Explore Espresso Android Tutorial, a powerful framework for mobile automation testing. Discover its benefits, how it works, and master Espresso testing.
OVERVIEW
“Use Espresso to write concise, beautiful, and reliable Android UI tests” – Google.
Developed by Google, Espresso is an Android automation testing framework and has gained popularity due to its high performance. Using Espresso, you can create very simple and straightforward tests without worrying about the application's infrastructure. It is also open-source so that developers can customize it. According to research from the University of Oulu, Espresso is extremely fast and has the shortest test execution time and fallibility.
You can perform Espresso testing in both Java and Kotlin languages. Espresso also synchronizes your test actions with application UI. It lets you test native and hybrid views of Android applications. Furthermore, Espresso enables you to conduct black-box and component testing of applications and provides testing annotations and assertions. It also comes integrated with Google’s Android Studio.
Espresso is an open-source testing framework widely used for testing Android applications. It is specifically designed to simplify the process of writing reliable and efficient UI tests for Android apps. With Espresso, developers can interact with and verify the behavior of various user interface components in their apps.
By providing a user-friendly API and automatic synchronization with the UI thread, Espresso streamlines the testing process and ensures that actions and assertions are performed at the right times. It also handles the test orchestration, launching the target app and running the tests in a controlled manner.
Espresso's ViewMatchers help locate specific UI elements based on their properties, while ViewActions simulate user interactions like clicking buttons or entering text. Developers can define ViewAssertions to verify the expected state or content of UI elements.
If you are working on an Android project, validating your projects across various cycles like build, development, and testing can be cumbersome. Below are the pointers that demand the need for Android testing of the application user interface -
Using the Espresso framework, you can write reliable Android UI tests and achieve fast test execution speed while reducing test flakiness.
Espresso provides an extensive set of features like:
Espresso is a top-notch framework to incorporate into your test automation strategy. Therefore, it’s crucial to execute Espresso testing efficiently. You can either set up Android device labs or leverage real-device cloud platforms like LambdaTest for your test execution. Setting up Android device labs can be expensive and difficult to scale up. On the other hand, a real device cloud platform eliminates the hassle of setting up an in-house device lab.
Here are the steps you need to follow for Android app testing with Espresso:
To automate your test scenario using the Espresso framework, you would need to be ready with the following prerequisites:
Upload your Android application (.apk file) to the LambdaTest servers using our REST API. And you need to authenticate by providing your Username and AccessKey in the format ‘Username:AccessKey’ within the cURL command. Remember to include the appFile's path in the cURL request.
Below is an example of a cURL request for uploading your app through our REST API.
curl -u "YOUR_LAMBDATEST_USERNAME:YOUR_LAMBDATEST_ACCESS_KEY" --location --request POST 'https://manual-api.lambdatest.com/app/uploadFramework' --form 'appFile=@"/Users/macuser/Downloads/proverbial_android.apk"' --form 'type="espresso-android"'
The next step is to upload the test suite (.apk file) to LambdaTest servers using our REST API. For authentication, you need to include your Username and AccessKey in the format ‘Username:AccessKey’ within the cURL command. It is important to specify the path of the appFile in the cURL request. Here is an example cURL request that demonstrates how to upload your app using our REST API:
curl -u "YOUR_LAMBDATEST_USERNAME:YOUR_LAMBDATEST_ACCESS_KEY" --location --request POST 'https://manual-api.lambdatest.com/app/uploadFramework' --form 'appFile=@"/Users/macuser/Downloads/proverbial_android_expressotest.apk"' --form 'type="espresso-android"'
After successfully uploading your app and test suite, you can proceed to execute your test by running the following command.
curl --location --request POST 'https://mobile-api.lambdatest.com/framework/v1/espresso/build' --header 'Authorization: Basic <Enter_Basic_Auth>' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-raw '{
"app" : "lt://APP_ID",
"testSuite": "lt://TestSuite_ID",
"device" : ["Galaxy S21 5G-12"],
"queueTimeout": 10800,
"IdleTimeout": 150,
"deviceLog": true,
"network": false,
"build" : "Proverbial-Espresso"
}'
Once you have executed your tests, you can access and review the test execution details, including logs. This will allow you to observe the status of each test case, whether it has passed or failed. You can conveniently access this information on the LambdaTest Automation platform. Additionally, here is LambdaTest official support doc to help you in your espresso testing.
To run tests simultaneously on multiple devices, you can utilize the execute command and pass the device names in a comma-separated format, as demonstrated below:
curl --location --request POST 'https://mobile-api.lambdatest.com/espresso/v1/build' --header 'Authorization: Basic <Enter_Basic_Auth>' --header 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-raw '{
"app" : "app_id",
"testSuite": "testsuite_id",
"device" : ["Galaxy S20-10","Galaxy S20-10","Redmi Note 9-10","Galaxy S10+-10","Galaxy S7 edge-8","Galaxy S9+-8"],
"queueTimeout": 10800,
"IdleTimeout": 150,
"deviceLog": true,
"build" : "Proverbial-Espresso"
}'
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It is crucial to understand the test scenario before automating your apps with Espresso. Testers should think about what a user can do while interacting with Android applications, i.e., finding UI elements and interacting with them.
Espresso doesn’t allow direct access to activities and views of the applications as it can result in test flakiness. This is why you won’t see the methods like getView() and getCurrentActivity(). To access views securely, you can create your subclasses of ViewAction and ViewAssertion.
The working of the Espresso framework is broken down into the following steps -
In the previous section of this Espresso tutorial, we focused on the working of the Espresso framework. Now let’s look at the major APIs that form the component of the Espresso framework.
There are four types of Espresso’s API.
This section of Espresso tutorial talks about writing UI test cases in Java and Kotlin based on the above discussed Espresso’s API Components.
Java
@Before
onView(withId(R.id.my_view),withText("Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing"))
.perform(typeText("Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing"),click())
.check(matches(withText("Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing")));
Kotlin
onView(withId(R.id.my_view),withText("Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing"))
.perform(typeText("Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing"),click())
.check(matches(withText("Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing")))
The above test cases are written in Java, and Kotlin identifies a view with a specific ID and a unique feature. Here, the test script says, "Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing" which is a unique feature. On that view, the test script performs two actions.
First, it types “Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing” in a text box and then clicks on a button. Once the button clicks, it checks if the view displays “Hello! Ready to perform Espresso testing” by calling assertion matches(). After passing the test, you will see the desired text in the view.
If you want to kick start your app test automation using Espresso, check out this handy Espresso testing Cheat Sheet for Android.
Despite numerous benefits, there are some disadvantages of the Espresso framework.
In this section of Espresso tutorial, we will look at how Espresso differs from Appium.
Both Espresso and Appium synchronize with each other. However, their application areas differ. Appium is used for end-to-end testing of mobile applications, whereas Espresso is used for UI testing of Android applications.
Let’s check out the key difference between Espresso and Appium.
Espresso | Appium |
It involves UI testing of Android applications. | It involves automated app testing of mobile applications (Android, iOS, and Windows). |
It can test Android applications only. | It can test both mobile (Android, iOS, and Windows) and desktop applications. |
It’s easier to set up. | It is tedious to set up as it required the installation of third-party programs. |
It supports Java and Kotlin only. | It supports multiple programming languages like Java, JavaScript, Python, PHP, etc. |
Espresso emerges as a powerful testing framework that caters specifically to the needs of Android app developers. With its user-friendly API, automatic synchronization, and efficient test orchestration, Espresso simplifies the process of creating UI tests for Android applications.
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