Archive for the ‘.net’ Category.

Text to speech sample in C#

I found out that I had not played with Text to speech in .net yet. So naturally I went to take a look how easy or hard it is to use TTS in C#. It turns out the hardest part is to find the download link for the TTS install. Its hard to understand how Microsoft sometimes seems to hide download links. Once you find the SAPI SDK page, you would think they would have download links, but not so. However you do not need the whole SDK just to do Text to speech. You only need the TTS download which has a much smaller footprint. But again, where is the download link… ? I found one Microsoft page that doesn’t make it clear, and another third party page that I used to download the TTS install.

And now for the code it self, it’s very straight forward. After installing TTS add reference to your project, choose the COM “Microsoft Speech Object Library” that will create interop dll for your project. Add a reference to the speech library in code and the Hello world sample is only two lines of code.

using System;
//
using SpeechLib;

namespace tester
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            SpVoice myVoice = new SpVoice();
            myVoice.Speak(“Hello world”);
        }
    }
}

Another choice is to do the same without using the COM object, as COM is heavy. In that case add reference to System.Speech .net library and the code will look like this.

using System;
//
using System.Speech.Synthesis;

namespace tester
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            SpeechSynthesizer synth = new SpeechSynthesizer();
            synth.Speak(“Hello World”);
        }
    }
}

Non compliant XML in Configuration file Base64

I had a need to store some configuration data that is non XML compliant in my .net configuration file. As the configuration file is XML file I settled on storing the data in Base64 and then converting it back after it’s read from the configuration file. First we take the string and convert it to bytes then we convert the bytes to Base64 string that will be written to the configuration file. Reverse when you want to read the string from the configuration file.

And now for the code, as a UnitTest

// C#
string original = “&at;=@|”=’_EMPTY_’”;
// base64 value = JmF0Oz1AfCcnPSdfRU1QVFlfJw==

// to bytes and back test
byte[] dBytes = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding().GetBytes( original );
System.Text.UTF8Encoding enc = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
string str = enc.GetString(dBytes);
// compare
Assert.AreEqual( original, str);

// This is the string to put in the configuration file now Base64 formatted
string base64String = Convert.ToBase64String( dBytes );
// config string base64 value=JmF0Oz1AfCcnPSdfRU1QVFlfJw==
Console.WriteLine( “config string base64 value=”+ base64String );

// Convert Base64 back to a normal string, this needs to be done after reading
// the base 64 string from the config file
byte[] nonBase64bytes = Convert.FromBase64String( base64String );
// string from bytes
string fromBytes = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding().GetString(nonBase64bytes);
// Make sure it still adds up with the original
Assert.AreEqual(original, fromBytes );

Selenium browser UnitTesting from TeamCity

I just setup browser testing framework utilizing Selenium from TeamCity project. The usual suspects are involved, Gallio, MBUnit, Nant and even C# Unittests.

The usual scenario when it comes to automating browser testing is that the QA / testers will create some scripts to run a browser against your website. Somehow those tests are usually not maintained very well and often are run by hand. There is not much value in browser testing scripts if you have to run them by hand.

As I needed browser testing on one of the projects I’m on I decided to look into using more of a automated setup to run the browser tests. There seem to be two big players Waitn and Selenium, Selenium lends itself to broader range of testing, naturally we will go with Selenium.

Here is the scenario I want, the tester installs a recorder on his computer, in this case a FireFox plugin. The tester records the tests and runs them in the browser using the plugin tool. Once the tester is happy with the tests the tester checks them into the repository. After check-in tester lets a developer know that there are new or changed tests. The developer takes the script and turns it into C# UnitTest, simply has Selenium convert it to UnitTest code. Then the developer takes and updates or adds the tests that resulted from the scripts and checks it into the repository. The conversion step could be automated in the future once Selenium supports that. The next step is to run it from TeamCity and after it runs you get email with the results.

So let’s take a closer look at what is needed. We need the UnitTest to be able to run against different servers using different browsers. We will pass values from TeamCity to the Nant script that is responsible for compiling and running the tests. This is how your test C# configuration file might look like.

<!– Selenium RC properties–>
    <add key=“SeleniumAddress” value=“localhost” />
    <add key=“SeleniumPort” value=“4444″ />
    <add key=“SeleniumSpeed” value=“0″ />
   
    <!– Browser targets –>
    <add key=“BrowserType” value=“*firefox” />
    <add key=“BrowserUrl” value=“http://10.9.169.198/” />
    <add key=“BaseUrlPath” value=“IPCA.Dev/” />

Then the base test class will look something like this.

