CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidjunitdalvikandroid-testing
hackjutsu
hackjutsu

Reputation: 8932

Porting JUnit tests to Android Testing Framework

I'm planning to port my JUnit tests to Android Testing framework.

Some of the tests only involve the JVM but not the Android system, is it still necessary to port them? Android is using Dalvik and will replace it with ART(Android Runtime) in Lollipop, both of which are different from the JVM (Please correct if I'm wrong.). In this sense, it seems necessary to port all the JUnit tests to the Android Testing framework.

However, some tutorial argues that

"If possible, you should prefer to run your unit tests directly on the JVM as the test execution is much faster compared to the time required to deploy and run the test on an Android device." http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/AndroidTesting/article.html#androidtesting

I'm not an expert on JVM, Dalvik nor ART. Can someone clarify this issue? Is it necessary to port the tests that only involve JVM to Android Testing Framework?

Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 229

Answers (2)

hopia
hopia

Reputation: 5006

This depends on what you would like to test and the environment in which you run your tests in.

In theory, pure non-Android-specific Java code (aka. POJOs) you write will work on whatever virtual machine you run it on--JVM, Dalvik, or ART.

If you agree with that theory, then if you are already running your tests on a JVM, there is no need to run it on Dalvik or ART, especially if you consider the speed at which JVM will execute the tests. (Running it on Dalvik involves building the apk, and installing it, and running an adb shell command which can take some time...)

Of course, if you feel that the behavior of your Java code may change depending on the runtime, then you should probably port those tests over to your Android tests.

Upvotes: 1

Piotr Wittchen
Piotr Wittchen

Reputation: 3922

Recently, I checked out Android Testing Support provided in Android SDK. As far as I know, you can write Unit Tests, which can be executed directly on JVM in your computer or CI Server (e.g. Jenkins) without Android device or emulator. The only requirement is the fact that these tests and code, which is tested have to be written in pure Java without any dependencies to Android SDK and Android Context. These tests have to be located at src/test/java directory. You can switch test artifact in Build Variants in Android Studio to "Unit Tests" and run your tests with IDE. you can also run them via Gradle wrapper with the command: ./gradlew test

If your tests or code, which is going to be tested depend on Android SDK and Android Context, you should use Android Instrumentation tests, which have to be located in src/androidTest/java directory. These tests have to be executed on Android device or emulator. You can switch test artifact in Android Studio to "Android Instrumentation Tests" and run your tests with IDE or use Gradle wrapper command ./gradlew connectedCheck

You can check official article about Unit Testing at: http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/unit-testing-support . It's worth reading. It's a bit outdated, because now you can use build tools: 1.1.0 instead of 1.1.0-rc1, but rest of the information is up to date. After reading this article, you should understand this topic better.

Upvotes: 1

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