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Integrate your test suite with BrowserStack

BrowserStack’s SpecFlow SDK supports a plug-and-play integration. Run your entire test suite in parallel in a few steps!

Prerequisites

  • An existing automated test suite
  • .Net v5.0+
  • NUnit v3.0.0+ (if you are using NUnit runner) and xUnit v2.0+ (if you are using xUnit runner)

If you are using Mac computers with Apple silicon chips, use the BrowserStack SDK CLI workflow.

Integration steps

To begin with our starter project, check out our SpecFlow sample project. If you are already using the sample project, you may skip the integration steps.

Based on the method you use to build your project, follow these steps to integrate your test suite with BrowserStack. You can use either NUnit or xUnit as runners for SpecFlow.

Set BrowserStack credentials

Save your BrowserStack credentials as environment variables. It simplifies running your test suite from your local or CI environment.

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Add BrowserStack SDK as NuGet package

Steps to install BrowserStack SDK as a NuGet package:

  1. On the Visual Studio toolbar, select Project > Manage NuGet Packages. A NuGet Package Manager Window opens.
  2. In the Browse tab, search for BrowserStack.TestAdapter, and click Install.

Install BrowserStack as NuGet

Create your BrowserStack config file

After installing the SDK, create a browserstack.yml config file at the root level of your project. This file holds all the required capabilities to run tests on BrowserStack.

Set access credentials

Set userName and accessKey parameters in the browserstack.yml file, available in the root directory, to authenticate your tests on BrowserStack.

Set platforms to test on

Set the browsers/devices you want to test under the platforms object. Our config follows W3C formatted capabilities.

Parallel thread #1
Parallel thread #2
Parallel thread #3

Do you want to dynamically configure platforms?

To dynamically configure platforms across different tests, you can comment out the platforms capability while still passing platform-specific capabilities.

Set number of parallel threads per platform

The parallelsPerPlatform property determines the number of parallel threads to be executed. BrowserStack’s SDK runner will select the best strategy based on the configured value.

Example 1: If you have configured 3 platforms and set parallelsPerPlatform as 2: a total of 6 (3 x 2) parallel threads will be used on BrowserStack.

Example 2: If you have configured 1 platform and set parallelsPerPlatform as 15: a total of 15 (1 x 15) parallel threads will be used on BrowserStack.

Do you want to perform cross-browser testing without test level parallelization?

Remove the parallelsPerPlatform capability from the configuration file.

Do you want to test parallelization without performing cross-browser testing?

Remove or comment out the platform capability while keeping the parallelsPerPlatform capability intact in the configuration file.

Do you want to skip cross-browser testing as well as parallelization?

Remove or comment out the platform and parallelsPerPlatform capabilities from the configuration file.

Enable BrowserStack Local

Test localhost/internal servers in your network

True
False
Test localhost/staging websites that are not publicly accessible

BrowserStack’s Local Testing feature connects with test suites pointing to your localhost URL

Learn more

BrowserStack Local supports all advanced use cases and restricted networks. Contact our support team for assistance in configuring BrowserStack Local for your enterprise.

BrowserStack Reporting

You can leverage BrowserStack’s extensive reporting features using the following capabilities:

Build Name

Set a name to your build (usually the same as the build ID that’s on your CI/CD platform).
Accepted characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, ., :, -, [], /, @, &, ', _. All other characters are ignored.
Character limit: 255

buildIdentifier Description Generated build name on dashboard
${BUILD_NUMBER} (Default) If build is triggered locally, an incremental counter is appended.

If build is triggered with CI tools, CI generated build number is appended.
bstack-demo 1


bstack-demo CI 1395
${DATE_TIME} The timestamp of run time is appended to the build. bstack-demo 29-Nov-20:44

Advanced use cases for Build name

Custom formatting of build name

Prefix buildIdentifier with desired characters, for example, # or :

buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: '#${BUILD_NUMBER}'

Re-run tests in a build

You can re-run selected tests from a build using any of the following options:

Option 1: Set the existing build name in the BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME variable and prepend it to your test run command to re-run tests in the same build:

MacOS/Linux:

BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME=“bstack-demo 123” dotnet test --filter "Category=sample-test"

Windows Powershell:

$env:BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME=“bstack-demo 123”; dotnet test --filter "Category=sample-test"

Windows cmd:

set BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME="bstack-demo 123" && dotnet test --filter "Category=sample-test"


Option 2: Set the build name as a combination of buildName and buildIdentifier, as seen on the dashboard, and set buildIdenitifier as null:

buildName: bstack-demo 123
buildIdentifier: null


Option 3: Set the buildIdentifier as the build number or time of the required build as seen on the dashboard:

buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: 123


Project Name

Set a project name for your project.

Do you want to enable/disable auto-marking of test status and session?