[FixtureSetUp]
        public virtual void TestFixtureSetup()
        {
            // Read from config
            msBrowserType = getConfigSetting(“BrowserType”, msBrowserType );
            msBrowserUrl = getConfigSetting(“BrowserUrl”, msBrowserUrl);
            msBasePath = getConfigSetting(“BaseUrlPath”, msBasePath);
            //
            msSeleniumAddress = getConfigSetting( “SeleniumAddress”, msSeleniumAddress );
            miSeleniumPort = int.Parse(getConfigSetting(“SeleniumPort”, miSeleniumPort.ToString()) );
            msSeleniumSpeed = getConfigSetting( “SeleniumSpeed”, msSeleniumSpeed );
           
           
            // Start up the selenium session, using config values
            selenium = new DefaultSelenium(msSeleniumAddress, miSeleniumPort, msBrowserType, msBrowserUrl);
            selenium.Start();
            // Clean errors
            verificationErrors = new StringBuilder();

            // sets the speed of execution of GUI commands
            selenium.SetSpeed(msSeleniumSpeed);
        }

        [TearDown]
        public void TeardownTest()
        {
            try
            {
                selenium.Stop();
            }
            catch (Exception)
            {
                // Ignore errors if unable to close the browser
            }
            Assert.AreEqual(“”, verificationErrors.ToString());
        }

And a sample Selenium C# Unittest

//
using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Threading;
//
using Gallio.Framework.Assertions;
using MbUnit.Framework;
//
using Selenium;

namespace SeleniumTests
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class LoginPage : WebTestBase
    {

        [Test]
        public void TheLoginPageTest()
        {
            selenium.Open( this.msBasePath + “TestLogin.aspx”);
            selenium.Click(“lbAdmin”);
            selenium.WaitForPageToLoad(“50000″);
            selenium.Click(“loginLink”);
            selenium.WaitForPageToLoad(“50000″);
            try
            {
                Assert.IsTrue(selenium.IsTextPresent(“my responsibilities regarding permissible access”));
            }
            catch (AssertionException e)
            {
                verificationErrors.Append(e.Message);
            }
            selenium.Click(“ctl00_pageContent_btnSubmit”);
            selenium.WaitForPageToLoad(“50000″);
            try
            {
                Assert.IsTrue(selenium.IsTextPresent(“Total Unassigned Web”));
            }
            catch (AssertionException e)
            {
                verificationErrors.Append(e.Message);
            }
        }
    }
}

After the Nant script compiles the tests and is getting ready to run the UnitTests it needs to startup the Selenium engine. Make sure to spawn in order for the Selenium engine to exist on another thread than your tests.

<property name=“SeleniumExec” value=“java” />
  <property name=“SeleniumPath” value=“C:\apps\selenium\selenium-server-1.0.3\” />
  <property name=”SeleniumParams” value=”-jar ${SeleniumPath}selenium-server.jar” />

    <!– Start selenium –>
    <exec   program=”${SeleniumExec}
      commandline=”
${SeleniumParams}” workingdir=”${path.base}${WebTest}
      spawn=”
true” failonerror=”true” verbose=”true
       />

    <!– Give it a sec to load –>
    <sleep milliseconds=”3000” />

In order to run the tests using different browsers, change the configuration file of the tests before run.

<!– Run tests in Firefox browser –>
    <xmlpoke
        file=“${path.base.test}${assembly.test.config}”
        xpath=“/configuration/appSettings/add[@key='BrowserType']/@value”
        value=“*firefox”
        verbose=“true”/>

    <call target=“runTests” />

<target name=“runTests”
    description=“runs tests using Gallio.” >

   
    <echo message=“*** Start runTests: “/>

      <gallio
        result-property=“exitCode”
        failonerror=“false”
        report-types=“Html;Xml”
        report-directory=“${artifacts}”
        report-name-format=“gallioresults”
        show-reports=“false”
        application-base-directory=“${path.base.test}”
            >

          <!– Specify the tests assemblies  –>
          <files>
            <include name=“${path.base.test}${assembly.test}”/>
          </files>
        </gallio>

        <!–
            Set error for email injector to pick it up and GlobalFailBuildMessage for
            the end target to fail the build after cleanup
          –>

        <if test=“${int::parse(exitCode)!=0}”>
          <property name=“GlobalFailBuildMessage” value=“*** One or more tests failed. Please check the log for more details” dynamic=“true” />
          <echo message=“EmailInjectMsg=${GlobalFailBuildMessage}” />
        </if>

    <echo message=“*** End runTests: “/>
  </target>

And after the run of the Unittests Selenium needs to be shut down

<!– Stop Selenium server –>
      <get  src=“http://localhost:4444/selenium-server/driver/?cmd=shutDownSeleniumServer”
        dest=“shutdown.txt”  failonerror=“false”
      />

As I had a need to setup different configurations in TeamCity to run against different locations on the webserver I used a couple of Nant variables that are passed on the command line from TeamCity, like you normally would do when running Nant script -D:BaseUrlPath=/Test/ etc.

