Azure Pipelines Workflow

The Azure Pipelines workflow for Ocaramba is defined in the azure-pipelines.yml file. It implements a robust CI/CD strategy consisting of a three-stage pipeline (Build, Test, and Release) designed to validate the framework across multiple operating systems, browser providers, and execution environments.

Pipeline Overview and Triggers

The pipeline is configured to trigger on every branch push (excluding gh-pages) and on all tags azure-pipelines.yml6-17 Additionally, a scheduled "Weekly build" runs every Sunday at 18:00 UTC against the master branch azure-pipelines.yml18-24

Variable	Default Value	Description
solution	**/*.sln	Path to the Ocaramba solution files azure-pipelines.yml27
buildConfiguration	Release	The build configuration used for compilation and packaging azure-pipelines.yml29
frameworkVersion	4.0.0	Base version for NuGet packages; overridden by git tags during releases azure-pipelines.yml30
NUGET_PACKAGES	$(Pipeline.Workspace)/.nuget/packages	Custom path for the NuGet cache azure-pipelines.yml34
seleniumGridUrl	https://.../selenium-server-4.8.0.jar	Source URL for the Selenium Grid standalone jar azure-pipelines.yml33

Sources: azure-pipelines.yml6-34

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Stage 1: Build and Packaging

The build stage executes on a windows-latest agent. It handles versioning, dependency restoration, compilation, and artifact generation.

Versioning and Solution Pruning

If the build is triggered by a git tag, a PowerShell task extracts the latest tag using git tag --sort=-creatordate and updates the frameworkVersion variable azure-pipelines.yml44-51 A subsequent task uses regex to remove the Documentation project from Ocaramba.sln to streamline the build process and prevent SHFB build overhead during CI azure-pipelines.yml53-56

Dependency Management and Compilation

1. NuGet Cache: The pipeline uses Cache@2 to store NuGet packages, keyed against packages.lock.json files azure-pipelines.yml60-68
2. Assembly Info: The Assembly-Info-NetCore@2 task injects frameworkVersion into .csproj files, setting the PackageVersion, FileVersionNumber, and InformationalVersion azure-pipelines.yml75-89
3. VSBuild: The solution is compiled using the VSBuild@1 task with minimal verbosity azure-pipelines.yml90-95

Artifact Generation

The pipeline publishes four primary NuGet artifacts as pipeline artifacts:

• Ocaramba.$(frameworkVersion).nupkg (Main library) azure-pipelines.yml97-101
• Ocaramba.$(frameworkVersion).snupkg (Symbol package for debugging) azure-pipelines.yml104-108
• OcarambaLite.$(frameworkVersion).nupkg (Core foundation) azure-pipelines.yml109-114
• OcarambaLite.$(frameworkVersion).snupkg (Lite symbol package) azure-pipelines.yml115-119

Sources: azure-pipelines.yml37-127

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Stage 2: Parallel Test Execution

The test stage depends on the successful completion of the build stage azure-pipelines.yml130-131 It runs multiple parallel jobs to ensure cross-platform compatibility.

Docker and Selenium Grid

The RunTestsOnDocker job builds a custom Selenium image and orchestrates a local environment.

• Docker Build: Uses the root Dockerfile to create the ocaramba/selenium:latest image azure-pipelines.yml137-143
• Compose: Starts the Selenium container and the-internet test application using docker-compose.yml azure-pipelines.yml144-150
• Execution: Invokes ExecutingTestsOnDockerAzure.ps1 to run tests against the containerized grid azure-pipelines.yml151-154

Multi-Platform Jobs

Ocaramba executes tests across various OS and provider combinations:

Job Name	Environment	Key Tasks
RunTestsOnLinux	ubuntu-latest	Installs google-chrome-stable, sets ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Linux, and runs ExecutingTestsOnLinuxAzure.ps1 azure-pipelines.yml161-182
RunTestsOnLinuxBrowserStack	ubuntu-latest	Connects to BrowserStack using mapped environment variables (MAPPED_ENV_BROWSERSTACKKEY) for credentials azure-pipelines.yml189-214
RunTestsOnWindowsAzure	windows-latest	Runs standard Windows tests via ExecutingTestsOnWindowsAzure.ps1 azure-pipelines.yml216-231

Sources: azure-pipelines.yml133-231

Data Flow: From Code to Pipeline Execution

The following diagram illustrates how the pipeline variables and scripts interact with the codebase entities to execute tests.

Pipeline to Code Execution Flow

Sources: azure-pipelines.yml26-34 azure-pipelines.yml151-154 azure-pipelines.yml179-182

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Stage 3: Release and NuGet.org Publishing

The final stage (Release) is typically gated by the success of all previous test jobs. It retrieves the .nupkg and .snupkg artifacts generated in the build stage and pushes them to NuGet.org.

Symbol Packages (snupkg)

The pipeline explicitly generates and publishes .snupkg files azure-pipelines.yml106-117 These symbol packages contain the PDB files necessary for consumers to step into Ocaramba source code during debugging, leveraging the SourceLink configuration defined in the project files.

Stage and Job Dependency Diagram

Sources: azure-pipelines.yml37-131 azure-pipelines.yml189-231

Environment Configuration via Pipeline

The pipeline uses environment variables to pass secrets and configuration to the test execution scripts. For instance, cloud provider credentials (BrowserStack, SauceLabs, TestingBot) are mapped from pipeline secrets to environment variables within the test jobs azure-pipelines.yml211-214 These are subsequently read by BaseConfiguration during DriverContext initialization.

Sources: azure-pipelines.yml210-214