The sessionName and sessionStatus are the names of your test sessions and status of your test sessions respectively. They are automatically picked from your test class/spec names and statuses. They do not need to be set manually when using the BrowserStack SDK. To override the sessionName and sessionStatus capabilities, use the following in your browserstack.yml file:

You can configure local testing to start without initializing the BrowserStack binary, or even with an existing binary using a local identifier

testContextOptions:
    skipSessionName: true
    skipSessionStatus: true

Use additional debugging features

BrowserStack offers session logs, screenshots of failed commands, and a video of the entire test, with additional options to enable.

Visual logs

Enables screenshots for every selenium command ran

True
False
Network logs

Enables network capture for the session in HAR format. Reduces session performance slightly

True
False

Use Percy Visual Testing

Percy is an all-in-one visual testing and review platform enabling teams to automate visual tests, detect visual bugs, and provide valuable insights into UI changes.

Percy Visual Testing

Enable visual testing to automatically identify and highlight visual UI changes.

Note: Using Percy to perform Visual testing affects the performance of your Automate tests.

True
False

percyCaptureMode takes effect only if you set percy to true. If you set the capture mode to manual, ensure you use the Percy Screenshot function in your test script.

Update browserstack.yml file

Update the browserstack.yml file in the root folder of your test suite and add the following code to it.

browserstack.yml
Copy icon Copy

Use our Capability Generator to select from a comprehensive set of options you can use to customize your tests.

Run your test suite

The BrowserStack Test Adapter enables you to execute your test suite seamlessly, just as you did previously.

  1. On the Visual Studio toolbar, select Test > Test Explorer.
  2. Right-click on your test and click Run.

Run test suite using VS code

Set BrowserStack credentials

Save your BrowserStack credentials as environment variables. It simplifies running your test suite from your local or CI environment.

Copy icon Copy
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Install BrowserStack SDK

Run the following command to install the BrowserStack SDK and create a browserstack.yml file in the root directory of your project.

  • The browserstack.yml config file holds all the required capabilities to run tests on BrowserStack.

  • The BrowserStack.TestAdapter works on top of your framework test adapter to run parallel tests on BrowserStack across multiple platforms mentioned on the browserstack.yml file.

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[Only for Macs with Apple silicon] Install dotnet x64 on MacOS

If you are using a Mac computer with Apple silicon chip (M1 or M2) architecture, use the given command.

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  • <path> - Mention the absolute path to the directory where you want to save dotnet x64
  • <version> - Mention the dotnet version which you want to use to run tests

This command performs the following functions:

  • Installs dotnet x64
    Installs the required version of dotnet x64 at an appropriate path

  • Sets alias
    Sets an alias for the dotnet installation location on confirmation (enter y option)
    The command sets the installation path in your ~/.zshrc (zsh) or ~/.bashrc (bash) profile and you can use this alias to run your tests later. If you choose not to set the alias, when you run the tests, you have to use the entire path to the installation location on every test run.

Update your BrowserStack config file

Now that the BrowserStack SDK has been installed and the browserstack.yml config file has been created, update your browserstack.yml config file with the following parameters:

Set platforms to test on

Set the browsers and devices you want to test under the platforms object. Our config follows W3C formatted capabilities.

Parallel thread #1
Parallel thread #2
Parallel thread #3

Do you want to dynamically configure platforms?

To dynamically configure platforms across different tests, you can comment out the platforms capability while still passing platform-specific capabilities.

Set number of parallel threads per platform

The parallelsPerPlatform property determines the number of parallel threads to be executed. BrowserStack’s SDK runner will select the best strategy based on the configured value.

Example 1: If you have configured 3 platforms and set parallelsPerPlatform as 2: a total of 6 (3 x 2) parallel threads will be used on BrowserStack.

Example 2: If you have configured 1 platform and set parallelsPerPlatform as 15: a total of 15 (1 x 15) parallel threads will be used on BrowserStack.

Do you want to perform cross-browser testing without test level parallelization?

Remove the parallelsPerPlatform capability from the configuration file.

Do you want to test parallelization without performing cross-browser testing?

Remove or comment out the platform capability while keeping the parallelsPerPlatform capability intact in the configuration file.

Do you want to skip cross-browser testing as well as parallelization?

Remove or comment out the platform and parallelsPerPlatform capabilities from the configuration file.

Enable BrowserStack Local

Test localhost/internal servers in your network

True
False
Test localhost/staging websites that are not publicly accessible

BrowserStack’s Local Testing feature connects with test suites pointing to your localhost URL

Learn more

BrowserStack Local supports all advanced use cases and restricted networks. Contact our support team for assistance in configuring BrowserStack Local for your enterprise.

BrowserStack Reporting

You can leverage BrowserStack’s extensive reporting features using the following capabilities:

Build Name

Set a name to your build (usually the same as the build ID that’s on your CI/CD platform).
Accepted characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, ., :, -, [], /, @, &, ', _. All other characters are ignored.
Character limit: 255

buildIdentifier Description Generated build name on dashboard
${BUILD_NUMBER} (Default) If build is triggered locally, an incremental counter is appended.

