Software Build and Release Specialist

Ever run into the problem where you have to use NAnt or CruiseControl.net script to call Quick Test Professional test suites to only discover that QTP doesn’t really have proper exit codes which drives the error reporting of NAnt/CruiseControl.NET nuts?  Yeah, I have recently.. and here’s how I skirted the problem.

With the suggestion and help from a colleague in SQA, a Visual Basic executable wrapper was written on top of the QTP.exe program and viola!, NAnt now detects the proper exit codes and stops flinging build ‘poo’ errors onto the reports.  First you must use DOS cmd files to detect the various negative exit codes Quick Test Professional spits out whenever it finishes, then write those codes down based on successful/failed test runs for use with your Visual Basic wrapper.  Why Visual Basic?  Because its simple and straight forward, you can also use PERL or any other wrapper that tickles your fancy.

Now.. the real problem arises when you want to integrate QTP test reports into CruiseControl.NET’s webdashboard without having to actually open Quick Test Professional program suite itself.  I will elaborate on how I get around that in a future blog post.