Automated UI tests on Android

I recently fought the Android emulator a lot to get my UI tests to run automatically during the build of Rabbit Escape, so I thought I’d better write down what I did before I forget.

I already have tests that drive the Android UI (see e.g. SmokeTest.java – it’s not pretty, but it seems reliable, and it catches real problems) – this post is about how to run them automatically during our build.

Note that to run the Android emulator I’m fairly sure you need a windowing environment, so I don’t think this could be moved to a headless build server. If course, you could always fight some kind of framebuffer thing.

Here is the part of our Makefile that launches the tests:

android-smoke-tests:
	@echo ". Running Android smoke tests"
	./build-scripts/android-start-emulator "android-8" "3.2in QVGA (ADP2)"
	./build-scripts/android-test "free" "app-free-debug"
	./build-scripts/android-test "" "app-paid-debug"
	./build-scripts/android-stop-emulator

and here is ./build-scripts/android-start-emulator – it starts up and emulator, waits for it to be ready, and unlocks its screen.:

#!/bin/bash

set -x
set -u
set -e

# Args

TARGET="$1"   # E.g. "android-8"
DEVICE="$2"   # E.g. "3.2in QVGA (ADP2)"

# Setup

ADB="${HOME}/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb"
EMULATOR="${HOME}/Android/Sdk/tools/emulator"
ANDROID="${HOME}/Android/Sdk/tools/android"
NAME="rabbitescape-${TARGET}"
TMP="/data/local/tmp"

${ANDROID} create avd \
    --force \
    --name "${NAME}" \
    --target "${TARGET}" \
    --abi "armeabi" \
    --device "${DEVICE}"

# Start the emulator
${EMULATOR} -avd "${NAME}" &

# Wait for the device to boot and unlock it
${ADB} wait-for-device shell < ${TMP}/zero
getprop dev.bootcomplete > ${TMP}/bootcomplete
while cmp ${TMP}/zero ${TMP}/bootcomplete; do
{
    echo -n "."
    sleep 1
    getprop dev.bootcomplete > ${TMP}/bootcomplete
}; done
echo "Booted."
exit
ENDSCRIPT

echo "Waiting 30 secs for us to be really booted"
sleep 30

echo "Unlocking screen"
${ADB} shell "input keyevent 82"

Now here is android-test – it launches the JUnit test code on the running emulator::

#!/bin/bash

set -x
set -u
set -e

PKGSUFFIX="$1"   # E.g. "free"
APKNAME="$2"     # E.g. "app-free-debug"

APPID="net.artificialworlds.rabbitescape${PKGSUFFIX}"
TESTAPPID="net.artificialworlds.rabbitescape${PKGSUFFIX}.test"
APK="rabbit-escape-ui-android/app/build/outputs/apk/${APKNAME}.apk"
TESTAPK="rabbit-escape-ui-android/app/build/outputs/apk/${APKNAME}-androidTest.apk"
ADB="${HOME}/Android/Sdk/platform-tools/adb"
DIR="/data/local/tmp/${APPID}"
TESTDIR="/data/local/tmp/${TESTAPPID}"

function run_test()
{
    TMPFILE=$(mktemp)

    ${ADB} shell am instrument \
        -w \
        -r \
        -e class "$1" \
        "${TESTAPPID}/android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner" \
    | tee ${TMPFILE}

    egrep "OK (.* tests?)" ${TMPFILE}
}

${ADB} push "${APK}" "${DIR}"
${ADB} push "${TESTAPK}" "${TESTDIR}"

${ADB} shell pm install -r "${DIR}"
${ADB} shell pm install -r "${TESTDIR}"

run_test rabbitescape.ui.android.DialogsTest
run_test rabbitescape.ui.android.SmokeTest
run_test rabbitescape.ui.android.TestAndroidConfigUpgradeTo1

And here is android-stop-emulator – it shuts down the emulator:

#!/bin/bash

set -x
set -u

echo -e "auth $(cat ~/.emulator_console_auth_token)\nkill" \
    | telnet localhost 5554

echo "Emulator stopped."