.1
# Create app directory
WORKDIR /app
# Copy only the deployment artifacts
COPY /out .
ENTRYPOINT ["dotnet", "dotnetcore-sample.dll"]

Define the build pipeline

  1. If you have a Docker Hub account, and want to push the image to your Docker registry, replace the contents of the .vsts-ci.docker.yml file with the following:

    # Build Docker image for this app, to be published to Docker Registry
pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'
steps:
- script: |
    docker build -f Dockerfile.build -t $(dockerId)/dotnetcore-build:$BUILD_BUILDID .
    docker run --name dotnetcoreapp --rm -d $(dockerId)/dotnetcore-build:$BUILD_BUILDID
    docker cp dotnetcoreapp:app/dotnetcore-tests/TestResults $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)
    docker cp dotnetcoreapp:app/dotnetcore-sample/out $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)
    docker stop dotnetcoreapp

- task: PublishTestResults@2
  inputs:
    testRunner: VSTest
    testResultsFiles: '**/*.trx'
    failTaskOnFailedTests: true

- script: |
    docker build -f Dockerfile -t $(dockerId)/dotnetcore-sample:$BUILD_BUILDID .
    docker login -u $(dockerId) -p $pswd
    docker push $(dockerId)/dotnetcore-sample:$BUILD_BUILDID
  env:
    pswd: $(dockerPassword)

    Alternatively, if you configure an Azure Container Registry and want to push the image to that registry, replace the contents of the .vsts-ci.yml file with the following:

    # Build Docker image for this app to be published to Azure Container Registry
pool:
  vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'

steps:
- script: |
    docker build -f Dockerfile.build -t $(dockerId)/dotnetcore-build:$BUILD_BUILDID .
    docker run --name dotnetcoreapp --rm -d $(dockerId)/dotnetcore-build:$BUILD_BUILDID
    docker cp dotnetcoreapp:app/dotnetcore-tests/TestResults $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)
    docker cp dotnetcoreapp:app/dotnetcore-sample/out $(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)
    docker stop dotnetcoreapp

- task: PublishTestResults@2
  inputs:
    testRunner: VSTest
    testResultsFiles: '**/*.trx'
    failTaskOnFailedTests: true

- script: |
    docker build -f Dockerfile -t $(dockerId).azurecr.io/dotnetcore-sample:$BUILD_BUILDID .
    docker login -u $(dockerId) -p $pswd $(dockerid).azurecr.io
    docker push $(dockerId).azurecr.io/dotnetcore-sample:$BUILD_BUILDID 
  env:
    pswd: $(dockerPassword)

  2. Push the change to the main branch in your repository.

  3. If you use Azure Container Registry, ensure you have pre-created the registry in the Azure portal. Copy the admin user name and password shown in the Access keys section of the registry settings in Azure portal.

  4. Update your build pipeline with the following

    • Agent pool: Hosted Ubuntu 1604
      • dockerId: Set the value to your Docker ID for DockerHub or the admin user name for Azure Container Registry.
      • dockerPassword: Set the value to your password for DockerHub or the admin password Azure Container Registry.
    • YAML file path: /.vsts-ci.docker.yml

  5. Queue a new build and watch it create and push a Docker image to your registry and the test results to Azure DevOps.

YAML builds are not yet available on TFS.

Attachments support

The Publish Test Results task provides support for attachments for both test run and test results for the following formats. For public projects, we support 2GB of total attachments.

Visual Studio Test (TRX)

Scope Type Path
Test run Data Collector /TestRun/ResultSummary/CollectorDataEntries/Collector/UriAttachments/UriAttachment/A.Attributes["href"].Value
Test Result /TestRun/ResultSummary/ResultFiles/ResultFile.Attributes["path"].Value
Code Coverage /TestRun/TestSettings/Execution/AgentRule/DataCollectors/DataCollector/Configuration/CodeCoverage/Regular/CodeCoverageItem.Attributes["binaryFile"].Value And /TestRun/TestSettings/Execution/AgentRule/DataCollectors/DataCollector/Configuration/CodeCoverage/Regular/CodeCoverageItem.Attributes["pdbFile"].Value
Test result Data Collectors /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult/CollectorDataEntries/Collector/UriAttachments/UriAttachment/A.Attributes["href"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult/CollectorDataEntries/Collector/UriAttachments/UriAttachment/A.Attributes["href"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation/CollectorDataEntries/Collector/UriAttachments/UriAttachment/A.Attributes["href"].Value
Test Result /TestRun/Results/UnitTestResult/ResultFiles/ResultFile.Attributes["path"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/WebTestResult/ResultFiles/ResultFile.Attributes["path"].Value Or /TestRun/Results/TestResultAggregation/ResultFiles/ResultFile.Attributes["path"].Value

NUnit 3

Scope Path
Test run /test-suite/attachments/attachment/filePath
Test run /test-suite[@type='Assembly']/test-case/attachments/attachment/filePath

Note

The option to upload the test results file as an attachment is a default option in the task, applicable to all formats.

FAQ

What is the maximum permissible limit of FQN?

The maximum FQN limit is 512 characters.

Does the FQN Character limit also include properties and their values in case of data driven tests?

Yes, the FQN character limit includes properties and their values.

Will the FQN be different for sub-results?

Currently, sub-results from the data driven tests will not show up in the corresponding data.

Example: I have a Test case: Add product to cart Data 1: Product = Apparel Data 2: Product = Footwear

All test sub-result published will only have the test case name and the data of the first row.

Open source

This task is open source on GitHub. Feedback and contributions are welcome.

Help and support