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Introducing Robolectric
5:26In this video we'll take our first look at the Robolectric Android unit testing framework!
[MUSIC]
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We've just finished using
the Kito to unit test our app.
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But now it's time to see what's so
special about Robolectric.
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To quote their website, Robolectric it
is a unit test framework that defangs
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the Android S.T.K. jar so you can test
drive the development of your Android app.
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Remember earlier when we were trying to
start our activity and it didn't work.
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Roboelectric aims to fix that
by rewriting the Android classes
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as they're being loaded
making it possible for
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them to run on your computer just
like any other Java application.
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First things first we need to add
Roboelectric as a dependency.
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Let's head over to our
build.gradle file and add it.
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It's in the teacher's notes below.
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Then hit Sync Now and we're good to go.
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Now let's get started with Robolectric
by switching back to our main activity
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test class.
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Then let's comment out the lines
in both the set up and
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editTextUpdatesTextView methods.
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Just like when we use my Kito we need
to be sure that we're using the correct
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test runner.
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Let's add a run with annotation
right above our class declaration
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and then pass an Alt+enter to import it,
and
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we're passing in
RobolectricGradleTestRunner.class.
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At this point if we right click and
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try to run main activity test,
we'll get an error.
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Field constants not specified
in @Config annotation.
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This is required when using
RobolectricGradleTestRunner!
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So right below our RunWith annotation,
let's add the Config annotation.
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And inside the parentheses,
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let's specify the Constants field and
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set it equal to BuildConfig.class.
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Roboelectric use the build config class
to figure out how to access our manifest,
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resources and assets.
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So it's important we add that.
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Roboelectric would have a tough time being
useful without knowing where anything is.
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Now that we've specified the constants
field, let's try running this again.
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Darn another error.
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Turns out Roboelectric doesn't yet
support A.P.I. level twenty three.
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Luckily we can fix this pretty easily
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by adding another field
to our config annotation.
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After Bill.class let's add
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comma Sdk equals Build.VERSION_CODES and
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Alt+Enter to import build .LOLLIPOP.
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Then let's try running it again.
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And after it finishes downloading
some things, success!
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But why do we need to use Lollipop?
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Why can't we just use Marshmellow?
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Well after a new version of Android
is released it just takes a while for
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Roboelectric to get updated.
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If you're curious about
why the process takes so
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long, check out the GitHub issue
linked in the teacher's notes below.
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Also the newest version of Roboelectric
might just work with Marshmellow.
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It just isn't officially released yet
but that doesn't mean we can't use it.
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Over on our build.gradle file,
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let's change 3.0 to 3.1-SNAPSHOT.
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A snapshot build represents
the most recent changes and
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isn't considered a stable release.
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To use this snapshot build,
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we'll also need to add a repository
section above the dependency section.
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Let's copy it in from
the teacher's notes below and
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then paste it right above
the word dependencies.
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Then let's sync the project and
now thanks to our new snapshot
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build we should be able to safely
remove the SDK config parameter.
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And it works.
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Nice.
We're all set up to start exploring unit
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testing with Roboelectric.
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In the next video, will see how to set
up an activity for unit testing and
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write our first Robolectric unit test.
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