Learn New Skills in the New Year
New year’s resolution: Start writing better code faster in 2025. Kick off the new year by learning new developer skills and elevate your career to the next level. In this post, we explore learning resources and live events that will help you build critical skills and get started with cutting-edge technologies. Learn how to build custom agents, code intelligent apps with familiar tools, discover new possibilities in .NET 9, use Copilot for testing and debugging, and more. Plus, get details about using GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code—for free! New AI for Developers page Check out the new AI for Developers page. It's packed with free GitHub courses on building apps, machine learning, and mastering GitHub Copilot for paired programming. Learn your way and skill up for what's next in AI. Use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code for free Did you hear the news? You can now use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code for free. Get details about the new Copilot Free plan and add Copilot to your developer toolbox. What is Copilot Studio? Have questions about Copilot Studio? This article from Microsoft Learn covers all the basics you need to know about Copilot Studio—the low-code tool for easily building agents and extending Microsoft 365 Copilot. From C# to ChatGPT: Build Generative AI Solutions with Azure Combine your C# skills with the cutting-edge power of ChatGPT and Azure OpenAI Service. This free learning path introduces you to building GenAI solutions, using REST APIs, SDKs, and Azure tools to create more intelligent applications. Register for the Powerful Devs Conference + Hackathon Register for the Powerful Devs Conference + Hackathon (February 12-28, 2025) and get more out of Power Platform. This one-day online conference is followed by a 2-week hackathon focused on building intelligent applications with less effort. Code the future with Java and AI: RSVP for Microsoft JDConf 2025 today Get ready for the JDConf 2025—Microsoft's annual event for Java developers. Taking place April 9-10, this year’s event will have three separate live streams to cover different regions. Join to explore tools and skills for building modern apps in the cloud and integrating AI. Build custom agents for Microsoft Teams Learn how to build custom agents for Microsoft Teams. This free learning path will teach you about different copilot stacks, working with Azure OpenAI, building a custom engine agent. Start building intelligent Microsoft Teams apps using the LLMs and AI components. Microsoft Learn: Debug your app with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Debug more efficiently using GitHub Copilot. This Microsoft Learn article shows you how. Discover how Copilot will answer detailed questions about your code and provide bug fixes. Make Azure AI Real: Watch Season 2 Elevate your AI game with Make Azure AI Real on demand. Season 2 digs into the latest Azure AI advancements, with practical demos, code samples, and real-world use cases. GitHub Copilot Bootcamp Streamline your workflow with GitHub Copilot—craft more effective prompts and automate repetitive tasks like testing. This GitHub Copilot Bootcamp is a 4-part live streaming series that will help you master GitHub Copilot. 10 Days of GenAI – Gift Guide Edition Start building your own Gen AI application. These short videos outline 10 steps for creating your app—choose a model, add functions, fine tune responses, and more. Extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with declarative agents using Visual Studio Code Check out this new learning path from Microsoft Learn to discover how you can extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with declarative agents using VS Code. Learn about declarative agents and how they work. Developer's guide to building your own agents Want to build your own agents? Watch this Ignite session on demand for a look at the new agent development tools. Find out how to create agents built on Microsoft 365 Copilot or your custom AI engine. Master distributed application development with .NET Aspire Get started with .NET Aspire—an opinionated, cloud-ready stack for building distributed applications with .NET. This series covers everything from setup to deployment. Start your journey toward mastering distributed app development. Learn: What's new in .NET 9 Discover what's new in .NET 9. Learn about new features for AI, improvements for building cloud-native apps, performance enhancements, updates to C#, and more. Read the overview and get started with .NET 9. Become a .NET AI engineer using the OpenAI library for .NET Use your .NET skills to become an AI engineer. With the OpenAI library, .NET developers can quickly master critical AI skills and apply them to real world apps. Read the blog to learn more about the OpenAI library for .NET. Test like a pro with Playwright and GitHub Copilot Supercharge your testing using Playwright and GitHub Copilot. Watch this in-depth demo and discover how you can easily create end-to-end tests using Playwright's powerful built-in code generator. Other news and resources from around Microsoft · Microsoft Learn: Why and how to adopt AI in your organization · Microsoft Learn: Learn to use Copilot in Microsoft Fabric · AI Toolkit for Visual Studio Code: Update highlights · Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code update · RAG Deep Dive: Live streams · Learn Together: SQL database in Fabric · Become an AI security expert using OpenAI with Azure Managed Identity · Deploy, monitor, and manage development resources with Microsoft Dev Box · Microsoft Playwright testing · Introduction to artificial intelligence and Azure AI services · Azure AI-900 Fundamentals Training event series · Leveraging cloud-native infra for your intelligent apps · Platform engineering with GitHub · Extend declarative agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot with API plugins using Visual Studio Code · Introducing the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK · Azure Live Q&A events · Get started with multimodal parsing for RAG using GPT-4o, Azure AI Search, and LlamaParse
Microsoft Playwright Testing service now supports NUnit test runner
Microsoft Playwright Testing is an Azure service that accelerates builds by running tests in parallel, enhances test coverage by enabling testing across multiple operating systems and browsers, and simplifies troubleshooting with a unified dashboard for test results and artifacts. We are excited to announce that Playwright Testing service now supports the NUnit test runner, bringing the following benefits to .NET developers: Speed up your NUnit test runs by running more .NET tests in parallel. Expand test coverage by running your .NET tests across multiple operating systems and browsers. Troubleshoot faster using Microsoft Playwright Testing’s rich reporting capabilities. Faster builds with parallel test execution As your application grows, test suite complexity increases, leading to longer execution times that slow development and delay releases. On both dev machines and CI agents, resource constraints limit the number of browsers that can run in parallel, resulting in longer wait times. With NUnit support in Playwright Testing, you can run more .NET tests in parallel across multiple cloud-hosted browsers. By offloading tests to managed