<echo message=“*** Location variables passed from TeamCity”/>
    <echo message=“*** BrowserUrl=${BrowserUrl} “/>
    <echo message=“*** BaseUrlPath=${BaseUrlPath} “/>

Of course you get the Gallio UnitTest report as well

gallio_report

With this setup once we deploy to a server we can run all the browser tests on it using different browsers with one click of a button from TeamCity.

Code coverage from Nant script using Gallio and nCover

I decided to go with MbUnit for a new project, the newest version 3.x comes bundled with Gallio. Gallio is a test runner and can run loads of different flavors of tests. nUnit, msTest, MbUnit, etc. Of course once you have your tests running you wonder how much of your code gets coverage. To figure that one out I added NCover, here is a sample of how you can have nCover cover your Gallio UnitTest runs.

For best results install Gallio on the build machine and point to that directory when you load the task
loadtasks assembly=
also make sure your list of assemblies to be covered is just the assembly name, not the file name.
assembly.list=myAssembly1;myAssembly1;etc

<!– Gallio –>
<target name=“galliounittest”
              description=“Runs MbUnit UnitTests using Gallio.” >

<echo message=“*** Start Gallio unittest: “/>

<!– Run tests –>
<loadtasks assembly=“${path.gallio.task}Gallio.NAntTasks.dll” />

<gallio
  result-property=“exitCode”
  failonerror=“false”
  runner-type=“NCover”
  report-types=“Html;Xml”
  report-directory=“${artifacts}”
  report-name-format=“gallioresults”
  show-reports=“false”
  application-base-directory=“${path.base.test}”
  >

  <runner-property value=“NCoverArguments=’//w ${path.base.test} //a ${assembly.list}’” />
  <runner-property value=“NCoverCoverageFile=’${path.ncover.dir}${coverage.xml.file}’” />
  <!– Specify the tests assemblies  –>
  <files>
    <include name=“${path.base.test}${assembly.test}”/>
  </files>
</gallio>
<fail if=“${exitCode != ’0′}” >One or more tests failed. Please check the log for more details</fail>

<echo message=“*** End Gallio unittest: “/>
</target>

<!– NCover –>
<target name=“nCoverReport”
              description=“Creates UnitTest Coverage report.” >

<echo message=“*** Start nCoverReport: “/>

    <ncoverexplorer
      program=“${path.ncover.explorer.exe}”
      projectName=“${PojectName}”
      reportType=“ModuleClassFunctionSummary”
      outputDir=“${path.ncover.dir}”
      xmlReportName=“${coverage.xml.file}”
      htmlReportName=“${coverage.html.file}”
      showExcluded=“false”
      verbose=“True”
      satisfactoryCoverage=“1″
      failCombinedMinimum=“true”
      minimumCoverage=“0.0″>

      <fileset>
        <include name=“${path.ncover.dir}${coverage.xml.file}” />
      </fileset>
      <exclusions>
        <exclusion type=“Assembly” pattern=“*.Tests” />
        <exclusion type=“Namespace” pattern=“*.Tests*” />
      </exclusions>
    </ncoverexplorer>

<echo message=“*** End nCoverReport: “/>
</target>

Nant, Tf Unable to determine the workspace

I was using Nant to checkout files in a build script and got the error “Unable to determine the workspace” from Team Foundation Server repository. The trick is to reset the cache first, run this command
tf workspaces /s:http://yourserver.com:8080 /noprompt
from your Nant script before doing any checkouts etc, then it should work.

C# download web page

I’m sure you had the need sometime to download the content of a web page to be able to analyze it or work with the content. Here is a code snippet just for you, we will use simple http GET for the specified URL.

public static string getWebPage(string psUrl)
{
    WebResponse result = null;
    string sRet = string.Empty;

    try
    {
        WebRequest req = WebRequest.Create(psUrl);
        req.Method = “GET”;
        req.Timeout = 3 * 1000// 3 secs
        // Explicit no caching, usually this is the default
        req.CachePolicy = new RequestCachePolicy(RequestCacheLevel.BypassCache);

        // Has to process the results if the responding service is spitting it out
        result = req.GetResponse();
        Stream ReceiveStream = result.GetResponseStream();
        Encoding encode = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(“utf-8″);
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(ReceiveStream, encode);
        // in case the caller is interested
        sRet = sr.ReadToEnd();
    }
    finally
    {
        if (result != null) result.Close();
    }

    return sRet;
}