Everybody Tests

"Drunkenness does not create vice; it merely brings it into view" ~Seneca So Jelly Bean 4.2 landed with much fanfare and tucked in amongst the neat new OS and SDK features (hello, multi-user tablets!) was this little gem for testers: UiAutomator.jar. I have it on good authority that it snuck in amongst the updates in the preview tools and OS updates sometime around 4.1 with r3 of the platform. As a code-monkey of a tester, I was intrigued. One of the best ways Google can support developers struggling with platform fragmentation is to make their OS more testable so I hold high hopes with every release to see effort spent in that area. I have spent a couple days testing out the new UiAutomator API  and the best way I can think of describing it is that Android's JUnit and MonkeyRunner got drunk and had a code baby. Let me explain what I mean before that phrase sinks down into "mental image" territory. JUnit, for all its power and access to every interface, e...

"A sub-feature of this is the screenshots feature. While most of the fare you will see will be OMG LOOKEY HEREs, with a little skill, you can take quite good images." ~PARDOX460, The Art of Taking Good Halo 3 Screenshots Remember back a few posts when I dropped a bit of info about maybe perhaps capturing screenshots on failed UI tests? Well it wasn't a lie and now I'm going to show you how. First, I'll go over the prerequisites. Second I'll present you with a code sample that demonstrates how to implement the screenshot tool in your tests. And finally I'll wrap up with some recommendations on further steps to embed this into your continuous integration environment and practice. Let's get started, shall we? Phase 1: Prerequisites The bell I'm forced to ring whenever it comes to Android test automation is that Google have deigned to build it around emulators. This is convenient for them because they're not beholden to manufacturers' en...