LowlandTech.Testing.Features.Reporter

[wendellmva]

🎯 Goal

Turn the LowlandTech.Testing.Features.Reporter console application into a standalone CLI tool, so it can be distributed without requiring users to build it from source. This will make it easier to ship additional functionality later.

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🟢 Tasks

1️⃣ Create a dedicated console project

• Create a new folder: tools/LowlandTech.Testing.Features.Reporter
• Add a .csproj:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
    <RootNamespace>LowlandTech.Testing.Features.Reporter</RootNamespace>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <ProjectReference Include="..\..\src\LowlandTech.Testing.Features\LowlandTech.Testing.Features.csproj" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

• Move the current Program.cs CLI logic into this project.

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2️⃣ Make the CLI accept arguments

Usage pattern:

ltx report <TestAssemblyPath> <OutputMarkdownFile> [ReportTitle]

Example:

ltx report ./MyTests.dll ./coverage.md "My Project Coverage"

Make sure if ReportTitle is omitted, it falls back to "Feature Coverage Report".

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3️⃣ Publish as a self-contained executable

To avoid requiring users to install the .NET runtime, publish as self-contained:

Example:

dotnet publish -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true

This will create a single .exe like:

bin/Release/net8.0/win-x64/publish/ltx.exe

Also build for linux-x64 and osx-x64:

dotnet publish -c Release -r linux-x64 --self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true
dotnet publish -c Release -r osx-x64 --self-contained true /p:PublishSingleFile=true

These can be zipped and attached to GitHub Releases.

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4️⃣ Document usage

Add a section to the README showing:

./ltx report ./MyTests.dll ./coverage.md "My Project Coverage"

and explain:

• How to download binaries from Releases.
• How to execute them on different platforms.

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5️⃣ Plan for future commands

Make sure the CLI project is structured so we can later add more subcommands:

Examples:

• generate-report
• export-feature
• validate-coverage

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🟢 Deliverables

• tools/LowlandTech.Testing.Features.Reporter project
• Published binaries for Windows, Linux, and macOS
• Updated README with download and usage instructions

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📝 Notes

This approach allows us to avoid the complexity of packaging as a dotnet tool and keeps the workflow simple:

1. Download executable
2. Run it on any machine
3. No build step required

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✅ Please comment here if you have any questions or want help structuring the CLI for extensibility.