Device testing for Android

Abstract

With Bitrise’s Android virtual device testing solution, you can run UI tests on emulators without having to set up and register your own devices.

Limitations

You might be limited by your overall build time. Also note that a single build can contain only one Virtual Device Testing Step performing one type of test (instrumentation, robo or gameloop).

Our device testing solution is based on Firebase Test Lab. You can find the resulting logs, videos and screenshots on Bitrise.

Running tests

With Bitrise, you can choose from 3 different test types:

robo (default test type in Bitrise).
instrumentation.
gameloop.

If you want to read up on the difference between these test types, take a look at Firebase’s documentation.

There is a small difference between configuring your workflow for robo and instrumentation tests, so let’s see them separately!

Running robo tests

Open the Workflow you want to use in the Workflow Editor.
Add the Android Build Step after the Android Unit Test Step to export an APK.
Add the Debug task to the Variant Step input field. This will prepare an env var containing the APK path of your build. You will need this env var in the next step.
Add Virtual Device Testing for Android Step after the Android Build Step.
Set the APK path input field.
Check if robo is the selected Test type.
Add the type of test device in the Test devices input field. If choosing a different device than the default, your input should have the format of deviceID, version, language, orientation separated with ,. Find the list of the available devices here.
Start a build and check your test results.

Setting user input with Robo directives for successful robo tests

If your app needs specific user interaction for a successful robo test, you can use the Robo Directives input field to set those necessary inputs. For example, certain UI elements of the app are only accessible for robo testing if the required user inputs (username and email address) are populated for log in.

Click the Virtual Device Testing for Android Step in your workflow.
Click the Robo Test section.
Find the Robo directives input field and set your required user input directives.
- provide a comma-separated list of key-value pairs, where the key is the Android resource name of the target UI element, and the value is the text string. EditText fields are supported but not text fields in WebView UI elements. For example, you could use the following parameter for custom login:
```
username_resource,username,ENTER_TEXT
password_resource,password,ENTER_TEXT
loginbtn_resource,,SINGLE_CLICK
```
- One directive per line, the parameters are separated with , character. For example: ResourceName,InputText,ActionType.

Based on the input you provide, you can successfully run a robo test (even on pages that are only accessible with a specific user input) and check the test results on the Test Reports page. The test results can be, for example:

Screenshots.

Recorded video.

Logs.

Files.

Here is a screenshot of a successful robo test, where the robo test got all the way through to My application by populating the email and password fields first with the pre-defined directives from the Robo directives.

Running instrumentation tests

Open the Workflow you want to use in the Workflow Editor.
Add the Android Build for UI testing Step to your Workflow.
To export an APK and a Test APK, you have to set the following input fields in the Android Build for UI testing Step. The Step outputs will be BITRISE_APK_PATH (which is the path of the generated APK after filtering) and BITRISE_TEST_APK_PATH (which is the path of the generated test APK after filtering).
- Project Location: the root directory of your Android project.
- Module: set the module you wish to build.
- Variant: set the variant you wish to build (usually debug).
The Step outputs will be BITRISE_APK_PATH (which is the path of the generated APK after filtering) and BITRISE_TEST_APK_PATH (which is the path of the generated test APK after filtering).
Add the Virtual Device Testing Step right after the Android Build for UI testing Step.
Set the Test type to instrumentation. Our Android Build for UI Testing Step exports an APK and a Test APK and their paths get automatically set in the APK path and Test APK path input fields of the Virtual Device Testing Step.
Add the type of test device in the Test devices input field. If choosing a different device than the default, your input should have the format of device ID,version,language,orientation separated with a ,.
Start a build and check your test results.

Checking test results

Test Reports display the most important information about all the tests you ran on the Test Summary tab. You will see all the tests you ran, their duration, and their results. You can also click on the tabs of the individual tests to see their details.

To access the result of a particular test:

Find your app on the Dashboard, and select it.
On the app's main page, select the build you want to check out.
Go to the Tests tab.
On the Test Summary tab, find the test you want to check. Alternatively, on the top bar, click the tab of the test set you want to check out.To filter tests based on their results, open the menu on the top right, which is set to All by default.
Click Test cases to see the details.

UI tests are grouped according to device while unit tests are grouped according to test cases.

You will find:

The total number of tests you ran, as well as the ratio of successful and failed tests.
The duration of each individual test (both unit tests and UI tests).
In the case of UI tests, the orientation and the locale of the device.

You can check, depending on the test type:

Individual test cases
Performance data
Videos
Screenshots
Test artifacts
Logs

As noted above, this depends on test type, too: for unit tests, you won’t see screenshots or videos, of course.

In this section: