Importing Test cases from Excel to TFS

Question

I need to import test cases from Excel to TFS 2013. For this I have already gone through the link SQA and VSTS, but my issue is not getting resolved from these links. I can't use 'Test Case Migrator Plus' as for running any exe on my machine I need to ask special permissions from the IT help desk team which is in itself a big task.

Issue is I am not able to import Steps i.e. Action and Expected Result to TFS from Excel sheet. On trying to import these from Excel, everything (all actions and their expected results) get imported to one single column only, like shown below

I have seen that when I export test cases from TFS to Excel then Actions and Expected Result get exported as <DIV><P>Step1</P></DIV><DIV><P>Result 1</P></DIV><DIV><P>Step2</P></DIV><DIV><P>Result 2</P></DIV> in Steps column, so as per this pattern I configured Actions and Expected Result in my Excel sheet with same DIV and P tags, but on importing they are not getting imported as required rather they are getting import to single column as shown above and all test cases sheet gets messed up in TFS.

In actual after import Steps should look like

How this thing can be achieved from Excel to TFS?

Answer 1

I had the same issue when migrating tests from a legacy tool to TFS. It was simply not possible, independent of any choices offered by Excel and TFS (really, I tried them all and wrote a 43 page document about my test conversion efforts).

Finally I was able to workaround the issue like this:

1. In TFS, switch to the grid view
2. In Excel select all steps and copy it to the clipboard
3. Back in TFS, paste the steps

If you use three columns in Excel, you can even import many test cases into TFS at once. Column 1 needs to contain the test name, column 2 the action and column 3 the expected result. This image helps you to better understand it:

Depending on what you have as input, you can also do it with a bit of code, e.g. in C#. Just append some text, split columns by \t and rows by \r\n. Use Clipboard.SetText() and then paste in TFS.

Answer 2

The above worked well, but it only works for brand new test cases. If you have test cases that already have a test ID, you have to copy and paste individual steps and results to each test case. I learned that the hard way!!

Answer 3

After waiting long for this question, I am answering it myself.

I too searched a lot but didn't get any way for importing test cases from Excel to TFS in right format. One has to use Test Case Migrator Plus for importing test cases from Excel to TFS. Perhaps Microsoft has restricted import from Excel to TFS (using tags as described in question) for avoiding some kind of scripting.

Test Case Migrator Plus is a good, easy and only way for doing this. Our client agreed to this and he will raise an approval request for granting permissions to install and execute this import exe.

Answer 4

You have to format your test steps as XML:

<steps id="0" last="1">
    <step id="0" type="ValidateStep">
        <parameterizedString isformatted="true">Step 1</parameterizedString>
        <parameterizedString isformatted="true">Result 1</parameterizedString>
        <description/>
    </step>
    <step id="1" type="ValidateStep">
        <parameterizedString isformatted="true">Step 2</parameterizedString>
        <parameterizedString isformatted="true">Result 2</parameterizedString>
        <description/>
    </step>
</steps>

Found here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/54107054/4818105