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Compatibility

Supported languages:

LanguageVersion
Ruby>= 2.7
JRuby>= 9.4

Supported test frameworks:

Test FrameworkVersion
RSpec>= 3.0.0
Minitest>= 5.0.0
Cucumber>= 3.0

Supported test runners:

Test runnerVersion
Knapsack Pro>= 7.2.0
parallel_tests>= 4.0.0
ci-queue>= 0.53.0

Configuring reporting method

To report test results to Datadog, you need to configure the datadog-ci gem:

We support auto-instrumentation for the following CI providers:

CI ProviderAuto-Instrumentation method
GitHub ActionsDatadog Test Visibility Github Action
JenkinsUI-based configuration with Datadog Jenkins plugin
GitLabDatadog Test Visibility GitLab Script
CircleCIDatadog Test Visibility CircleCI Orb

If you are using auto-instrumentation for one of these providers, you can skip the rest of the setup steps below.

Note: Auto-instrumentation is not supported for JRuby. Follow the manual instrumentation steps instead.

If you are using a cloud CI provider without access to the underlying worker nodes, such as GitHub Actions or CircleCI, configure the library to use the Agentless mode. For this, set the following environment variables:

DD_CIVISIBILITY_AGENTLESS_ENABLED=true (Required)
Enables or disables Agentless mode.
Default: false
DD_API_KEY (Required)
The Datadog API key used to upload the test results.
Default: (empty)

Additionally, configure the Datadog site to which you want to send data.

DD_SITE (Required)
The Datadog site to upload results to.
Default: datadoghq.com

If you are running tests on an on-premises CI provider, such as Jenkins or self-managed GitLab CI, install the Datadog Agent on each worker node by following the Agent installation instructions. This is the recommended option as it allows you to automatically link test results to logs and underlying host metrics.

If you are using a Kubernetes executor, Datadog recommends using the Datadog Operator. The operator includes Datadog Admission Controller which can automatically inject the tracer library into the build pods. Note: If you use the Datadog Operator, there is no need to download and inject the tracer library since the Admission Controller can do this for you, so you can skip the corresponding step below. However, you still need to make sure that your pods set the environment variables or command-line parameters necessary to enable Test Visibility.

If you are not using Kubernetes or can’t use the Datadog Admission Controller and the CI provider is using a container-based executor, set the DD_TRACE_AGENT_URL environment variable (which defaults to http://localhost:8126) in the build container running the tracer to an endpoint that is accessible from within that container. Note: Using localhost inside the build references the container itself and not the underlying worker node or any container where the Agent might be running in.

DD_TRACE_AGENT_URL includes the protocol and port (for example, http://localhost:8126) and takes precedence over DD_AGENT_HOST and DD_TRACE_AGENT_PORT, and is the recommended configuration parameter to configure the Datadog Agent’s URL for CI Visibility.

If you still have issues connecting to the Datadog Agent, use the Agentless Mode. Note: When using this method, tests are not correlated with logs and infrastructure metrics.

Installing the Ruby test optimization library

To install the Ruby test optimization gem run:

bundle add datadog-ci --group "test"

Alternatively, add it to your Gemfile manually:

  1. Add the datadog-ci gem to your Gemfile:

Gemfile

gem "datadog-ci", "~> 1.0", group: :test
  1. Install the gem by running bundle install

Instrumenting your tests

Follow these steps if your CI Provider is not supported for auto-instrumentation (see Configuring reporting method).

  1. Set the following environment variables to configure the tracer:
DD_CIVISIBILITY_ENABLED=true (Required)
Enables the Test Optimization product.
DD_ENV (Required)
Environment where the tests are being run (for example: local when running tests on a developer workstation or ci when running them on a CI provider).
DD_SERVICE (Optional)
Name of the service or library being tested.
  1. Prepend your test command with this datadog-ci CLI wrapper:
bundle exec ddcirb exec bundle exec rake test

Alternatively, set RUBYOPT environment variable to "-rbundler/setup -rdatadog/ci/auto_instrument" and don’t modify your test command.

Adding custom tags to tests

You can add custom tags to your tests by using the current active test:

require "datadog/ci"

# inside your test
Datadog::CI.active_test&.set_tag("test_owner", "my_team")
# test continues normally
# ...

To create filters or group by fields for these tags, you must first create facets. For more information about adding tags, see the Adding Tags section of the Ruby custom instrumentation documentation.

Adding custom measures to tests

Like tags, you can add custom measures to your tests by using the current active test:

require "datadog/ci"

# inside your test
Datadog::CI.active_test&.set_metric("memory_allocations", 16)
# test continues normally
# ...

For more information on custom measures, see the Add Custom Measures Guide.

