Visual Studio 2012: The Test Explorer

I’ll be blogging just a little bit about some of the new features of Visual Studio 2012 that I notice as I use it.

Take a look at the new Test Explorer window.

This is a much simpler, robust interface than was available in Visual Studio 2010. By default, it provides you with groupings of tests by disposition (failed, skipped, passed, not run).  Rather than having to open up a new window to investigate the cause of a failing test, the same info is shown on the right.  Other nice touches include:

• A progress bar that turns red when something fails
• A compact display of elapsed time for each test
• Run all tests with one click when no tests have been yet run
• Run failed tests, skipped tests, or any of several common groupings from the toolbar
• The ability to right click and run a single test, multiple selected tests, or a group of tests
• Toggle “Run tests after build” so that the tests will run automatically
• Filter tests by a search term
• Tests run faster than in VS2010
• Previous test run’s results remain as greyed-out while the current test run is running
• Group test results by duration (really handy for focusing on improving the slowest tests)
• A red-yellow-green summary of all tests
• No more “Exceptions has been thrown by the target of an invocation” errors (I hope!)

These features are all new since VS2010.  This new window will totally replace both the former Test Results and Test Runs windows for me.  I’d expect this window to be open early and often throughout the development experience.  The test Explorer is docked left by default, but I’ve moved mine to the bottom as seen in the screenshot below.  Enjoy!