If you aren’t familiar with SentryOne Test, it’s a tool for automating unit and integration testing for data during development. It also supports monitoring your data processes once they are in production, so you can always have confidence in your data. To learn more about it, please visit the product page or the help documentation.
Learning new things is usually easier when you have examples. I’ve always found that I grasp things faster when I can see a real use of the technology or concept that I am learning.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve worked with and spoken to a number of people who are just getting started with automated data testing and monitoring. Sometimes it’s because they are investing in DevOps and want to include their data, and in other cases, it’s driven by quality improvement initiatives for their data focused development. In many cases, the people involved in this are either:
- New to automated testing
- New to data-centric development
Or in a lot of cases, both a) and b).
At SentryOne, we’ve been building samples to demonstrate how to accomplish common tasks for automated data testing in SentryOne Test. We’re now providing these samples on GitHub so that customers and others can easily access them, and contribute their own examples. While our example projects by no means encompass all the scenarios that you might encounter, they do provide a good starting point.
We’ll be extending the samples as additional needs come up, and you can also submit an issue if you would like to request changes or for a specific scenario to be added.
CI/CD Example using Azure DevOps
One of the most common requests we get is to show how SentryOne Test can be used as part of a continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline. This repository includes all the pieces necessary to run an automated build that includes SentryOne Test. You can see the build definitions in the /build folder, and the build history and test results at the Azure DevOps project.
We’re working on a detailed walk through document for the setup on this, but you can see an overview video thanks to the efforts of our Product Education group, and Jim Holden in particular.
Other Included Samples
This is an overview of what’s included with the samples at this time. For the most current list, please see the readme.md on GitHub.
Summary of examples included in the repository
Using the Samples
Here are some key points for using the samples:
- You will need the SentryOne Test Visual Studio Extension installed to use the samples. You can get a trial version of it from the Visual Studio Marketplace.
- The samples were developed with Visual Studio 2019, but they should work in Visual Studio 2017 as well. They will work with the Community Edition of Visual Studio, as well as Professional and Enterprise.
- One of the samples uses SQL Server Integration Services. You will need to install the SSIS extension if you are using Visual Studio 2019. If you are using Visual Studio 2017, you will need to install SQL Server Data Tools via the stand-alone installer and make sure to select Integration Services.
- The WideWorldImporters and WideWorldImportersDW databases are used for the relational data samples.
- The AdventureWorks Internet Sales tabular model are used as data sources for the tests.
More to Come
Hopefully these samples will provide some inspiration as you start working on your automated testing initiatives. Again, we plan to keep expanding these samples, so if there is anything you feel is missing or would be helpful, please let us know!
In the meantime, please download a free trial of SentryOne Test or schedule a one-on-one demo to see it in action.
