How to: Create a Web Test Plug-In

Web tests plug-ins enable you to isolate and reuse code outside the main declarative statements in your Web test. A customized Web test plug-in offers you a way to call some code as the Web test is run. The Web test plug-in is run one time for every test iteration. In addition, if you override the PreRequest or PostRequest methods in the test plug-in, those request plug-ins will run before or after each request, respectively.

You can create a customized Web test plug-in by deriving your own class from the WebTestPlugin base class.

You can use customized Web test plug-ins with the Web tests you have recorded, which enables you to write a minimal amount of code to attain a greater level of control over your Web tests. However, you can also use them with coded Web tests. For more information, see How to: Create a Coded Web Test.

Note

You can also create load test plug-ins. For more information, see How to: Create a Load Test Plug-In.

To create a custom Web test plug-in

  1. Open a test project that contains a Web test.

    For more information about how to create a test project, see How to: Create a Test Project.

  2. Create a class library project in which to store your Web test and a Web test plug-in.

  3. Select the class library project and then right-click Add Reference.

  4. On the .NET tab, select Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.WebTestFramework. Click OK.

  5. In your test project, right-click and select Add Reference.

  6. On the Projects tab, select the new class library. Click OK.

  7. Write the code of your plug-in. First, create a new public class that derives from WebTestPlugin.

  8. Implement code inside one or both of the PreWebTest and M:Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.WebTesting.WebTestPlugin.PostWebTest(System.Object,Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.WebTesting.PostWebTestEventArgs) event handlers.

  9. After you have written the code, build the new project.

  10. Open a Web test.

  11. To add the Web test plug-in, click Set Web Test Plug-in on the toolbar. This displays your test plug-in in the Set Web Test Plug-in dialog box. Select your class and then click OK.

    Note

    You can also change the Web test plug-in in the Properties window. Select the Web test node and press F4. In the Properties window, you see the Plug-in category and the plug-ins you have added to the Web test.

Example

The following code creates a customized Web test plug-in that adds an item to the WebTestContext that represents the test iteration.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.WebTesting;

namespace SampleRules
{
    public class SampleWebTestPlugin : WebTestPlugin
    {
        // start counting iterations at 1 not 0
        // so that the iteration number we give matches the run number
        static int testIterationNumber = 1;

        public override void PostWebTest(object sender, PostWebTestEventArgs e)
        {
        }

        public override void PreWebTest(object sender, PreWebTestEventArgs e)
        {
            e.WebTest.Context["TestIterationNumber"] = testIterationNumber;
            testIterationNumber++;
        }
    }
}

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create a Custom Extraction Rule

How to: Create a Custom Validation Rule

How to: Create a Load Test Plug-In

How to: Create a Coded Web Test

How to: Edit an Existing Web Test

Reference

WebTestRequestPlugin

Other Resources

How to: Create a Request Plug-in