What is the simplest way to create a UI test in Android Studio that can take screenshots when I need it to?

Question

I am trying to create a UI test in Android Studio which will navigate through the various screens of my application and take screenshots when I tell it to.

I am new to Android Studio and Android programming in general; I have a decent understanding of XML and Java, but I don't know much about build files and I am not very good at using Android Studio, it seems.

I started this endeavor a couple weeks ago, and the first solution I tried was to use uiautomator. However, the documentation on that page (and seemingly just about everywhere else) is geared towards development with Eclipse, which I would like to avoid using for this project if possible.

The next thing I tried was Espresso. After I overcame some issues with implementing Espresso into my project, I was able to write tests with Espresso which would navigate through the screens of my application. However, unlike uiautomator, Espresso does not have built-in functionality to take screenshots at this time.

I first attempted to solve this problem of being unable to take screenshots with Espresso by writing custom code; as I'm still unfamiliar with Android, I wasn't really sure how to go about that, so I searched for help on the Internet (How to programmatically take a screenshot in Android?). However, I was unable to get the solutions I found to function from inside the test file.

Somebody recommended the usage of this tool: https://github.com/rtyley/android-screenshot-lib but I could not figure out how to import that into my project.

I eventually came back to uiautomator; I was still having a lot of trouble importing it into my project, and some people said that Robotium would help with that. I got Robotium to work, but I still could not import uiautomator.

It has been probably one month since I started using Android Studio, and in that time, I've had nothing but trouble simply getting the software to function properly. For the sake of brevity, I've omitted all the problems I have managed to solve on my own, but, to put it bluntly, I'm at the end of my patience.

TL;DR

If somebody could either:

-explain in the simplest possible way how to import uiautomator into an Android Studio project (I have read a lot of documentation about how to import external libraries into a project, but they all tell me to add a 'libs' folder to my project, but do not specify which type of folder to use [Java Resource Folder? Assets Folder? Module? etc.], and/or they tell me to go into Project Structure, select my app, go to dependencies, and choose "Import as Module," which does not work...)

OR

-explain how best to take a screenshot from inside of an Espresso test, including any instructions on how to import any required libraries

OR

-explain in detail some other way to create a UI test that can take screenshots...

...I would really appreciate it. I've spent days trying to figure out how to do this, and I am so frustrated. Many people have asked similar questions, but the answers are either too vague or the problems aren't close enough to my own.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Alright, after much trouble, I've found a very simple solution. It took me a very long time to work out, but if anyone else needs to do something similar, I'll put my conclusion here.

First of all, the testing framework that is easiest to use with Android Studio, it seems, is Espresso. Setting up Espresso is fairly simple; most of the instructions can be found here: https://code.google.com/p/android-test-kit/wiki/EspressoSetupInstructions Make sure you read it carefully -- it tells you basically everything you need to know, but I missed some important details and that caused me a lot of trouble.

If you browse around that Espresso site, it tells you just about everything you need to know about how to write Espresso tests. It was a little frustrating for me because, if I wrote a test and the test failed, my device would then have connection issues with my laptop and I would have to disconnect and reconnect the USB cord I was using. I think this had something to do with the fact that I was using a Nexus 7 with a Windows 8 laptop, which has given me some problems in other areas, so you may not encounter this issue yourself.

Now, unlike uiautomator, the documentation of which claims to have support for taking screenshots, Espresso does not have built-in support for taking screenshots. That means you'll have to figure out a different way to take screenshots. My solution was to create a new class (called HelperClass, in my case) inside my androidTest package and add this method to it.

public static void takeScreenshot(String name, Activity activity)
{
    //slightly modified version of solution from http://www.ssaurel.com/blog/how-to-programmatically-take-a-screenshot-in-android/

    //I added "/Pictures/" to my path because that's the folder where I wanted to store my screenshots -- you might not have that folder on your device, so you might want to replace "/Pictures/" with just "/" until you decide where you want to store the screenshots
    String path = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath() + "/Pictures/" + name;

    View v = activity.getWindow().getDecorView().getRootView();
    v.setDrawingCacheEnabled(true);
    Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(v.getDrawingCache());
    v.setDrawingCacheEnabled(false);

    OutputStream out = null;
    File imageFile = new File(path);
    //the following line will help you find where the screen will be stored on your device
    Log.v("Screenshot", "The image file path is " + imageFile.getPath());

    try {
        out = new FileOutputStream(imageFile);
        // choose JPEG format
        bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 90, out);
        out.flush();
    } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
        // manage exception
    } catch (IOException e) {
        // manage exception
    } finally {

        try {
            if (out != null) {
                out.close();
            }

        } catch (Exception exc) {
        }

    }
}

In order for this function to work, you will also have to add the following line to your manifest file.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

Without that, the function above will throw a FileNotFoundException every time you run it.

Finally, to call the takeScreenshot function from inside your Espresso test code, use this line (assuming you called your class HelperClass... if not, use the name of your class instead.

HelperClass.takeScreenshot("Whatever you want to call the file", getActivity());

Finding where your screenshots are stored can be a little difficult if you don't know where to look. I added a line of code to the takeScreenshot function that would print the filepath to LogCat, but I was using the file explorer on my computer to look for the screenshots on my Nexus (which was, of course, connected to the computer), and I couldn't find that path. However, I got a file explorer application on my tablet which made it very easy to find where the files were located in relation to everything else.

My solution may not be the simplest and it certainly isn't the best -- you'll fill your device up with screenshots before long if you aren't careful to delete the ones you don't need anymore, and I haven't got any idea how one would go about saving the screenshots directly to, say, a computer connected to the tablet via USB. That would certainly be helpful. However, if you really need a simple UI test that takes screenshots, and you're frustrated to no end like I was, this solution should probably help. I certainly found it useful.

I hope this helps somebody else -- it definitely solved my problems, at least for now.

Of course if you don't have all the restrictions that I did when I had to write a UI test that took screenshots, the other posts in this thread probably work much better.

Answer 2

You should give AndroidViewClient/culebra a try. Using culebra GUI, you can automatically generate a test case that interacts with your app and takes screenshot exactly when you indicate so.