page.title=Creating Functional Tests trainingnavtop=true @jd:body

This lesson teaches you to

  1. Add Test Method to Validate Functional Behavior
    1. Set Up an ActivityMonitor
    2. Send Keyboard Input Using Instrumentation

Try it out

Download the demo

AndroidTestingFun.zip

Functional testing involves verifying that individual application components work together as expected by the user. For example, you can create a functional test to verify that an {@link android.app.Activity} correctly launches a target {@link android.app.Activity} when the user performs a UI interaction.

To create a functional test for your {@link android.app.Activity}, your test class should extend {@link android.test.ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2}. Unlike {@link android.test.ActivityUnitTestCase}, tests in {@link android.test.ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2} can communicate with the Android system and send keyboard input and click events to the UI.

For a complete test case example, take a look at {@code SenderActivityTest.java} in the sample app.

Add Test Method to Validate Functional Behavior

Your functional testing goals might include:

You might implement your test method like this:

@MediumTest
public void testSendMessageToReceiverActivity() {
    final Button sendToReceiverButton = (Button) 
            mSenderActivity.findViewById(R.id.send_message_button);

    final EditText senderMessageEditText = (EditText) 
            mSenderActivity.findViewById(R.id.message_input_edit_text);

    // Set up an ActivityMonitor
    ...

    // Send string input value
    ...

    // Validate that ReceiverActivity is started
    ...

    // Validate that ReceiverActivity has the correct data
    ...

    // Remove the ActivityMonitor
    ...
}

The test waits for an {@link android.app.Activity} that matches this monitor, otherwise returns null after a timeout elapses. If {@code ReceiverActivity} was started, the {@link android.app.Instrumentation.ActivityMonitor ActivityMonitor} that you set up earlier receives a hit. You can use the assertion methods to verify that the {@code ReceiverActivity} is indeed started, and that the hit count on the {@link android.app.Instrumentation.ActivityMonitor ActivityMonitor} incremented as expected.

Set up an ActivityMonitor

To monitor a single {@link android.app.Activity} in your application, you can register an {@link android.app.Instrumentation.ActivityMonitor ActivityMonitor}. The {@link android.app.Instrumentation.ActivityMonitor ActivityMonitor} is notified by the system whenever an {@link android.app.Activity} that matches your criteria is started. If a match is found, the monitor’s hit count is updated.

Generally, to use an {@link android.app.Instrumentation.ActivityMonitor ActivityMonitor}, you should:

  1. Retrieve the {@link android.app.Instrumentation} instance for your test case by using the {@link android.test.InstrumentationTestCase#getInstrumentation()} method.
  2. Add an instance of {@link android.app.Instrumentation.ActivityMonitor} to the current instrumentation using one of the {@link android.app.Instrumentation} {@code addMonitor()} methods. The match criteria can be specified as an {@link android.content.IntentFilter} or a class name string.
  3. Wait for the {@link android.app.Activity} to start.
  4. Verify that the monitor hits were incremented.
  5. Remove the monitor.

For example:

// Set up an ActivityMonitor
ActivityMonitor receiverActivityMonitor =
        getInstrumentation().addMonitor(ReceiverActivity.class.getName(),
        null, false);

// Validate that ReceiverActivity is started
TouchUtils.clickView(this, sendToReceiverButton);
ReceiverActivity receiverActivity = (ReceiverActivity) 
        receiverActivityMonitor.waitForActivityWithTimeout(TIMEOUT_IN_MS);
assertNotNull("ReceiverActivity is null", receiverActivity);
assertEquals("Monitor for ReceiverActivity has not been called",
        1, receiverActivityMonitor.getHits());
assertEquals("Activity is of wrong type",
        ReceiverActivity.class, receiverActivity.getClass());

// Remove the ActivityMonitor
getInstrumentation().removeMonitor(receiverActivityMonitor);

Send Keyboard Input Using Instrumentation

If your {@link android.app.Activity} has an {@link android.widget.EditText} field, you might want to test that users can enter values into the {@link android.widget.EditText} object.

Generally, to send a string input value to an {@link android.widget.EditText} object in {@link android.test.ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2}, you should:

  1. Use the {@link android.app.Instrumentation#runOnMainSync(java.lang.Runnable) runOnMainSync()} method to run the {@link android.view.View#requestFocus()} call synchronously in a loop. This way, the UI thread is blocked until focus is received.
  2. Call {@link android.app.Instrumentation#waitForIdleSync()} method to wait for the main thread to become idle (that is, have no more events to process).
  3. Send a text string to the {@link android.widget.EditText} by calling {@link android.app.Instrumentation#sendStringSync(java.lang.String) sendStringSync()} and pass your input string as the parameter.

For example:

// Send string input value
getInstrumentation().runOnMainSync(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        senderMessageEditText.requestFocus();
    }
});
getInstrumentation().waitForIdleSync();
getInstrumentation().sendStringSync("Hello Android!");
getInstrumentation().waitForIdleSync();