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Collecting test data

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Tags Cloud Server v3.x Server v2.x

When you run tests in CircleCI there are two ways to store your test results. You can either use artifacts or the store_test_results step. There are advantages to both methods, so the decision needs to be made for each project.

When you save test data using the store_test_results step, CircleCI collects data from XML files and uses it to provide insights into your job. This page describes how to configure CircleCI to output test data as XML for some common test runners and store reports with the store_test_results step.

Using the store_test_results step gives you access to:

  • The Tests pane in the CircleCI web app.
  • Test insights and flaky test detection.
  • Test splitting.

Alternatively, storing test results as artifacts means you can look at the raw XML. This can be useful when debugging issues with setting up your project’s test results handling, for example, finding incorrectly uploaded files.

To see test results as build artifacts, upload them using the store_artifacts step. Artifacts use storage, therefore, there is a cost associated with storing artifacts. See the Persisting Data page for information on how to customize storage retention periods for objects like artifacts.

Note: You might choose to upload your test results using both store_test_results and store_artifacts.

Overview

Using the store_test_results step allows you to not only upload and store test results, but also provides a view of your passing/failing tests in the CircleCI web app.

You can access the test results from the Tests tab when viewing a job, as shown below.

store-test-results-view

Below is an example of using the store_test_results key in your .circleci/config.yml.

steps:
  - run:
  #...
  # run tests and store XML files to a subdirectory, for example, test-results
  #...
  - store_test_results:
    path: test-results

The path key is an absolute or relative path to your working_directory containing subdirectories of JUnit XML or Cucumber JSON test metadata files, or the path of a single file containing all test results.

Note: Make sure that your path value is not a hidden folder. For example, .my_hidden_directory would be an invalid format.

Viewing storage usage

For information on viewing your storage usage, and calculating your monthly storage overage costs, if applicable, see the Persisting Data guide.

Test Insights

See the Test Insights guide for information on using the Insights feature to gather information about your tests, including flaky test detection, viewing alist of tests that fail most often, slowest tests and abn overall performance summary.

Also, see the API v2 Insights endpoints to find test failure information.

Test Insights for server v2.x

If you are using CircleCI server v2.x, after configuring CircleCI to collect your test metadata, tests that fail most often appear in a list on the Insights page in the CircleCI application where you can identify flaky tests and isolate recurring issues.

Insights for Failed Tests

The above screenshot applies to CircleCI server v2.x only.

Enabling formatters

Test metadata is not automatically collected in CircleCI until you enable the JUnit formatters. For RSpec, Minitest, and Django, add the following configuration to enable the formatters:

  • RSpec requires the following be added to your gemfile:
gem 'rspec_junit_formatter'
  • Minitest requires the following be added to your gemfile:
gem 'minitest-ci'
  • Django should be configured using the django-nose test runner.

Note: For detailed information on how to test your iOS applications, refer to the Testing iOS Applications on macOS page.

Custom test runner examples

This section provides the following test runner examples:

Language Test Runner Formatter Example(s)    
JavaScript Jest jest-junit example    
JavaScript Mocha mocha-junit-reporter example, example with NYC    
JavaScript Karma karma-junit-reporter example    
JavaScript Ava tap-xunit example    
JavaScript ESLint JUnit formatter example    
Ruby RSpec rspec_junit_formatter example    
Ruby Minitest minitest-ci example    
  Cucumber built in example    
Python pytest built in example    
Python unittest Use pytest to run these tests example    
Java Maven Maven Surefire plugin example    
Java Gradle built in example    
PHP PHPUnit built in example    
.NET   trx2junit example    
Clojure Kaocha kaocha-junit-xml example    
Clojure clojure.test test2junit example    

JavaScript

Jest

To output JUnit compatible test data with Jest you can use jest-junit.

A working .circleci/config.yml section might look like this:

steps:
  - run:
      name: Install JUnit coverage reporter
      command: yarn add --dev jest-junit
  - run:
      name: Run tests with JUnit as reporter
      command: jest --ci --runInBand --reporters=default --reporters=jest-junit
      environment:
        JEST_JUNIT_OUTPUT_DIR: ./reports/junit/
  - store_test_results:
      path: ./reports/junit/

For a full walkthrough, refer to this article by Viget: Using JUnit on CircleCI 2.0 with Jest and ESLint. Note that usage of the jest cli argument --testResultsProcessor in the article has been superseded by the --reporters syntax, and JEST_JUNIT_OUTPUT has been replaced with JEST_JUNIT_OUTPUT_DIR and JEST_JUNIT_OUTPUT_NAME, as demonstrated above.

Note: When running Jest tests, please use the --runInBand flag. Without this flag, Jest will try to allocate the CPU resources of the entire virtual machine in which your job is running. Using --runInBand will force Jest to use only the virtualized build environment within the virtual machine.

