Getting Started With Android Mobile App Testing

Getting Started With Android
Mobile App Testing
by Martin Poschenrieder
CEO and Founder testmunk
June 22nd, 2015
Twitter: @mposchenrieder
Presentation for students at Portnov QA school

Which tools should I have? Where do I get started?

About me
• Born in Germany, moved to Silicon Valley 3 years ago.
• First QA related task, 10 years ago for German handset
manufacturer
• First launched several mobile apps when realizing pain of app
testing and started testmunk.

Demo testmunk

Goals for this session
1. Getting started on Android QA
2. Better understanding the “developer language” and terminologies
3. Being more productive: Faster bug investigation and replication

Agenda
• What are common bugs on mobile
• What do we need to QA an android app
• Android sdk
• Adb - how do we interact with a device
• Android device logs
• What kind of tools does the developer use to code an android app?
• Sample app

What are typical issues / bugs found in mobile apps?
Question:

What kind of bugs will you ﬁnd in your QA job?
Backend issues/ !
Problems retrieving content
Reference: http://blog.testmunk.com/ﬂipboard-transitioning-from-manual-to-automated-ui-testing/

Timeout issues!
E.g. after XX seconds nothing happens

UI issues!
buttons/text/elements missing or wrong

Crashes!
Reference: http://blog.testmunk.com/ﬂipboard-transitioning-
from-manual-to-automated-ui-testing/

UX issues!
Reference: http://blog.testmunk.com/ﬂipboard-transitioning-
from-manual-to-automated-ui-testing/

What do we need to QA an android app?
.apk ﬁle
apk = Android package kit a mini USB cable An Android phone
a computer (Mac/Win/Linux) Source code (nice to have)
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
}
Android sdk installed

Android SDK
What is the Android SDK?
“A software development kit that enables developers to create applications for the
Android platform. The Android SDK includes sample projects with source code,
development tools, an emulator, and required libraries to build Android
applications. Applications are written using the Java programming language and
run on Dalvik, a custom virtual machine designed for embedded use which runs on
top of a Linuxkernel.” (webopedia)

How can I interact with a device?
adb
“Android debug bridge”

What is adb?
ADB provides the bridge between your machine and your computer. it
provides a terminal-based interface for interacting with your phone’s
ﬁle system. Since Android platform is based on Linux, command-line
is often required to perform certain advanced operations on your
device using root access.  
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2011772

How can I install adb
• adb is part of android sdk that comes by default with android studio
• Can be downloaded here: http://developer.android.com/sdk/
index.html
• Can also be downloaded manually: https://developer.android.com/
sdk/installing/index.html

adb
“Android debug bridge”

How to enable android device on debug mode
Android 4.x devices:!
!
Go to Settings > Developer Options > USB Debugging.
!
NOTE: For devices running Android 4.2.2 or later, you may need to unlock
Developer Options before it is available within the Menu:
!
Go to Android home screen.
Pull down the notiﬁcation bar.
Tap "Settings"
Tap "About Device"
Tap on the "Build Number" button about 7 times.
Developer Mode should now be unlocked and available in Settings > More >
Developer Options
http://www.companionlink.com/support/kb/Enable_Android_USB_Debugging_Mode

Which adb commands should I know?
Adb devices!
! Shows the devices that are connected. The devices that you want to get logs or run your automated testrun !
!
Adb kill-server // Adb start-server!
! Commonly used when ‘adb devices’ doesn’t recognize the device.!
!
Adb install <ﬁle_path_to_apk>!
Adb uninstall <ﬁle_path_to_apk>!
adb is part of ddms (Dalvik Debug Monitor Server)
simply execute ddms in terminal

Which adb commands should I know? (2)
!
Record Video!
adb shell screenrecord /sdcard/demo.mp4!
!
Take screenshot !
adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/screen.png!
!
Many more commands available -> google ‘adb commands’

Device logs are helpful (especially for the
developer) to investigate bugs
FATAL EXCEPTION: main
E/AndroidRuntime( 635): java.lang.RuntimeException: Only a background thread is allowed to do that - called from
ItemCache:clearItems
E/AndroidRuntime( 635): currentThread = main
E / A n d r o i d R u n t i m e ( 6 3 5 ) : M a i n L o o p e r T h r e a d = m a i n E / A n d r o i d R u n t i m e ( 6 3 5 ) : a t
flipboard.util.SharedAndroidUtil.requireBackgroundThread(SharedAndroidUtil.java:152)
E/AndroidRuntime( 635): at flipboard.io.SectionDataCache.softRequireBackgroundThread(SectionDataCache.java:150)
E/AndroidRuntime( 635): at flipboard.io.SectionDataCache.clearItems(SectionDataCache.java:80)
E/AndroidRuntime( 635): at flipboard.service.User.removeSectionInternal(User.java:2104)
E/AndroidRuntime( 635): at flipboard.service.User.removeSection(User.java:1975)
E/AndroidRuntime( 635): at flipboard.service.User.unfollowSection(User.java:1943)

How can I access the android device logs?
Logcat (The device log)!
adb logcat –d!
!
Export to a ﬁle on your desktop!
Windows: adb logcat –d > %UserProﬁle%Desktopdevice_log.txt!
Mac: adb logcat -d > ~/Desktop/device_log.txt!
!
Windows & Mac: adb logcat -c!
To clear

The manifest file (good to know about it)
• “No launchable activity found”
<application android:label="@string/app_name" android:icon="@drawable/icon">
<activity android:name="ExampleActivity"
android:label="@string/app_name">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
</application>
The manifest file presents essential information about your app to the Android system… (read more)

uiautomatorviewer
• “Which buttons are you talking about?” Type uiautomatorview in terminal
takes screenshot

What IDEs do android developers use?
• IDE = Integrated development Environments) - where the “cool” stuff
gets build :)
• Most common are:
• IntelliJ
• Eclipse
• Android Studio

Android Studio (most popular from Google)

Intellij

Eclipse

Some Test automation Frameworks
!
• Calabash / Appium
• cross platform compatible
• Robotium
• uiautomator
• Espresso
• Selendroid

Good to know
• Mobile test automation is becoming more and more popular
• Device fragmentation as one major reason
• Using resources effectively
• QA Engineers need to have a powerful ‘toolbox’ to use the best
approaches for the job to be done (like performance testing, ux
testing, test automation…)
• QA is the one who usually understand the most about a product and
connects ‘business people’ with devs.
!

FAQ / common questions
• Can I run an apk on both emulator and device —> YES, different on iOS though.
• What can be automated?
• Good average is 30-50% sometimes more, sometimes less depending on the app.
• How do I deal with UI changes and changing my test cases
• Good structure is very helpful. E.g. Page Object Framework (Link here)
What are your questions?

Where do I get started
• Sample android app and sourcecode: https://github.com/
testmunk/TMSampleAndroid
• Check out our blog on blog.testmunk.com, where we cover
topics such as:
• Getting started with mobile test automation
• Moving from manual to automated testing
• Page Object Framework

Diving into Android Studio and adb
• Sample Android project: https://github.com/testmunk/TMSampleAndroid

Contact
Martin Poschenrieder
Twitter: mposchenrieder
email: martin@testmunk.com

Getting Started With Android Mobile App Testing

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