Upgraded to MSTest v2, The type initializer for 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfiguration' threw an exception

[stephen-nba]

Question

Has anything changed around the DataSource attribute in MSTest v2? Were there any upgrade steps I need to perform?

Description

Have upgraded to MS Test v2 (v 1.1.13). Running my unit test gives:

Message: The type initializer for 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfiguration' threw an exception.

Result StackTrace:  
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.MSTestAdapter.PlatformServices.TestDataSource.GetConnectionProperties(DataSourceAttribute dataSourceAttribute, String& providerNameInvariant, String& connectionString, String& tableName, DataAccessMethod& dataAccessMethod)
   at Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.MSTestAdapter.PlatformServices.TestDataSource.RunDataDrivenTest(TestContext testContext, ITestMethod testMethodInfo, ITestMethod testMethod, TestMethodAttribute executor)

Steps to reproduce

I have the following attributes on my test:

    [TestMethod]
    [DataSource("NoteData")]
    [DeploymentItem(@".\TestFiles\ExcelFiles\TestData.xls")]
    [DeploymentItem(@".\TestFiles\Note", "NoteAck")]
    [DeploymentItem(@".\TestFiles\Note", @"TestFiles\NoteAck")]

In my app.config I have

 <microsoft.visualstudio.testtools>
    <dataSources>
      <add name="NoteData" connectionString="TestDataConnection" dataTableName="IssueNoteAck$" dataAccessMethod="Sequential" />
    </dataSources>
  </microsoft.visualstudio.testtools>

<connectionStrings>    
    <add name="TestDataConnection" connectionString="Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)}; dbq=TestData.xls; defaultdir=.; driverid=790; maxbuffersize=2048; pagetimeout=5; readonly=true;" providerName="System.Data.Odbc" />
  </connectionStrings>

Expected behavior

Test would pass as previously

Actual behavior

As above with exception and stack trace

Environment

Using VS 2017 15.0.0-RTW+26228.4
Win 7
  <package id="MSTest.TestAdapter" version="1.1.13" targetFramework="net462" />
  <package id="MSTest.TestFramework" version="1.1.13" targetFramework="net462" />
.Net Framework v4.6.2

[AbhitejJohn]

@stephen-nba : Thanks for reporting this. This definitely looks like a bug. Does this work if you provide the connection details inline in the DataSource attribute itself instead of in the configuration file?

[Smenus]

Wondering if there's been any movement on this? Our tests have quite a few DataSources defined in the same way, so our move to MSTest v2 is on hold for now...

[Smenus]

Actually, I seem to have found the fix! The issue was the old configSections declaration at the top of the app.config. I found that changing the previous one from <section name="microsoft.visualstudio.testtools" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfigurationSection, Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"/> to <section name="microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfigurationSection, Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.TestFramework.Extensions"/> and switching the <microsoft.visualstudio.testtools> around the dataSources to <microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools> makes everything work again!

[AbhitejJohn]

Great you were able to unblock yourself @smenus. Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral would have to be changed but microsoft.visualstudio.testtools should work too. This does look like a different config from the original poster though. Can you share your entire config section please?

[Smenus]

Of course!

We went from this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="microsoft.visualstudio.testtools" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfigurationSection, Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />
  </configSections>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="UnitTestConnection" connectionString="AConnectionString" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <microsoft.visualstudio.testtools>
    <dataSources>
      <add name="TestDataSource" connectionString="UnitTestConnection" dataTableName="UnitTestTable" dataAccessMethod="Sequential" />
    </dataSources>
  </microsoft.visualstudio.testtools>
  <startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1" />
  </startup>
</configuration>

to this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfigurationSection, Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.TestFramework.Extensions" />
  </configSections>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="UnitTestConnection" connectionString="AConnectionString" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools>
    <dataSources>
      <add name="TestDataSource" connectionString="UnitTestConnection" dataTableName="UnitTestTable" dataAccessMethod="Sequential" />
    </dataSources>
  </microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools>
  <startup>
    <supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.6.1" />
  </startup>
</configuration>

I actually can't remember where I found microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools, I think it was somewhere in this repo actually! Edit: forgot to mention that this was with 1.1.8.

[jayaranigarg]

microsoft.visualstudio.testtools is working perfectly fine with MSTestV2. i.e. final app.config may look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <section name="microsoft.visualstudio.testtools" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfigurationSection, Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.TestFramework.Extensions" />
  </configSections>
  <connectionStrings>
    <add name="MyJetConn" connectionString="Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source=testdatasource.mdb; Persist Security Info=False;" providerName="System.Data.OleDb" />
  </connectionStrings>
  <microsoft.visualstudio.testtools>
    <dataSources>
      <add name="MyJetDataSource" connectionString="MyJetConn" dataTableName="MyDataTable" dataAccessMethod="Sequential"/>
    </dataSources>
  </microsoft.visualstudio.testtools>
</configuration>

[shilpamalhotra-git]

@jayaranigarg @Smenus

Could you guys please have a look at my app.config because I am still getting the error, tried replacing testtools with qualitytools as well. Still its not working <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

[ybykpmk]

Actually, I seem to have found the fix! The issue was the old configSections declaration at the top of the app.config. I found that changing the previous one from <section name="microsoft.visualstudio.testtools" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfigurationSection, Microsoft.VisualStudio.QualityTools.UnitTestFramework, Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"/> to <section name="microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools" type="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting.TestConfigurationSection, Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestPlatform.TestFramework.Extensions"/> and switching the <microsoft.visualstudio.testtools> around the dataSources to <microsoft.visualstudio.qualitytools> makes everything work again!

Thank you Smenus, these codes also worked for me!