How would you unit test an Android app that needs to go into sleep mode, come out, and record results?

Question

I know this seems like an odd question, but I need to :

1. grab info before sleep
2. sleep
3. do tasks
4. wake up
5. get assert results

What I have tried is to enable the sleep in the set up portion of the test, unfortunately it kills everything (which I know is supposed to happen by android's standards).

Thanks, Kelly

Answer 1

Ah ha!

OK, at least for making sure to study the state of the screen. You want to do the following:

In your emulator, go to the Settings \ Applications \ Developement area and uncheck "Stay Awake"

At this point, lock your emulator. You should see the lock screen.

Now, run your test for the wake lock.

For me I have done the following (which uses roboguice 1.1.2)

@MediumTest
public void test_And_Screen_Is_In_Sleep_It_Should_Not_Make_Screen_Bright() throws Exception
{
    //currently test hates this even after I have assigned it the proper rights
    //to quote Ted Striker: What a pisser! :)
    //_power.get().goToSleep(0);

    boolean screenOn = _power.get().isScreenOn();

    assertFalse(screenOn);

    if (!screenOn)
    {
        _wake.get();

        boolean screenOn1 = _power.get().isScreenOn();

        assertFalse(screenOn1);
    }

    if (_wake != null)
    {
        _wake.release();
    }
}

I have an interface called IWake like so:

public interface IWake
{
    void get();

    void release();
}

In the implementation for IWake I simply setup the class to do all the heavy lifting for acquiring (get()) and release( which is also release())

For force the testing device to lock, I came up with a great idea since you (typically) can't use that sleep method in the PowerManager.

Do this!

In my test method I did this for the setup:

@Override
public void setUp() throws Exception
{
    super.setUp();

    _pwr = (PowerManager) getInstrumentation().getContext().getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE);

    //setup timeout which is part of: android.provider.Settings.System
    System.putInt(getInstrumentation().getContext().getContentResolver(), System.SCREEN_OFF_TIMEOUT, 0);
}

Basically I decided to change the timeout to 0 in the settings. Since this happens it locks it instantly. How freakin' cool is this? :) Anyways, I hope this helps others

Cheers, Kelly

Answer 2

If the device is in some sort of "sleep" mode, then you cannot really do anything. From what it sounds like, you need to keep a wake lock.

http://developer.android.com/reference/android/os/PowerManager.WakeLock.html

There are different levels of wake locks, and you probably just need the one that will allow the screen to turn off, but still allow you to run code. Obviously, this will affect battery performance, so be sure you need to do things while the device is "sleeping" and be sure to release the wake lock when done!