Adding Results to Test Output?

[Justin Grote]

Hello,

I've been using Pester and have been look at using it for operational validation of managed devices, e.g. run down a sheet of if a system is accessible via WMI, RPC, Registry, WinRM, SNMP, etc.

I have a proof-of-concept Gist here:

https://gist.github.com/JustinGrote/a1a41ea4f88308dcf687

My one question is, is there a native ability in pester to include output with a test?

For instance, say I have this test output:

Describing Windows Remote Management
 [+] Responds to RPC TCP Port within 3 seconds 46ms
 [+] Returns a WMI Computer Make and Model within 3 seconds 163ms

Is there any way to add what the Computer Make and Model actually were to the test result information? I care less about having it in the "write-host" output as I do having it in the XML or as an output object that comes out via -PassThru for instance.

The closest I've gotten so far is using write-verbose in the test and running with $VerbosePreference as "Continue", so it looks like this:

Describing Windows Remote Management

 [+] Responds to RPC TCP Port within 3 seconds 46ms

 [+] Returns a WMI Computer Make and Model within 3 seconds 163ms

VERBOSE: Host Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation

VERBOSE: Host Model: Surface Pro 3

But what I'd really like is something like this:

 [+] Responds to RPC TCP Port within 3 seconds 46ms

 [+] Returns a WMI Computer Make and Model within 3 seconds 163ms

          OUTPUT: Host Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation

          OUTPUT: Host Model: Surface Pro 3

That would also include that information into the XML output file.

Is there something native in Pester for this? I just can't find it in the documentation so I thought I'd ask before I go trying to code it myself.

[Dave Wyatt]

There's nothing like that at a the moment (and I'd need to find a valid spot for it in the XML file anyway; we can't just make up new fields in NUnit.  :) )

In the short term, though, you could just make another test case which contains that information in its name.  It's a bit of a hack, but should work.  Something along these lines:

    Describe 'Windows Remote Management' {
        $hashtable = @{}

        It 'Returns a WMI Computer Make and Model within 3 seconds' {
            $make = Get-ManufacturerCodeHere
            $model = Get-ModelCodeHere

            # Assertion for this test case
       
            # These lines only get run if this test was successful; above assertions didn't fail
            $hashtable.Make = $make
            $hashtable.Model = $model
        }

        if ($hashtable.Count -gt 0)
        {
            It "Host Manufacturer: $($hashtable.Make)" {
                $null = $null # Needs to be some non-comment line here or Pester marks the test as Pending
            }

            It "Host Model: $($hashtable.Model)" {
                $null = $null # Needs to be some non-comment line here or Pester marks the test as Pending
            }
        }
    }

[Justin Grote]

Thanks Dave! That's a clever idea and should work for my very limited needs at the moment. Glad to hear its on the radar and I appreciate the fast response.

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[Justin Grote]

Here's a working example. Note that I had to explicity use the Script scope when assigning the variable inside It, because it appears the Mock cleanup was wiping out the variable even if I defined it outside the script beforehand. Maybe there's a better way to handle this?

$ComputerName = "localhost"

$Timeout = 3

$MakeModelResult = $null

describe "WMI Computer Test" {

    New-Variable MakeModelResult -Scope Script -force

    It "Returns a WMI Computer Manufacturer and Model within $Timeout seconds" {
        #If you don't use Script: here, $MakeModelResult will be null at "Show Make and Model Information"
        #Using Job to implement a time limit for Get-WMIObject which doesn't have a native timeout functionality

        $Script:MakeModelResult = Get-WMIObject -Computername $ComputerName Win32_ComputerSystem -asjob | wait-job -timeout $Timeout | Receive-Job

        $MakeModelResult.Manufacturer | Should Not BeNullOrEmpty

        $MakeModelResult.Model | Should Not BeNullOrEmpty

    }

    #Show Make and Model Information

    if ($MakeModelResult) {

        It "  OUTPUT: WMI Computer Manufacturer: $($MakeModelResult.Manufacturer)" {

            #Workaround to keep Pester from marking the test as "Pending"

            $null = $null

        }

        It "  OUTPUT: WMI Computer Model: $($MakeModelResult.Model)" {

            #Workaround to keep Pester from marking the test as "Pending"

            $null = $null

        }

    }

}

[Justin Grote]

And the resulting working output which does what I wanted:

Describing WMI Computer Test

 [+] Returns a WMI Computer Manufacturer and Model within 3 seconds 60ms

 [+]   OUTPUT: WMI Computer Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation 15ms

 [+]   OUTPUT: WMI Computer Model: Surface Pro 3 8ms

[Justin Grote]

Err sorry my example has some redundant variable definition. Here is a cleaned up version that also adds a toggle to skip showing the output if not explicitly specified, and skip showing output if the dependent test fails.

$ComputerName = "localhost"

$Timeout = 3

$ShowTestOutputs = $true

describe "WMI Computer Test" {

    It "Returns a WMI Computer Manufacturer and Model within $Timeout seconds" {

        $Script:MakeModelResult = Get-WMIObject -Computername $ComputerName Win32_ComputerSystem -asjob | 

            Wait-Job -Timeout $Timeout | 

            Receive-Job

        $MakeModelResult.Manufacturer | Should Not BeNullOrEmpty

        $MakeModelResult.Model | Should Not BeNullOrEmpty

    }

    #Show Make and Model Output if enabled and present

    if ($ShowTestOutputs) {

        It -skip:(!$MakeModelResult) "  OUTPUT: WMI Computer Manufacturer: $($MakeModelResult.Manufacturer)" {

            #Workaround to keep Pester from marking the test as "Pending"

            $null = $null

        }

        It -skip:(!$MakeModelResult) "  OUTPUT: WMI Computer Model: $($MakeModelResult.Model)" {