In this document
See Also
This document describes how to create and run tests directly from the command line. You can use the techniques described here if you are developing in an IDE other than Eclipse or if you prefer to work from the command line. This document assumes that you already know how to create a Android application in your programming environment. Before you start this document, you should read the topic Testing Fundamentals, which provides an overview of Android testing.
If you are developing in Eclipse with ADT, you can set up and run your tests directly in Eclipse. For more information, please read Testing from Eclipse with ADT.
Working with Test Projects
You use the android
tool to create test projects.
You also use android
to convert existing test code into an Android test project,
or to add the test
Ant target to an existing Android test project.
These operations are described in more detail in the section
Updating a test project. The test
target is described in
Quick build and run with Ant.
Creating a test project
To create a test project with the android
tool, enter:
android create test-project -m <main_path> -n <project_name> -p <test_path>
You must supply all the flags. The following table explains them in detail:
Flag | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
-m, --main |
Path to the project of the application under test, relative to the test package directory. |
For example, if the application under test is in source/HelloAndroid , and
you want to create the test project in source/HelloAndroidTest , then the
value of --main should be ../HelloAndroid .
To learn more about choosing the location of test projects, please read Testing Fundamentals. |
-n, --name |
Name that you want to give the test project. | |
-p, --path |
Directory in which you want to create the new test project. |
The android tool creates the test project files and directory structure
in this directory. If the directory does not exist, android creates it.
|
If the operation is successful, android
lists to STDOUT the names of the files
and directories it has created.
This creates a new test project with the appropriate directories and build files. The directory structure and build file contents are identical to those in a regular Android application project. They are described in detail in the topic Managing Projects.
The operation also creates an AndroidManifest.xml
file with instrumentation
information. When you run the test, Android uses this information to load the application you
are testing and control it with instrumentation.
For example, suppose you create a project in the directory ~/source/HelloAndroid
,
with the package name com.example.helloandroid
,
and the activity name HelloAndroid
. You can to create the test for this in
~/source/HelloAndroidTest
. To do so, you enter:
$ cd ~/source $ android create test-project -m ../HelloAndroid -n HelloAndroidTest -p HelloAndroidTest
This creates a directory called ~/src/HelloAndroidTest
. In the new directory you
see the file AndroidManifest.xml
. This file contains the following
instrumentation-related elements and attributes:
-
<application>
: to contain the<uses-library>
element. -
<uses-library android:name="android.test.runner"
: specifies this testing application uses theandroid.test.runner
library. -
<instrumentation>
: contains attributes that control Android instrumentation. The attributes are:-
android:name="android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner"
:InstrumentationTestRunner
runs test cases. It extends both JUnit test case runner classes and Android instrumentation classes. -
android:targetPackage="com.example.helloandroid"
: specifies that the tests in HelloAndroidTest should be run against the application with the Android package namecom.example.helloandroid
. -
android:label="Tests for .HelloAndroid"
: specifies a user-readable label for the instrumentation class. By default, theandroid
tool gives it the value "Tests for " plus the name of the main Activity of the application under test.
-
Updating a test project
You use the android
tool when you need to change the path to the
project of the application under test. If you are changing an existing test project created in
Eclipse with ADT so that you can also build and run it from the command line, you must use the
"create" operation. See the section Creating a test project.
Note: If you change the Android package name of the application under test,
you must manually change the value of the <android:targetPackage>
attribute within the AndroidManifest.xml
file of the test package.
Running android update test-project
does not do this.
To update a test project with the android
tool, enter:
android update test-project -m <main_path> -p <test_path>
Flag | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
-m, --main |
The path to the project of the application under test, relative to the test project |
For example, if the application under test is in source/HelloAndroid , and
the test project is in source/HelloAndroidTest , then the value for
--main is ../HelloAndroid .
|
-p, --path |
The of the test project. |
For example, if the test project is in source/HelloAndroidTest , then the
value for --path is HelloAndroidTest .
|
If the operation is successful, android
lists to STDOUT the names of the files
and directories it has created.
Creating a Test Package
Once you have created a test project, you populate it with a test package.
The application does not require an Activity
,
although you can define one if you wish. Although your test package can
combine Activities, Android test class extensions, JUnit extensions, or
ordinary classes, you should extend one of the Android test classes or JUnit classes,
because these provide the best testing features.
