Collect diagnostic data while testing

  • Article

TFS 2017

Collect diagnostic data while testing your apps. This data will be included in the bugs you file during the test. You can collect diagnostic data from web apps and from desktop apps, and view it in Azure Test Plans.

Prerequisites

  • You must connect to a project. If you don't have a project yet, create one.
  • You must be added to a project. To get added, Add users to a project or team.
  • To request or provide feedback, you must have Stakeholder access or higher.
  • To add or modify bugs or other work item types, you must have the Edit work items in this node permission set to Allow under the corresponding Area Path.
  • To add new tags, you must have the Create tag definition permission set to Allow.

To learn more, see Set permissions and access for testing.

Collect diagnostic data from web and desktop apps

For web apps under test, you can use web-based Microsoft Test Runner. For desktop apps, download and install the Test Runner desktop client to collect the following data on demand:

See Exploratory test and submit feedback directly from your browser.

Screen capture

Capture annotated screenshots from your app:

  1. Open Test Runner and choose the Capture screenshot icon. Ensure that the app from which you want to capture data is selected.

    Capturing a screenshot from the app

  2. Drag to select the area of the screen you want to capture, or just capture the full screen.

    Selecting the area of the screen to capture

  3. If required, edit the title of the screenshot and add annotations and text to it using the icons in the toolbar.

    Annotating the screenshot

  4. Save your screenshot.

    Saving the screenshot

Image action log

Capture your interactions with the web or desktop app as an image action log that provides context:

  1. Open or switch to the Test Runner and choose the Capture user actions... icon. Ensure that the app from which you want to capture data is selected.

    Capturing an image action log from the app

  2. The Test Runner will now record all the actions you take on the app's browser tab or in the desktop app.

    Recording in progress for a web app

    If you create a bug while recording your actions, all the data collected up to that point will be included in the bug.

  3. Finish capturing your actions by choosing the Stop button. The action log is added to the test results as an attachment.

    Stopping a recording for a web app

  4. Choose the ActionLog... link at the bottom of the window to view the data captured in the action log.

    Opening the image action log

    The log opens in your web browser.

    Viewing the data captured in the image action log

Screen recording

Capture screen recordings from your apps:

  1. Open or switch to the Test Runner and choose the Record screen icon.

    Capturing a screen recording from the app

  2. Choose the entire screen, or choose an app to start recording.

    Choosing the screen or app to record

    If you create a bug while recording your screen, the recording automatically stops and is added to the bug.

  3. Finish recording your actions by choosing the Stop button. The recording is added to the test results as an attachment.

    Stopping a screen recording

    If you do not stop the recording after 10 minutes, it stops automatically and is saved as an attachment to your test results. Restart the recording the Record screen icon if required.

  4. Choose the ScreenRecording... link at the bottom of the window to view the captured recording.

    Viewing the screen recording

View the diagnostic data

When you create a bug while capturing diagnostic data, all the data captured up to that point is included in the bug that is created. You can view it before you save the bug.

Viewing the diagnostic data in the bug you are creating

How do I play the video recordings I created with the extension?

If you want to collect advanced diagnostic data such as code coverage, IntelliTrace, and Test Impact data in addition to the data items listed above, you must configure the data collectors and other run settings in Microsoft Test Manager and run your tests using Microsoft Test Manager. For more information, see Run manual tests with Microsoft Test Manager.

Note

If you have an older version of Microsoft Test Manager, we recommend you upgrade to the latest version. However, if you have Microsoft Test Manager 2015 or an earlier version installed, you can choose Microsoft Test Runner 2015 and earlier when you launch the test runner using Run with options. You must configure the data collectors and other run settings in Microsoft Test Manager and specify these as the default settings for the test plan. For more information, see Run manual tests with Microsoft Test Manager.