Configuration settings

The following is a list of the most important configuration settings that can be used with the test optimization library, either in code by using a Datadog.configure block, or using environment variables:

service
Name of the service or library under test.
Environment variable: DD_SERVICE
Default: $PROGRAM_NAME
Example: my-ruby-app
env
Name of the environment where tests are being run.
Environment variable: DD_ENV
Default: none
Examples: local, ci

For more information about service and env reserved tags, see Unified Service Tagging.

The following environment variable can be used to configure the location of the Datadog Agent:

DD_TRACE_AGENT_URL
Datadog Agent URL for trace collection in the form http://hostname:port.
Default: http://localhost:8126

All other Datadog Tracer configuration options can also be used.

Using additional instrumentation

It can be useful to have rich tracing information about your tests that includes time spent performing database operations or other external calls, as seen in the following flame graph:

Test trace with Redis instrumented

To achieve this, configure additional instrumentation in your configure block:

if ENV["DD_ENV"] == "ci"
  Datadog.configure do |c|
    #  ... ci configs and instrumentation here ...
    c.tracing.instrument :redis
    c.tracing.instrument :pg
    # ... any other instrumentations supported by datadog gem ...
  end
end

Alternatively, you can enable automatic APM instrumentation in test_helper/spec_helper:

require "datadog/auto_instrument" if ENV["DD_ENV"] == "ci"

Note: In CI mode, these traces are submitted to Test Optimization, and they do not show up in Datadog APM.

For the full list of available instrumentation methods, see the tracing documentation

Collecting Git metadata

Datadog uses Git information for visualizing your test results and grouping them by repository, branch, and commit. Git metadata is automatically collected by the test instrumentation from CI provider environment variables and the local .git folder in the project path, if available.

If you are running tests in non-supported CI providers or with no .git folder, you can set the Git information manually using environment variables. These environment variables take precedence over any auto-detected information. Set the following environment variables to provide Git information:

DD_GIT_REPOSITORY_URL
URL of the repository where the code is stored. Both HTTP and SSH URLs are supported.
Example: git@github.com:MyCompany/MyApp.git, https://github.com/MyCompany/MyApp.git
DD_GIT_BRANCH
Git branch being tested. Leave empty if providing tag information instead.
Example: develop
DD_GIT_TAG
Git tag being tested (if applicable). Leave empty if providing branch information instead.
Example: 1.0.1
DD_GIT_COMMIT_SHA
Full commit hash.
Example: a18ebf361cc831f5535e58ec4fae04ffd98d8152
DD_GIT_COMMIT_MESSAGE
Commit message.
Example: Set release number
DD_GIT_COMMIT_AUTHOR_NAME
Commit author name.
Example: John Smith
DD_GIT_COMMIT_AUTHOR_EMAIL
Commit author email.
Example: john@example.com
DD_GIT_COMMIT_AUTHOR_DATE
Commit author date in ISO 8601 format.
Example: 2021-03-12T16:00:28Z
DD_GIT_COMMIT_COMMITTER_NAME
Commit committer name.
Example: Jane Smith
DD_GIT_COMMIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL
Commit committer email.
Example: jane@example.com
DD_GIT_COMMIT_COMMITTER_DATE
Commit committer date in ISO 8601 format.
Example: 2021-03-12T16:00:28Z

Manually instrumenting your tests

Attention: when using manual instrumentation, run your tests like you normally do: don't change `RUBYOPT` env variable and don't prepend `bundle exec ddcirb exec` to your test command

Auto-instrumentation adds additional performance overhead at the code loading stage. It can be especially noticeable for large repositories with a lot of dependencies. If your project takes 20+ seconds to start, you are likely to benefit from manually instrumenting your tests.

The RSpec integration traces all executions of example groups and examples when using the rspec test framework.

To activate your integration, add this to the spec_helper.rb file:

require "rspec"
require "datadog/ci"

# Only activates test instrumentation on CI
if ENV["DD_ENV"] == "ci"
  Datadog.configure do |c|
    # enables test optimization
    c.ci.enabled = true

    # The name of the service or library under test
    c.service = "my-ruby-app"

    # Enables the RSpec instrumentation
    c.ci.instrument :rspec
  end
end

Run your tests as you normally do, specifying the environment where tests are being run in the DD_ENV environment variable.

You could use the following environments:

  • local when running tests on a developer workstation
  • ci when running them on a CI provider

For example:

DD_ENV=ci bundle exec rake spec

The Minitest integration traces all executions of tests when using the minitest framework.

