Dynamic file lookup

[mgreisen]

I have a situation where source files need to be dynamically retrieved when coverage is viewed for them. This is because the source tree is too large to make available all at one time.

Also it's possible that the source could come from different kinds of repositories.

Right now I'm thinking the ability to specify a REST API that gets invoked to get a file when someone wants to look at the coverage for a specific file would work.

Any chance this is currently supported or could be added?

[danielpalme]

This is not supported at the moment.

The typical workflow currently is (local machine or on a build server):

• Checkout code
• Run tests and collect coverage information (typically in Cobertura format)
• Generate coverage report with ReportGenerator
  • ReportGenerator generates a HTML file for each covered class with the same class files that were used for test execution
  • Publish report files

If this workflow would be changed to get the class file content dynamically, a couple of other problems have to be solved:

• We have to make sure that the correct version of each file is resolved (same commit), that means that we need to get unique URL of the file. The URL is typically not available in the coverage reports that ReportGenerator parses (depending on your setup, it may be available instead of the local file path).
• The URL needs to be accessible for every viewer of the report
• Since the class file needs to be loaded dynamically, some JavaScript would be required to retrieve the file. JavaScript is blocked on several build servers (e.g. Azure DevOps or Jenkins).

I guess it would be possibile to implement that feature, but it would not work for everyone / in every environment.

[mgreisen]

You are right that the scenario I have is not the typical scenario, this would not run in a build server context. What we are doing is fuzzing binaries and generating coverage data. The coverage data then needs processing with a tool like yours that can generate a report.

At the moment let's assume that the commit hash of the file is available, it would be up to the REST API function to retrieve the right version of the file. In this case a unique URL is not needed. The REST function can return the file contents after lookup. The REST function also will manage access to the source code base, as everyone who looks at the coverage data may not have access rights to the code.

I think your right that some JavaScript to do this would be required.

[danielpalme]

How should we move on with this? I'm really busy at the moment. Can you share a sample coverage file which you want be able to process? A file with 1 or 2 classes should be enough.

[mgreisen]

Let's hold off for now until we get further down our design process. I appreciate your willingness to work with us on this.

[danielpalme]

I'm closing this for now. Feel free to reopen once it becomes relevant.

[mgreisen]

Thanks. I'll do that.