How can I run SpecFlow tests outside of visual studio

Question

I have a suite of SpecFlow tests written in C# using MSTest as the framework. I understand its possible to upload the DLL to MTM and run them through there.

However I was wondering if it was possible for me to execute these tests outside of Visual Studio. For example via a dashboard. I wouldn't want the results uploaded to MTM or TFS as we have a few projects that are not connected to them.

My framework uploads results to a database so thats good enough for me in terms of logging.

I gather I would have to do something with the DLL thats generated from building the project that contains SpecFlow, but I want to avoid using reflection if at all possible.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I could go about this?

Answer 1

Tests written using Specflow are simply tests in selected testing framework (MSTest in your case) so you can run them using test runner for that framework.

In case of MSTest you can use MSTest.exe (located in Visual Studio directory, probably also part of TFS installation). Take a look here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/ms182489.aspx on how to run tests (easiest way is to use /testcontainer option).

Please note that MSTest is not the best test framework and running outside of Visual Studio is not the same as running them inside of it. There are problems with config file and separate files needed by tests. If you hit these problems, you can switch to other test framework (I use NUnit).