Plugins

Reqnroll supports the following types of plugins:

  • Runtime

  • Generator

All types of plugins are created in a similar way.

Runtime plugins

Runtime plugins need to target .NET Framework 4.6.2 and .NET Standard 2.0. Reqnroll searches for files that end with .ReqnrollPlugin.dll in the following locations:

  • The folder containing your Reqnroll.dll file

  • Your working directory

Reqnroll loads plugins in the order they are found in the folder.

Create a runtime plugin

You can create your RuntimePlugin in a separate project, or in the same project where your tests are.

Optional:

  1. Create a new class library for your plugin.

Mandatory:

  1. Add the Reqnroll NuGet package to your project.

  2. Define a class that implements the IRuntimePlugin interface (defined in Reqnroll.Plugins).

  3. Flag your assembly with the RuntimePlugin attribute for the plugin to be identified by Reqnroll plugin loader. The following example demonstrates a MyNewPlugin class that implements the IRuntimePlugin interface:
    [assembly: RuntimePlugin(typeof(MyNewPlugin))]

  4. Implement the Initialize method of the IRuntimePlugin interface to access the RuntimePluginEvents and RuntimePluginParameters.

RuntimePluginsEvents

Generator plugins

Generator plugins need to target .NET Framework 4.7.1 and .NET Core 3.1. The MSBuild task needs to know which generator plugins it should use. You therefore have to add your generator plugin to the ReqnrollGeneratorPlugins ItemGroup. This is passed to the MSBuild task as a parameter and later used to load the plugins.

Create a generator plugin

  1. Create a new class library for your plugin.

  2. Add the Reqnroll.CustomPlugin NuGet package to your project.

  3. Define a class that implements the IGeneratorPlugin interface (defined in Reqnroll.Generator.Plugins namespace).

  4. Flag your assembly with the GeneratorPlugin attribute for the plugin to be identified by Reqnroll plugin loader. The following example demonstrates a MyNewPlugin class that implements the IGeneratorPlugin interface:
    [assembly: GeneratorPlugin(typeof(MyNewPlugin))]

  5. Implement the Initialize method of the IGeneratorPlugin interface to access GeneratorPluginEvents and GeneratorPluginParameters parameters.

GeneratorPluginsEvents

  • RegisterDependencies - registers a new interface in the Generator container

  • CustomizeDependencies - overrides registrations in the Generator container

  • ConfigurationDefaults - adjust configuration values

Combined Package with both plugins

If you need to update generator and runtime plugins with a single NuGet package (as we are doing with the Reqnroll.xUnit, Reqnroll.NUnit and Reqnroll.xUnit packages), you can do so.

As with the separate plugins, you need two projects. One for the runtime plugin, and one for the generator plugin. As you only want one NuGet package, the NuSpec files must only be present in the generator project. This is because the generator plugin is built with a higher .NET Framework version (.NET 4.7.1), meaning you can add a dependency on the Runtime plugin (which is only .NET 4.6.1). This will not working the other way around.

You can simply combine the contents of the .targets and .props file to a single one.

Tips & Tricks

Building Plugins on non-Windows machines

For building .NET 4.6.2 projects on non- Windows machines, the .NET Framework reference assemblies are needed.

You can add them with following PackageReference to your project:

<ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="Microsoft.NETFramework.ReferenceAssemblies" Version="1.0.0">
        <PrivateAssets>all</PrivateAssets>
        <IncludeAssets>runtime; build; native; contentfiles; analyzers</IncludeAssets>
    </PackageReference>
</ItemGroup>