Configuring Build¶

The main use case of Reqnroll involves adding one of the Reqnroll unit test NuGet packages to the test project in question, e.g.:

Reqnroll.MSTest
Reqnroll.NUnit
Reqnroll.TUnit
Reqnroll.xUnit

All of them depend on the package Reqnroll.Tools.MsBuild.Generation, including which modifies the project’s build process. The obvious effect is generation of the *.cs files from the respective *.feature files and inclusion of the former in the compilation.

Embedding feature files as resource¶

The Reqnroll.Tools.MsBuild.Generation package is essentially identical to its previous incarnation - SpecFlow.Tools.MsBuild.Generation. However, there is one original behavior which is now opt-in instead of unconditional - embedding the *.feature files as resources in the generated assembly. This embedding can be enabled with the dedicated build variable - ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles.

Suppose we have a test project using Reqnroll:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net9.0</TargetFramework>
    ...
  </PropertyGroup>
  ...
</Project>

One way to set the ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles build variable is by adding <ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles>true</ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles> to the project file:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net9.0</TargetFramework>
    <ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles>true</ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles>
    ...
  </PropertyGroup>
  ...
</Project>

If many test projects are involved and you want to enable this behavior for all of them, a convenient way to do so would be creating a file Directory.Build.props at the parent level such that all the projects are below it:

<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles>true</ReqnrollEmbedFeatureFiles>
    <UpstreamDirectoryBuildProps>$([MSBuild]::GetPathOfFileAbove('Directory.Build.props', '$(MSBuildThisFileDirectory)\..\'))</UpstreamDirectoryBuildProps>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Import Project="$(UpstreamDirectoryBuildProps)" Condition="$(UpstreamDirectoryBuildProps) != ''" />
</Project>

The Import statement is there to make sure any Directory.Build.props files at the higher levels (if any) are not cut off.

You can find more details about build customization at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/msbuild/customize-by-directory?view=vs-2022

You are welcome to consult Microsoft documentation (or your favorite AI) for other ways to pass build variables to the build.