To activate your integration, add this to the test_helper.rb file:

require "minitest"
require "datadog/ci"

# Only activates test instrumentation on CI
if ENV["DD_ENV"] == "ci"
  Datadog.configure do |c|
    # enables test optimization
    c.ci.enabled = true

    # The name of the service or library under test
    c.service = "my-ruby-app"

    c.ci.instrument :minitest
  end
end

Run your tests as you normally do, specifying the environment where tests are being run in the DD_ENV environment variable.

You could use the following environments:

  • local when running tests on a developer workstation
  • ci when running them on a CI provider

For example:

DD_ENV=ci bundle exec rake test
Note: When using `minitest/autorun`, ensure that `datadog/ci` is required before `minitest/autorun`.

Example configuration with minitest/autorun:

require "datadog/ci"
require "minitest/autorun"

if ENV["DD_ENV"] == "ci"
  Datadog.configure do |c|
    c.ci.enabled = true

    c.service = "my-ruby-app"

    c.ci.instrument :minitest
  end
end

The Cucumber integration traces executions of scenarios and steps when using the cucumber framework.

To activate your integration, add the following code to your application:

require "cucumber"
require "datadog/ci"

# Only activates test instrumentation on CI
if ENV["DD_ENV"] == "ci"
  Datadog.configure do |c|
    # enables test optimization
    c.ci.enabled = true

    # The name of the service or library under test
    c.service = "my-ruby-app"

    # Enables the Cucumber instrumentation
    c.ci.instrument :cucumber
  end
end

Run your tests as you normally do, specifying the environment where tests are being run in the DD_ENV environment variable. You could use the following environments:

  • local when running tests on a developer workstation
  • ci when running them on a CI provider

For example:

DD_ENV=ci bundle exec rake cucumber

Using library’s public API for unsupported test frameworks

If you use RSpec, Minitest, or Cucumber, do not use the manual testing API, as Test Optimization automatically instruments them and sends the test results to Datadog. The manual testing API is incompatible with already supported testing frameworks.

Use the manual testing API only if you use an unsupported testing framework or have a different testing mechanism. Full public API documentation is available on YARD site.

Domain model

The API is based around four concepts: test session, test module, test suite, and test.

Test session

A test session represents a test command run.

To start a test session, call Datadog::CI.start_test_session and pass the Datadog service and tags (such as the test framework you are using).

When all your tests have finished, call Datadog::CI::TestSession#finish, which closes the session and sends the session trace to the backend.

Test module

A test module represents a smaller unit of work within a session. For supported test frameworks, test module is always same as test session. For your use case, this could be a package in your componentized application.

To start a test module, call Datadog::CI.start_test_module and pass the name of the module.

When the module run has finished, call Datadog::CI::TestModule#finish.

Test suite

A test suite comprises a set of tests that test similar functionality. A single suite usually corresponds to a single file where tests are defined.

Create test suites by calling Datadog::CI#start_test_suite and passing the name of the test suite.

Call Datadog::CI::TestSuite#finish when all the related tests in the suite have finished their execution.

Test

A test represents a single test case that is executed as part of a test suite. Usually it corresponds to a method that contains testing logic.

Create tests in a suite by calling Datadog::CI#start_test or Datadog::CI.trace_test and passing the name of the test and name of the test suite. Test suite name must be the same as name of the test suite started in previous step.

Call Datadog::CI::Test#finish when a test has finished execution.

Code example

The following code represents example usage of the API:

require "datadog/ci"

Datadog.configure do |c|
  c.service = "my-test-service"
  c.ci.enabled = true
end

def run_test_suite(tests, test_suite_name)
  test_suite = Datadog::CI.start_test_suite(test_suite_name)

  run_tests(tests, test_suite_name)

  test_suite.passed!
  test_suite.finish
end

def run_tests(tests, test_suite_name)
  tests.each do |test_name|
    Datadog::CI.trace_test(test_name, test_suite_name) do |test|
      test.passed!
    end
  end
end

Datadog::CI.start_test_session(
  tags: {
    Datadog::CI::Ext::Test::TAG_FRAMEWORK => "my-framework",
    Datadog::CI::Ext::Test::TAG_FRAMEWORK_VERSION => "0.0.1",
  }
)
Datadog::CI.start_test_module("my-test-module")

run_test_suite(["test1", "test2", "test3"], "test-suite-name")

Datadog::CI.active_test_module&.passed!
Datadog::CI.active_test_module&.finish

Datadog::CI.active_test_session&.passed!
Datadog::CI.active_test_session&.finish

Further reading