For more details on --runInBand, refer to the Jest CLI documentation. For more information on these issues, see Issue 1524 and Issue 5239 of the official Jest repository.

Mocha for Node.js

To output junit tests with the Mocha test runner you can use mocha-junit-reporter.

A working .circleci/config.yml section for testing might look like this:

    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: npm install
      - run: mkdir ~/junit
      - run:
          command: mocha test --reporter mocha-junit-reporter
          environment:
            MOCHA_FILE: ~/junit/test-results.xml
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/junit

Mocha with nyc

Following is a complete example for Mocha with nyc, contributed by marcospgp.

version: 2
jobs:
    build:
        environment:
            CC_TEST_REPORTER_ID: code_climate_id_here
            NODE_ENV: development
        docker:
            - image: cimg/node:16.10
              auth:
                username: mydockerhub-user
                password: $DOCKERHUB_PASSWORD  # context / project UI env-var reference
              environment:
                MONGODB_URI: mongodb://admin:password@localhost:27017/db?authSource=admin
            - image: mongo:4.0
              auth:
                username: mydockerhub-user
                password: $DOCKERHUB_PASSWORD  # context / project UI env-var reference
              environment:
                MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_USERNAME: admin
                MONGO_INITDB_ROOT_PASSWORD: password
        working_directory: ~/repo
        steps:
            - checkout

            # Update npm
            - run:
                name: update-npm
                command: 'sudo npm install -g npm@latest'

            # Download and cache dependencies
            - restore_cache:
                keys:
                    - v1-dependencies-{{ checksum "package-lock.json" }}
                    # fallback to using the latest cache if no exact match is found
                    - v1-dependencies-

            - run: npm install

            - run: npm install mocha-junit-reporter # just for CircleCI

            - save_cache:
                paths:
                    - node_modules
                key: v1-dependencies-{{ checksum "package-lock.json" }}

            - run: mkdir reports

            # Run mocha
            - run:
                name: npm test
                command: ./node_modules/.bin/nyc ./node_modules/.bin/mocha --recursive --timeout=10000 --exit --reporter mocha-junit-reporter --reporter-options mochaFile=reports/mocha/test-results.xml
                when: always

            # Run eslint
            - run:
                name: eslint
                command: |
                    ./node_modules/.bin/eslint ./ --format junit --output-file ./reports/eslint/eslint.xml
                when: always

            # Run coverage report for Code Climate

            - run:
                name: Setup Code Climate test-reporter
                command: |
                    # download test reporter as a static binary
                    curl -L https://codeclimate.com/downloads/test-reporter/test-reporter-latest-linux-amd64 > ./cc-test-reporter
                    chmod +x ./cc-test-reporter
                    ./cc-test-reporter before-build
                when: always

            - run:
                name: code-coverage
                command: |
                    mkdir coverage
                    # nyc report requires that nyc has already been run,
                    # which creates the .nyc_output folder containing necessary data
                    ./node_modules/.bin/nyc report --reporter=text-lcov > coverage/lcov.info
                    ./cc-test-reporter after-build -t lcov
                when: always

            # Upload results

            - store_test_results:
                path: reports

            - store_artifacts: # upload test coverage as artifact
                path: ./coverage/lcov.info
                prefix: tests

Karma

To output JUnit tests with the Karma test runner you can use karma-junit-reporter.

A working .circleci/config.yml section might look like this:

    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: npm install
      - run: mkdir ~/junit
      - run:
          command: karma start ./karma.conf.js
          environment:
            JUNIT_REPORT_PATH: ./junit/
            JUNIT_REPORT_NAME: test-results.xml
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ./junit

// karma.conf.js

// additional config...
{
  reporters: ['junit'],
  junitReporter: {
    outputDir: process.env.JUNIT_REPORT_PATH,
    outputFile: process.env.JUNIT_REPORT_NAME,
    useBrowserName: false
  },
}
// additional config...

Ava for Node.js

To output JUnit tests with the Ava test runner you can use the TAP reporter with tap-xunit.

A working .circleci/config.yml section for testing might look like the following example:

    steps:
      - run:
          command: |
            yarn add ava tap-xunit --dev # or you could use npm
            mkdir -p ~/reports
            ava --tap | tap-xunit > ~/reports/ava.xml
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/reports

ESLint

To output JUnit results from ESLint, you can use the JUnit formatter.

A working .circleci/config.yml test section might look like this:

    steps:
      - run:
          command: |
            mkdir -p ~/reports
            eslint ./src/ --format junit --output-file ~/reports/eslint.xml
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/reports

Ruby

RSpec

To add test metadata collection to a project that uses a custom rspec build step, add the following gem to your Gemfile:

gem 'rspec_junit_formatter'

And modify your test command to this:

    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: bundle check --path=vendor/bundle || bundle install --path=vendor/bundle --jobs=4 --retry=3
      - run: mkdir ~/rspec
      - run:
          command: bundle exec rspec --format progress --format RspecJunitFormatter -o ~/rspec/rspec.xml
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/rspec

Minitest

To add test metadata collection to a project that uses a custom minitest build step, add the following gem to your Gemfile:

gem 'minitest-ci'

And modify your test command to this:

    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: bundle check || bundle install
      - run:
          command: bundle exec rake test
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: test/reports

See the minitest-ci README for more info.