If you run your tests with InstrumentationTestRunner
(or a related test runner), then it will run all the methods in each class. You can modify
this behavior by using the TestSuite
class.
To create a test package, start with one of Android's test classes in the Java package
android.test
. These extend the JUnit
TestCase
class. With a few exceptions, the Android test
classes also provide instrumentation for testing.
For test classes that extend TestCase
, you probably want to
override the setUp()
and tearDown()
methods:
-
setUp()
: This method is invoked before any of the test methods in the class. Use it to set up the environment for the test. You can usesetUp()
to instantiate a newIntent
object with the actionACTION_MAIN
. You can then use this intent to start the Activity under test.Note: If you override this method, call
super.setUp()
as the first statement in your code. -
tearDown()
: This method is invoked after all the test methods in the class. Use it to do garbage collection and re-setting before moving on to the next set of tests.Note: If you override this method, you must call
super.tearDown()
as the last statement in your code.
Another useful convention is to add the method testPreConditions()
to your test
class. Use this method to test that the application under test is initialized correctly. If this
test fails, you know that that the initial conditions were in error. When this happens, further
test results are suspect, regardless of whether or not the tests succeeded.
To learn more about creating test packages, see the topic Testing Fundamentals, which provides an overview of Android testing. If you prefer to follow a tutorial, try the Activity Testing tutorial, which leads you through the creation of tests for an actual Android application.
Running Tests
You run tests from the command line, either with Ant or with an Android Debug Bridge (adb) shell.
Quick build and run with Ant
You can use Ant to run all the tests in your test project, using the target
test
, which is created automatically when you create a test project with
the android
tool.
This target re-builds your main project and test project if necessary, installs the test
application to the current AVD or device, and then runs all the test classes in the test
application. The results are directed to STDOUT
.
You can update an existing test project to use this feature. To do this, use the
android
tool with the update test-project
option. This is described
in the section Updating a test project.
Running tests on a device or emulator
When you run tests from the command line with Android Debug Bridge (adb), you get more options for choosing the tests to run than with any other method. You can select individual test methods, filter tests according to their annotation, or specify testing options. Since the test run is controlled entirely from a command line, you can customize your testing with shell scripts in various ways.
To run a test from the command line, you run adb shell
to start a command-line
shell on your device or emulator, and then in the shell run the am instrument
command. You control am
and your tests with command-line flags.
As a shortcut, you can start an adb
shell, call am instrument
, and
specify command-line flags all on one input line. The shell opens on the device or emulator,
runs your tests, produces output, and then returns to the command line on your computer.
To run a test with am instrument
:
- If necessary, rebuild your main application and test package.
-
Install your test package and main application Android package files
(
.apk
files) to your current Android device or emulator -
At the command line, enter:
$ adb shell am instrument -w <test_package_name>/<runner_class>
where
<test_package_name>
is the Android package name of your test application, and<runner_class>
is the name of the Android test runner class you are using. The Android package name is the value of thepackage
attribute of themanifest
element in the manifest file (AndroidManifest.xml
) of your test package. The Android test runner class is usuallyInstrumentationTestRunner
.Your test results appear in
STDOUT
.
This operation starts an adb
shell, then runs am instrument
with the specified parameters. This particular form of the command will run all of the tests
in your test package. You can control this behavior with flags that you pass to
am instrument
. These flags are described in the next section.
Using the am instrument Command
The general syntax of the am instrument
command is:
am instrument [flags] <test_package>/<runner_class>
The main input parameters to am instrument
are described in the following table:
Parameter | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
<test_package>
|
The Android package name of the test package. |
The value of the package attribute of the manifest
element in the test package's manifest file.
|
<runner_class>
|
The class name of the instrumented test runner you are using. |
This is usually InstrumentationTestRunner .
|
The flags for am instrument
are described in the following table:
Flag | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
-w
|
(none) |
Forces am instrument to wait until the instrumentation terminates
before terminating itself. The net effect is to keep the shell open until the tests
have finished. This flag is not required, but if you do not use it, you will not
see the results of your tests.
|
-r
|
(none) |
Outputs results in raw format. Use this flag when you want to collect
performance measurements, so that they are not formatted as test results. This flag is
designed for use with the flag -e perf true (documented in the section
Instrument options).
|
-e
|
<test_options> |
Provides testing options as key-value pairs. The
am instrument tool passes these to the specified instrumentation class
via its onCreate() method. You can specify multiple occurrences of
-e <test_options> . The keys and values are described in the
section am instrument options.