If build is triggered with CI tools, CI generated build number is appended.
bstack-demo 1


bstack-demo CI 1395
${DATE_TIME} The timestamp of run time is appended to the build. bstack-demo 29-Nov-20:44

Advanced use cases for Build name

Custom formatting of build name

Prefix buildIdentifier with desired characters, for example, # or :

buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: '#${BUILD_NUMBER}'

Re-run tests in a build

In order to re-run your build, you need to ensure that your build name matches an existing build so that your tests get merged into the previously run build.
You can re-run selected tests from a build using any of the following options:

Option 1: Set the existing build name in the BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME variable and prepend it to your test run command to re-run tests in the same build:

MacOS/Linux:

BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME=“bstack-demo 123” dotnet test --filter "Category=sample-test"

Windows Powershell:

$env:BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME=“bstack-demo 123”; dotnet test --filter "Category=sample-test"

Windows cmd:

set BROWSERSTACK_BUILD_NAME="bstack-demo 123" && dotnet test --filter "Category=sample-test"


Option 2: Set the build name as a combination of buildName and buildIdentifier, as seen on the dashboard, and set buildIdenitifier as null:

buildName: bstack-demo 123
buildIdentifier: null


Option 3: Set the buildIdentifier as the build number or time of the required build as seen on the dashboard:

buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: 123


Project Name

Set a project name for your project.

Do you want to enable/disable auto-marking of test status and session?

The sessionName and sessionStatus are the names of your test sessions and status of your test sessions respectively. They are automatically picked from your test class/spec names and statuses. They do not need to be set manually when using the BrowserStack SDK. To override the sessionName and sessionStatus capabilities, use the following in your browserstack.yml file:

You can configure local testing to start without initializing the BrowserStack binary, or even with an existing binary using a local identifier

testContextOptions:
    skipSessionName: true
    skipSessionStatus: true

Use additional debugging features

BrowserStack offers session logs, screenshots of failed commands, and a video of the entire test, with additional options to enable.

Visual logs

Enables screenshots for every selenium command ran

True
False
Network logs

Enables network capture for the session in HAR format. Reduces session performance slightly

True
False

Use Percy Visual Testing

Percy is an all-in-one visual testing and review platform enabling teams to automate visual tests, detect visual bugs, and provide valuable insights into UI changes.

Percy Visual Testing

Enable visual testing to automatically identify and highlight visual UI changes.

Note: Using Percy to perform Visual testing affects the performance of your Automate tests.

True
False

percyCaptureMode takes effect only if you set percy to true. If you set the capture mode to manual, ensure you use the Percy Screenshot function in your test script.

Update browserstack.yml file with selected capabilities

Copy the code snippet and replace the contents of the browserstack.yml file in the root folder of your test suite.

browserstack.yml
Copy icon Copy

Use our Capability Generator to select from a comprehensive set of options you can use to customize your tests.

Run your test suite

Continue running your tests as you have been running previously. The command to run your tests using the BrowserStack SDK remains unchanged. For your reference, here’s a sample command:

Copy icon Copy
Copy icon Copy
Copy icon Copy

Did not set the alias?
Use the absolute path to the dotnet installation to run your tests on Mac computers with Apple silicon chips as shown below:

</absolute/path/to/location/of/dotnet/>/dotnet test

To find out the location of the BrowserStack SDK log files, refer to BrowserStack SDK Log Files. If you are looking for more information, see FAQ documentation.

After you run your test, visit the Automate dashboard to view your test results.

Advanced features and use cases

Here’s a list of features and capabilities you may find useful.

Accept insecure certificates

The acceptInsecureCerts capability suppresses browser popups warning about self-signed certificates usually found in staging environments.

Capability Expected values
acceptInsecureCerts A boolean. Default is False.
True if you want to accept all SSL certificates.
browserstack.yml

Change desktop resolution

The resolution capability changes the default desktop screen resolution for your tests on BrowserStack.

Capability Description Expected values
resolution Set the resolution of your VM before beginning your test A string. Default resolution is 1024x768

Supported resolutions:
Windows (XP, 7): 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 1920x1080, and 2048x1536

Windows (8, 8.1, 10): 1024x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1440x900, 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1920x1200, 1920x1080, and 2048x1536

OS X (Sequoia, Sonoma, Ventura, Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, and High Sierra): 1024x768, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1920x1080, 2560x1440, 2560x1600, and 3840x2160

OS X (All other versions): 1024x768, 1280x960, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, and 1920x1080
browserstack.yml

Simulate IP geolocation

The geoLocation capability lets you test your websites across different countries.

Note that this capability is supported on the Enterprise plan only. You can contact sales to get an Enterprise plan for your account.

Capability Description Expected values
geoLocation Set the country code you want your test to detect A string. An ISO 2 country code

FR for France,
CN for China

Check out the complete list of 45+ countries we support.
browserstack.yml

Simulate network conditions

The networkProfile capability lets you test your websites under different network conditions.

Capability Description Expected values
networkProfile Set the network profile to start the test with A string.

2g-gprs-good, 4g-lte-advanced-lossy

Check out the complete list of all pre-defined network profiles.
browserstack.yml

Next steps

Once you have successfully integrated your test suite with BrowserStack, you might want to check the following:

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