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MSTest

ProtoTest.MSTest gives you two static helpers to call from MSTest's assembly hooks, plus a [ProtoTest] attribute that wraps each test and all of its data rows in one ProtoTest context.

Install​

dotnet add package ProtoTest.MSTest

ProtoTest targets .NET 8, 9 and 10. The dotnet new prototest template defaults to net10.0; pass -f net8.0 or -f net9.0 for an older runtime.

Enable it​

ProtoTestAssembly has no lifecycle attributes of its own — it gives you two protected static helpers that you call from [AssemblyInitialize] and [AssemblyCleanup].

using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using ProtoTest.Core;
using ProtoTest.MSTest;
using ProtoTest.Rest;

[TestClass]
public class Setup : ProtoTestAssembly
{
    [AssemblyInitialize]
    public static Task AssemblyInitializeAsync(TestContext context) =>
        InitializeAsync(builder =>
            builder.AddApplication("Api", app => app.AddRest(rest => rest.AddClient("Api"))));

    [AssemblyCleanup]
    public static Task AssemblyCleanupAsync() => CleanupAsync();
}

InitializeAsync throws if the host has already been created, so call it exactly once.

Quick start​

[ProtoTest] derives from TestMethodAttribute, so it replaces [TestMethod]; it overrides ExecuteAsync to run the ProtoTest lifecycle around MSTest's invocation.

using System.Net;
using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
using ProtoTest.Core;
using ProtoTest.MSTest;
using ProtoTest.Rest;

[TestClass]
[Application("Api")]
public class OrderTests
{
    [ProtoTest]
    public async Task Orders_endpoint_responds()
    {
        using var response = await Proto.Context.Rest().GetAsync("/api/orders");
        response.Should.HaveHttpStatus(HttpStatusCode.OK);
    }
}

Per-test lifecycle​

ExecuteAsync is awaited properly — no sync-over-async. It starts the context once, runs base.ExecuteAsync (every data row), then completes the context in a finally, so the trace shows one test whose body ran all rows.

Outcomes​

MSTest resultProtoTest recordsWhy
all rows PassedPassed
all rows Ignored or InconclusiveSkippednothing ran
passed rows mixed with ignored/inconclusive rowsPartialPassed would hide the skip; Skipped would hide the rows that ran
first row Failed, Error, Timeout or AbortedFailedwith TestFailureException when there is one, else error type MSTest.{Outcome}
no results, or an unmapped outcomeUnknown

Skipping​

MSTest 4.4 has no public dynamic-skip API, so a condition returns an ignored TestResult before the lifecycle starts. Its IgnoreReason is internal; the reason travels on the public LogOutput and is prefixed to the display name — Orders_endpoint_responds (skipped: {reason}). The test reads as skipped and still says why. See Skip conditions.

Attachments​

Artifacts are materialized to disk and appended to the first data-row result's TestResult.ResultFiles — the lifecycle spans every data row, so attaching once avoids duplicating them — and they show up in the .trx output.

Parallelism​

Parallelism works with the usual MSTest switch:

[assembly: Parallelize(Scope = ExecutionScope.MethodLevel)]

Limits​

  • The skip reason is not a first-class MSTest property; it only reaches the display name and LogOutput.
  • Attachments land on the first data row only — later rows don't carry copies.
  • One data-row set is one ProtoTest test, not one per row.

Next​