The only instrumentation class that uses these key-value pairs is
|
am instrument options
The am instrument
tool passes testing options to
InstrumentationTestRunner
or a subclass in the form of key-value pairs,
using the -e
flag, with this syntax:
-e <key> <value>
Some keys accept multiple values. You specify multiple values in a comma-separated list.
For example, this invocation of InstrumentationTestRunner
provides multiple
values for the package
key:
$ adb shell am instrument -w -e package com.android.test.package1,com.android.test.package2 \ > com.android.test/android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner
The following table describes the key-value pairs and their result. Please review the Usage Notes following the table.
Key | Value | Description |
---|---|---|
package
|
<Java_package_name> | The fully-qualified Java package name for one of the packages in the test application. Any test case class that uses this package name is executed. Notice that this is not an Android package name; a test package has a single Android package name but may have several Java packages within it. |
class |
<class_name> | The fully-qualified Java class name for one of the test case classes. Only this test case class is executed. |
<class_name>#method name | A fully-qualified test case class name, and one of its methods. Only this method is executed. Note the hash mark (#) between the class name and the method name. | |
func |
true |
Runs all test classes that extend InstrumentationTestCase .
|
unit |
true |
Runs all test classes that do not extend either
InstrumentationTestCase or
PerformanceTestCase .
|
size |
[small | medium | large ]
|
Runs a test method annotated by size. The annotations are @SmallTest ,
@MediumTest , and @LargeTest .
|
perf |
true |
Runs all test classes that implement PerformanceTestCase .
When you use this option, also specify the -r flag for
am instrument , so that the output is kept in raw format and not
re-formatted as test results.
|
debug |
true |
Runs tests in debug mode. |
log |
true |
Loads and logs all specified tests, but does not run them. The test
information appears in STDOUT . Use this to verify combinations of other
filters and test specifications.
|
emma |
true |
Runs an EMMA code coverage analysis and writes the output to
/data//coverage.ec on the device. To override the file location, use the
coverageFile key that is described in the following entry.
Note: This option requires an EMMA-instrumented build of the test
application, which you can generate with the |
coverageFile |
<filename> |
Overrides the default location of the EMMA coverage file on the device. Specify this
value as a path and filename in UNIX format. The default filename is described in the
entry for the emma key.
|
-e
Flag Usage Notes
-
am instrument
invokesonCreate(Bundle)
with aBundle
containing the key-value pairs. -
The
package
key takes precedence over theclass
key. If you specifiy a package, and then separately specify a class within that package, Android will run all the tests in the package and ignore theclass
key. -
The
func
key andunit
key are mutually exclusive.
Usage examples
The following sections provide examples of using am instrument
to run tests.
They are based on the following structure:
-
The test package has the Android package name
com.android.demo.app.tests
-
There are three test classes:
-
UnitTests
, which contains the methodstestPermissions
andtestSaveState
. -
FunctionTests
, which contains the methodstestCamera
,testXVGA
, andtestHardKeyboard
. -
IntegrationTests
, which contains the methodtestActivityProvider
.
-
-
The test runner is
InstrumentationTestRunner
.
Running the entire test package
To run all of the test classes in the test package, enter:
$ adb shell am instrument -w com.android.demo.app.tests/android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner
Running all tests in a test case class
To run all of the tests in the class UnitTests
, enter:
$ adb shell am instrument -w \ > -e class com.android.demo.app.tests.UnitTests \ > com.android.demo.app.tests/android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner
am instrument
gets the value of the -e
flag, detects the
class
keyword, and runs all the methods in the UnitTests
class.
Selecting a subset of tests
To run all of the tests in UnitTests
, and the testCamera
method in
FunctionTests
, enter:
$ adb shell am instrument -w \ > -e class com.android.demo.app.tests.UnitTests,com.android.demo.app.tests.FunctionTests#testCamera \ > com.android.demo.app.tests/android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner
You can find more examples of the command in the documentation for
InstrumentationTestRunner
.