How to create an ordered test programmatically?

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Yesterday an internal customer asked me on how he can create an ordered test programmatically. This was the first time someone had asked me this but I could imagine that it is useful if you have a fixed logic to define the order and have reasonable # of ordered tests to create/maintain.

Since ordered tests is an xml file with a fixed schema, it is very easy to create it programmatically. Here is how an ordered test look like: -

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
< OrderedTest name="orderedtest1" storage="c:\users\aseemb\desktop\unittestproject1\unittestproject1\orderedtest1.orderedtest" id="1aeba90d-9c29-4b01-ae4b-fe86bba94a82" xmlns=" https://microsoft.com/schemas/VisualStudio/TeamTest/2010" >
< TestLinks>
< TestLink id="5b688acc-bf10-4c7e-4b60-69d8596bdd90" name="TestMethod1" storage="bin\debug\unittestproject1.dll" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.TestTypes.Unit.UnitTestElement, Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.Tips.UnitTest.ObjectModel, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
</TestLinks>
< /OrderedTest>

So to create an ordered test, you have to generate an xml similar to this. I am assuming that most of the xml is self explanatory (xsd is in %VS Install dir%\Xml\Schemas\vstst.xsd ) and the only confusing thing is the highlighted guids. But in case you have any question on the xml, please feel free to leave a comment and I will revert back.

Here the first guid (1aeba90d-9c29-4b01-ae4b-fe86bba94a82) is the ID of ordered test and for this you can generate a new guid and put it there.

The second guid is about the ID of the testMethod1 and you can use a function similar to the one mentioned below to convert the test (<Name space name>.<class name>.<test method name>) to a guid.

private static Guid GuidFromString(string data)
{

SHA1CryptoServiceProvider provider = new SHA1CryptoServiceProvider();

byte[] hash = provider.ComputeHash(System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(data));

byte[] toGuid = new byte[16];
  Array.Copy(hash, toGuid, 16);

return new Guid(toGuid);
}

 

Enjoy !!