Testwell CTC++ / Integration to Visual Studio

Here our context is Windows platform. On it, when the application code is built in command line mode (or from makefiles), and let the compiler be VC++ 5.0, VC++6.0, VC++ 7.1 or VC++ 8.0, CTC++ is readily usable. See the basic CTC++ description for more. The help of these IDE integration packages are not needed in such usage.

When the application code is built via the Visual Studio IDE the following is also supported:

CTC++ usage via Visual Studio 5.0/6.0 IDE
CTC++ usage via Visual Studio .NET 2003/2005 IDE

These facilitate intuitive and seamless use of CTC++ via the coresponding IDE. These integration add-on packages are different from their technical implementation, and slightly also how they are used. However, the general look-and-feel is the same in all of them. Below these integrations are described in more detail.

CTC++ Integration to Visual Studio 5.0/6.0 IDE

Here we show a use scenario on how CTC++ is used in this environment.

Selecting the project

The first thing to do is to select the project and its configuration, which will be tested with CTC++. This is done by some of the normal Visual Studio 5/6 means by setting the selected projects active. In this example the project is 'Cube'. The active project might contain subprojects, too.

CTC++ additions in the Visual Studio 5/6 Tools menu

Three commands are added to the Tools menu:

CTC++ Build/Clean...
CTC++ Execute...
CTC++ Report...

Instrumenting and building the instrumented project

Tool command CTC++ Build/Clean... gives this dialog. Here a number of selections can be made regarding what will be instrumented and what instrumentation options will be used. If there had been subprojects, each of them can be instrumented independently, or leaving the main project (main target) or some of the subprojects (subtargets) as non-instrumented.

By simply clicking Build the project's C/C++ source files are instrumented by CTC++ Preprocessor and the needed compilations and linking are invoked for getting the instrumented target. Normal makefile optimizations take place for saving processing time. For example, if you have changed only a couple of the participating source files, only they are re-instrumented and compiled for the new instrumented target.

Running the instrumented executable

Tool command CTC++ Execute... gives this dialog. If the project target was an executable program, it (the CTC++ built version of the program) can be started from here. Of course, the instrumented program can also be executed with any of the normal means that programs are generally executed on Windows. The instrumented code can also be in a .dll or in a .lib file and it comes into execution when called from an otherwise non-instrumented main program.

This is how it looks when our sample instrumented executable runs. You may do multiple test runs and each of them cumulates the execution history file.

Getting various CTC++ reports

Tool command CTC++ Report... gives this dialog. Various types CTC++ reports can be selected. The possible forms of reporting are:

HTML-report
Untested report to Dev. Studio
Profile listing (textual)
Untested listing (textual)
Summary listing (textual)
Timing listing (textual)

When you select HTML report, your machine's default browser is started on the generated report. For textual reports you can specify the viewer (default is notepad) that will be started on the generated report. See the basic CTC++ description on how the reports look like.

These same reports you can also generate in command line mode of CTC++ (utilities ctcpost, ctc2html, etc.).

The "Untested report to Dev.Studio" report is primarily meant for developers who quickly wish to have a look what code portions have not got a hit in the tests so far.

Clicking on a line in the Visual Studio output window gives you a view to corresponding source file in the upper right window with the pertinent line marked.

Cleaning the instrumented files and targets

Once you are satisfied with the structural test coverage measured by CTC++, in functional sense you have exercised the program thoroughly and you no more have found new errors, it is time to stop the testing. The thing to do is to select Clean... in the CTC++ Build/Clean... dialog and the disk is polished from all the auxiliary files and directories CTC++ has created.

Note that in the normal cource of work CTC++ keeps your original source files and targets intact. In some situations, say when instrumenting a DLL, you may explicitly request CTC++ to write the instrumented target over the original one for conveniently getting the instrumented target into execution. At any time you can also (without doing Clean... in the CTC++ Build/Clean... dialog) build the non-instrumented project by normal Visual Studio 5/6 means.

CTC++ Integration to Visual Studio .NET 2003/2005 IDE

The CTC++ integrations to these two IDEs are similar. Actually they are implemented by the same dialog programs, which are also used in some other IDE integrations, notably with CodeWarrior and Carbide.c++. And we have reasonable expectations that this same integration would work also in the coming VC++ 9.0/Visual Studio 2008.

But first a side-story of this Visual Studio use context. At Visual Studio the builds can be done also in command line mode, for example as follows:

devenv mysolution.sln /rebuild debug

These kind of builds can be made "ctc-builds" using ctcwrap command, as follows:

ctcwrap -i m -v devenv mysolution.sln /rebuild debug

Next we talk of CTC++ usage in the GUI of these Visual Studio IDEs.

At installation phase two CTC++ specific commands have been inserted to the Visual Studio Tools menu, as follows:

Selecting CTC++ Set/Clean... brings you to the following dialog program where you set CTC++ Mode ON and select the instrumentation options that you wish to use during the coming build.

Next you (re)build your solution or project normally via the IDE commands, for example as follows:

As a result the project target (all project targets of the solution) get born as instrumented according to the Visual Studio build rules.

Next the instrumented code (.EXE, .DLL, .LIB) is executed. It may run in the Visual Studio context or elsewhere, in the same way as the original code.

Finally the coverage reports can be obtained using the ctcpost/ctchtml programs either from the command line or integrated to Visual Studio IDE. In the latter case you start the CTC++ Report... dialog program from the Tools menu. It looks as follows:

Various types CTC++ reports can be selected. The possible forms of reporting are:

HTML report
Untested report to Visual Studio
Profile listing (textual)
Untested listing (textual)
Summary listing (textual)
Timing listing (textual)

When you select HTML report, your machine's default browser is started on the generated report (unless you check the viewer starting off). For textual reports your specify your favorite editor (default notepad) to be started on the generated report. See the basic CTC++ description on how the reports look like.

Cleaning the project from CTC++

The CTC++ Visual Studio .NET 2003 and 2005 integration behaves so that the instrumented project targets (object fies, executables) overwrite the original ones. Thus, for getting back to a non-instrumented level, you just rebuild your project without CTC++. Further, in the CTC++ Build/Clean... dialog there is a subdialog Clean..., which you can use for polishing the project directory from the CTC++ generated reports and other CTC++ auxiliary files.

List of Verifysoft Websites concerning CTC++

last updated: 11.07.2007

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