How-To: Automatic testing for Android Applications

W.Elsinga — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 03:30:50 +0000

After setting up your Android development environment, and Developing an Android Application it’s time to set-up a automatic Android Test environment. The steps to achieve this are:

Choose a test technique.
Creating a test project.
Make the test.
Run the test.

I will use the Android application which was developed inside my previous post.

[Update 15-03-2011] Updated to Android 2.3.3.
[Update 15-03-2011] Updated to Robotium 2.2.

Choose a test technique

There are different techniques you can use to test Android applications. The most commonly known is by way of JUnit. JUnit is used to test the technical quality of applications. But what about the testing the functional use of a application, like you would do it with Selenium for web application. For Android applications there is a similar tool for testing called Robotium. It is a UI testing tool which simulates touching, clicks, typing, and other users’ actions relevant for Android applications. In this example I will be using Robotium.

Creating a test project

From within Eclipse select File menu, New and Other.
Choose Android Test Project inside the Android folder.
Provide the information about the Android Test project and click Next.
Press Finish. You should see the following directory structure

Because I will be creating a Robotium test, I must provide the robotium-solo-2.2.jar as library.

Make the test

From within Eclipse select File menu, New and JUnit Test Case.
Provide the information about the Junit Test Case and click Finish.
Change MainTest.java to the following

package com.my;

import java.util.ArrayList;

import com.jayway.android.robotium.solo.Solo;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.test.ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class MainTest extends ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2 {

private Solo solo;
private Activity activity;

public MainTest() {
super("com.my", Main.class);
}

@Override
protected void setUp() throws Exception {
super.setUp();

this.activity = this.getActivity();
this.solo = new Solo(getInstrumentation(), this.activity);
}

@Override
public void tearDown() throws Exception {
try {
this.solo.finalize();
} catch (Throwable e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
this.activity.finish();
super.tearDown();
}

/**
* @throws Exception Exception
*/
public void testDisplay() throws Exception {
String text = "Congratulations";

//Enter "Congratulations" inside the EditText field.
this.solo.enterText((EditText) this.activity.findViewById(R.id.EditText01), text);

//Click on the button named "Click".
this.solo.clickOnButton("Click");

//Check to see if the given text is displayed.
assertTrue(this.solo.searchText(text));

TextView outputField = (TextView) this.activity.findViewById(R.id.TextView01);
ArrayList currentTextViews = this.solo.getCurrentTextViews(outputField);
assertFalse(currentTextViews.isEmpty());

TextView output = currentTextViews.get(0);
assertEquals(text, output.getText().toString());
}

}

Run the test

Al that is left is running the test.

Right click MyAndroidAppTestProject.
Select Android Junit Test within the Run-As option.
Be patient, the emulator starts up very slow. You should get the following result

Appendix

Download source code Android.zip [16kB] and AndroidTest.zip [16kB]

Android Continuous Integration

W.Elsinga — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:05:44 +0000

So I have been working on a Selenium RC solution with the use of Robotium. To guaranty stable implementation I have set up a Android Continuous Integration Environment. With the use of Maven and Hudson (as done here) I have achieved this.

Until next time…

p.s. Interesting vid

[qrcodetag/]

Functioneel Testen voor Android

W.Elsinga — Thu, 06 May 2010 03:49:40 +0000

Zoals vele collega’s ben ook ik bezig met het ontwikkelen van een Android applicatie. Na 4 uurtjes was daar toch mijn eerste Android app.
Ja en als goede software ontwikkelaar natuurlijk doet, unit-testen. Met JUnit de code getest. Maar ik wou ook de “frond-end” functionaliteit testen, en daar stookte het.

Tijdens mijn dagelijkse ontwikkel werkzaamheden maak ik Web applicaties en lever ik middels Selenium ook functionele testen op. Helaas ben ik tot de conclusie gekomen dat dit nog ontbreekt bij het ontwikkelen van Android applicaties.

Ik heb gekeken of Positron (een Google code project) iets is. Positron voorziet in het uitvoeren van Android Activiteiten om zodoende een test scenario na te spelen.
Ik heb ook gekeken naar Robotium. Dit is nou precies wat ik zoek, dus ben nu bezig om dit te gebruiken om functionele test te maken.