infrastructure, the service eliminates resource bottlenecks, enabling simultaneous execution to speed up builds and reduce pipeline delays. This seamless integration preserves your NUnit workflow, providing faster feedback without requiring additional setup or maintenance. Comprehensive test coverage across browsers and operating systems Modern web applications are complex, both in features and compatibility across multiple browsers and operating systems. Testing across these configurations lengthens execution time and adds infrastructure burdens. With NUnit support in Microsoft Playwright Testing, you can easily run your .NET tests across various OS-browser combinations without the need for additional infrastructure management. The service-managed infrastructure ensures reliable test execution, whether running tests locally or in your CI pipeline. The service’s cross-platform coverage and scalable infrastructure guarantee that your application performs flawlessly across browsers and operating systems, providing a consistent and optimized user experience. Easy troubleshooting with reporting As development teams scale and release new features, quickly resolving issues becomes critical to maintaining quality. Delays in issue resolution can disrupt the entire development process. With NUnit support in Playwright Testing, your team can access detailed test results from CI/CD runs of .NET tests, along with rich artifacts like error logs, screenshots, videos, and traces, all within a unified dashboard for rapid troubleshooting. The reporting feature highlights tests that need attention, filtering results to focus on failures, so you can immediately start troubleshooting. You can easily click through each test to access all the necessary information to resolve issues. All artifacts are securely stored in a centralized location with customizable permissions. A standout feature is the Trace Viewer, which allows you to visually navigate through your NUnit test execution. You can step through tests or use the timeline to examine the page state before and after each action, including detailed logs, DOM snapshots, network activity, errors, and console output at every step for precise troubleshooting. Get started with Playwright Testing service Getting started is simple. In just a few steps, you can integrate your NUnit test suite with Microsoft Playwright Testing. Check out our QuickStart and try the service today! Share your feedback Your feedback is invaluable to us. Share your thoughts and help us improve Microsoft Playwright Testing. Learn more about the Microsoft Playwright Testing service Learn more about using the Playwright Testing service for your web application testing. Explore the features and benefits that Microsoft Playwright Testing offers. Learn about our flexible pricing. Use the pricing calculator to determine your costs based on your business needs.First Steps into Automation: Building Your First Playwright Test
Your journey into automated testing begins here! This is not just a blog; it's your gateway to mastering the art of reliable and consistent user experiences. With Playwright's rich features and tools, you're equipped to tackle modern web development challenges head-on. Don't wait, start learning Playwright today and take your web testing to the next level!Introducing Rich Reporting and Troubleshooting for Microsoft Playwright Testing
Today, we're excited to introduce rich reporting and easy troubleshooting for the Microsoft Playwright Testing service! Microsoft Playwright Testing is a managed service built for running Playwright tests easily at scale. Playwright is a fast-growing, open-source framework that enables reliable end-to-end testing and automation for modern web apps. You can read more about the service here. Now, with this new Reporting feature users can publish test results and related artifacts and view them in the service portal for faster and easier troubleshooting. Quickly Identify Failed and Flaky Tests In the fast-paced world of web development, applications evolve rapidly, constantly reshaping user experiences. To keep up, testing needs to be just as swift. Playwright automates end-to-end tests and delivers essential reports for troubleshooting. The Reporting feature provides a streamlined dashboard that highlights failed and flaky tests, enabling you to identify and address issues quickly. This focused view helps maintain application quality while supporting rapid iteration. Screenshot of test results filtered by failed and flaky tests Troubleshoot Tests Easily using rich artifacts As test suites grow and the frequency of test execution increases, managing generated artifacts becomes challenging. These artifacts are crucial for debugging failed tests and demonstrating quality signals for feature deployment, but they are often scattered across various sources. The Reporting feature consolidates results and artifacts, such as screenshots, videos, and traces, into a unified web dashboard, simplifying the troubleshooting process. The Trace Viewer, a tool offered by Playwright, that helps you explore traces and allows you to navigate through each action of your test and visually observe what occurred during each step. It is hosted in the service portal with the test for which it is collected, eliminating the need to store and locate it separately for troubleshooting. Screenshot of trace viewer hosted in the service portal Seamless Integration with CI Pipelines Continuous testing is essential for maintaining application quality, but collecting and maintaining execution reports and artifacts can be challenging. Microsoft Playwright Testing service can be easily configured to collect results and artifacts in CI pipelines. It also captures details about the CI agent running the tests and presents them in the service portal with the test run. This integration facilitates a smooth transition from the test results to the code repository where tests are written. Users can also access the history of test runs in the portal and gain valuable insights, leading to faster troubleshooting and reduced developer workload. Screenshot of test result with CI information Join the Private Preview For current Playwright users, adding the Reporting feature with your existing setup is easy. It integrates with the Playwright test suite, requiring no changes to the existing test code. All you need to do is install a package that extends the Playwright open-source package, add it to your configuration, and you're ready to go. This feature operates independently of the service's cloud-hosted browsers, so you can use it without utilizing service-managed browsers. We invite teams interested in enhancing their end-to-end testing to join the private preview of the Reporting feature. This feature is available at no additional charge during the private preview period. However, usage of the cloud-hosted browsers feature will be billed according to Azure pricing. Your feedback is invaluable for refining and enhancing this feature. By joining the private preview, you gain early access and direct communication with the product team, allowing you to share your experiences and help shape the future of the product. Interested in trying out the reporting feature and giving us feedback? Sign up here. Check out Microsoft Playwright Testing service here. If you are new to Microsoft Playwright Testing service, learn more about it.