Cucumber

For custom Cucumber steps, you should generate a file using the JUnit formatter and write it to the cucumber directory. Following is an example of the addition to your .circleci/config.yml file:

    steps:
      - run:
          name: Save test results
          command: |
            mkdir -p ~/cucumber
            bundle exec cucumber --format junit --out ~/cucumber/junit.xml
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/cucumber

The path: is a directory relative to the project’s root directory where the files are stored. CircleCI collects and uploads the artifacts to S3 and makes them available in the Artifacts tab of the Job page in the application.

Alternatively, if you want to use Cucumber’s JSON formatter, be sure to name the output file that ends with .cucumber and write it to the /cucumber directory. For example:

    steps:
      - run:
          name: Save test results
          command: |
            mkdir -p ~/cucumber
            bundle exec cucumber --format pretty --format json --out ~/cucumber/tests.cucumber
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/cucumber

Python

pytest

To add test metadata to a project that uses pytest you need to tell it to output JUnit XML, and then save the test metadata:

      - run:
          name: run tests
          command: |
            . venv/bin/activate
            mkdir test-results
            pytest --junitxml=test-results/junit.xml

      - store_test_results:
          path: test-results

unittest

unittest does not support JUnit XML, but in almost all cases you can run unittest tests with pytest.

After adding pytest to your project, you can produce and upload the test results like this:

      - run:
          name: run tests
          command: |
            . venv/bin/activate
            mkdir test-results
            pytest --junitxml=test-results/junit.xml tests

      - store_test_results:
          path: test-results

Java

Maven Surefire Plugin for Java JUnit Results

If you are building a Maven based project, you are more than likely using the Maven Surefire plugin to generate test reports in XML format. CircleCI makes it easy to collect these reports. Add the following to the .circleci/config.yml file in your project.

    steps:
      - run:
          name: Save test results
          command: |
            mkdir -p ~/test-results/junit/
            find . -type f -regex ".*/target/surefire-reports/.*xml" -exec cp {} ~/test-results/junit/ \;
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/test-results

Gradle JUnit Test Results

If you are building a Java or Groovy based project with Gradle, test reports are automatically generated in XML format. CircleCI makes it easy to collect these reports. Add the following to the .circleci/config.yml file in your project.

    steps:
      - run:
          name: Save test results
          command: |
            mkdir -p ~/test-results/junit/
            find . -type f -regex ".*/build/test-results/.*xml" -exec cp {} ~/test-results/junit/ \;
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/test-results

PHP

PHPUnit

For PHPUnit tests, you should generate a file using the --log-junit command line option and write it to the /phpunit directory. Your .circleci/config.yml might be:

    steps:
      - run:
          command: |
            mkdir -p ~/phpunit
            phpunit --log-junit ~/phpunit/junit.xml tests
          when: always
      - store_test_results:
          path: ~/phpunit

.NET

trx2junit for Visual Studio / .NET Core Tests

Use trx2junit to convert Visual Studio / .NET Core trx output to XML format.

A working .circleci/config.yml section might look like this:

    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: dotnet build
      - run: dotnet test --no-build --logger "trx"
      - run:
          name: test results
          when: always
          command: |
              dotnet tool install -g trx2junit
              export PATH="$PATH:/root/.dotnet/tools"
              trx2junit tests/**/TestResults/*.trx
      - store_test_results:
          path: tests/TestResults

Clojure

Kaocha

Assuming that your are already using kaocha as your test runner, do these things to produce and store test results:

Add the kaocha-junit-xml plugin to your dependencies

Edit your project.clj to add the lambdaisland/kaocha-junit-xml plugin, or do the equivalent if you are using deps.edn.

(defproject ,,,
  :profiles {,,,
             :dev {:dependencies [,,,
                                  [lambdaisland/kaocha-junit-xml "0.0.76"]]}})

Edit the kaocha config file test.edn to use this test reporter

#kaocha/v1
{:plugins [:kaocha.plugin/junit-xml]
 :kaocha.plugin.junit-xml/target-file "junit.xml"}

Add the store_test_results step your .circleci/config.yml

version: 2.1
jobs:
  build:
    docker:
      - image: circleci/clojure:tools-deps-1.9.0.394
    steps:
      - checkout
      - run: bin/kaocha
      - store_test_results:
          path: junit.xml

test2junit for Clojure Tests

Use test2junit to convert Clojure test output to XML format. For more details, refer to the sample project.

API

To access test metadata for a job from the API, refer to the test-metadata API documentation.

See Also

Video: Troubleshooting Test Runners


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