Cover Reports data, referred to as "reports bundles", are generated and uploaded using Cover CLI (as part of a developer's process) and/or Cover Pipeline (as part of a CI workflow/pipeline).

• Java project config (JaCoCo) - how to configure your Java projects to generate JaCoCo reports, essential for use with Cover Reports.

• Generate and upload reports bundles - how to use the dcover commands to generate and upload reports bundles.

• - how to use authentication for your uploads (if enabled by your Cover Reports Administrator).

This set of topics is targeted at Cover Reports Contributors.

By default, any Diffblue Cover user can upload reports bundles to Cover Reports. However, your Cover Reports Administrator may have restricted access using upload authentication. Contact your Cover Reports Administrator for details of what restrictions may be in place and any associated username and password needed for uploads.

JaCoCo reports are an essential component of Cover Reports. Some projects have access to a version of JaCoCo that Cover can use, either through their original configuration or via Cover itself (using Maven). However, if Cover cannot find a suitable JaCoCo configuration (typically detected during Preflight checks), the following minor configuration update for your projects to add the appropriate dependencies and plugins (if you're not already using JaCoCo) should be sufficient.

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
  <artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>0.8.7</version>
</dependency>

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
  <artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>0.8.7</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <goals>

Cover Reports data, referred to as "reports bundles", are generated as part of your code development process and uploaded to Cover Reports. This can be done from Cover CLI and/or Cover Pipeline, using the appropriate dcover commands detailed in this topic. Reports bundles are comprised of the following files:

• report.json - Diffblue's coverage report.

• diffblue-tests-jacoco-report.xml - a JaCoCo coverage report providing data for Diffblue tests (created by Diffblue Cover).

• manual-tests-jacoco-report.xml – a JaCoCo coverage report providing data for manual tests (created by a developer).

Reports bundles can be generated and uploaded as follows:

• - integration with Cover Pipeline reporting on the baseline tests, after-merge or periodically.

• - create tests, generate the reports bundle, and upload the bundle to the Cover Reports server.

• - generate the reports bundle only, no tests created, no upload.

The associated dcover commands can be run from Cover CLI or integrated into your CI/CD workflow/pipeline as needed.

Command summary (core options only):

You can also omit the <reports-server> parameter if you prefer to specify the upload url via environment variable instead. For example:

Cover Pipeline Integration

For information about integrating Cover Reports into Cover Pipeline please see.

Create, Generate, Upload

This topic details the dcover command to create tests, generate the reports bundle, and upload the bundle to the Cover Reports server. Note that Cover Reports is primarily focused on reporting the full test suite and so this approach is not recommend in combination with the create --patch-only option.

Prerequisites:

• Configure your project to generate JaCoCo files (see ).

• Ensure that Diffblue generated tests are correctly tagged, using the latest version of (see ).

• Build your project.

Command details:

Run the following dcover command:

For example:

Optional JaCoCo arguments:

Examples (using default values):

Generate Only

Generate the reports bundle only - no tests created, no upload to the server. This can be useful if tests have already been created for the project using dcover create, but the --coverage-reports option wasn't included.

Prerequisites:

• Configure your project to generate JaCoCo files (see ).

Command details:

Run the following dcover command:

Once the reports bundle has been generated, you can upload the bundle to your Cover Reports server using dcover upload - see below.

Optional arguments (as detailed in ):

Additional JaCoCo arguments:

Examples (using default values):

Upload Only

Upload an existing reports bundle only. This can be useful when the reports bundle has been generated separately, but not uploaded.

Command details:

Run the following dcover command:

For example:

Additional optional arguments (as detailed in ):

Additional JaCoCo arguments:

Considerations

When generating, naming, and uploading reports bundles, consider the following. You may also wish to discuss these with your Cover Reports Users and Cover Reports Administrators as appropriate.

• Generate & Upload - Timing: You can generate and upload reports bundles before, during, and after code development. For consistency, you may wish to define specific schedules and you may also find it useful to generate and upload reports for your project before you run dcover create on the project for the first time (useful for setting a coverage baseline) - see and .

• Naming Conventions: The --name, --project-name and --location arguments are used to structure the uploaded data within Cover Reports. Diffblue recommends that you select an appropriate and consistent naming convention to help with data visualization in the Cover Reports UI. Alternatively, don't use these options and allow the data to be auto-generated.