How to resolve Current Directory when running Coded UI

Question

I am running a CodedUI test that references a DLL and that DLL refrences a sort of "config" file. While running the test the current Directory returns the one where CodedUI puts the test results files I've used

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory

and

System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase

and

System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location

These all give me the same path

What I need is to get the path where the DLL resides because that is where the config file will be built.

The location where this will be changes if I am debugging or if I am just running the test (obviously) so I can't use that and navigate backwards or anything like that.

Are there any other ways to get the location of the DLL you are referencing??

Edit:

I am referencing this config file from inside the DLL that i am referencing.

Answer 1

So far the only place I have found the original path to the test dll is in a private variable in the test context. I ended up using reflection to get the value out and make it usable.

    using System.Reflection;
    using Microsoft.VisualStudio.TestTools.UnitTesting;
    public static string CodeBase(
        TestContext testContext)
    {
        System.Type t = testContext.GetType();
        FieldInfo field = t.GetField("m_test", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
        object fieldValue = field.GetValue(testContext);
        t = fieldValue.GetType();
        PropertyInfo property = fieldValue.GetType().GetProperty("CodeBase");
        return (string)property.GetValue(fieldValue, null);
    }

I used this to get the path to the DLL that is getting run and use that to then run the application that I know is compiled to the same location as the test was at.

If anyone finds a better way of getting this, please let me know as well.

Answer 2

The best way to get the directory of where a given DLL was loaded from is to use the following on a type that is defined in that assembly.

var type = typeof(TypeInThatAssembly);
var path = Path.GetDirectory(type.Location);

The CodeBase and Location property often return the same information but are very different

• CodeBase: This contains the location for the assembly as it was referenced during load
• Location: This is where the assembly was actually loaded from on disk

These can differ in application which use shadow copied assemblies (Asp.Net, xUnit, etc ...)