Coded UI Test Builder won't record actions within the Visual Studio window

Question

I have an MVC web application that I wanted to try out coded ui tests on and it sounded simple enough. I would say that starting up the web app would be a pretty important part of the test but the Coded UI Test Builder will not record any actions that I take within Visual Studio such as hitting F5 or clicking on the run arrow.

How am I supposed to test a web app if I can't even start it within the test. I can't really expect everybody using these tests to start up the app and have it open in a window before they actually run the tests, it just seems odd.

Answer 1

Coded UI is about testing the UI of your application, it is not about testing that you can use Visual Studio. (I imagine that there is some way of using Coded UI in Visual Studio to test the UI of Visual Studio, but that sounds complicated.) You use Coded UI to, firstly, create a test of your application. So start the Coded UI record and generate tool. Next start you application from the Windows Start button, or the desktop. You should see Coded UI recording the steps to start the application. Then record any other steps needed for the test. When the recording of the test is completed you should eb able to run the test.

To learn about testing with Coded UI, I suggest you first try creating some simple tests using the Windows Calculator or Windows Notepad. There are several examples and turorials, including videos, on the web. See for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEOkMaacx2Q