RuntimeException while using ActivityUnitTestCase, but not while ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2

Question

I am trying to test the MainActvity of an Android application with ActivityUnitTestCase. For some reason, I cannot even start the test, because it fails with the following error trace:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Exception during suite construction
at android.test.suitebuilder.TestSuiteBuilder$FailedToCreateTests.testSuiteConstructionFailed(TestSuiteBuilder.java:238)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at android.test.AndroidTestRunner.runTest(AndroidTestRunner.java:169)
at android.test.AndroidTestRunner.runTest(AndroidTestRunner.java:154)
at android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner.onStart(InstrumentationTestRunner.java:537)
at android.app.Instrumentation$InstrumentationThread.run(Instrumentation.java:1594)
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: name == null
at java.lang.Class.getConstructorOrMethod(Class.java:446)
at java.lang.Class.getMethod(Class.java:915)
at android.test.suitebuilder.TestMethod.getAnnotation(TestMethod.java:60)
at android.test.suitebuilder.annotation.HasMethodAnnotation.apply(HasMethodAnnotation.java:39)
at android.test.suitebuilder.annotation.HasMethodAnnotation.apply(HasMethodAnnotation.java:30)
at com.android.internal.util.Predicates$OrPredicate.apply(Predicates.java:106)
at android.test.suitebuilder.annotation.HasAnnotation.apply(HasAnnotation.java:42)
at android.test.suitebuilder.annotation.HasAnnotation.apply(HasAnnotation.java:31)
at com.android.internal.util.Predicates$NotPredicate.apply(Predicates.java:122)
at android.test.suitebuilder.TestSuiteBuilder.satisfiesAllPredicates(TestSuiteBuilder.java:253)
at android.test.suitebuilder.TestSuiteBuilder.build(TestSuiteBuilder.java:189)
at android.test.InstrumentationTestRunner.onCreate(InstrumentationTestRunner.java:371)
at android.app.ActivityThread.handleBindApplication(ActivityThread.java:3943)
at android.app.ActivityThread.access$1300(ActivityThread.java:127)
at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1189)
at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4447)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:784)
at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:551)
at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

I cannot debug it, since it fails before it gets to any of the breakpoints I can put in the test case class. Any tests I am doing with the class ActivityInstrumentationTestCase2 work without problems.

In the console the following error message is displayed:

Test run failed: Instrumentation run failed due to 'java.lang.RuntimeException'

I assume, that it hints that getInstrumentation() cannot be successfully called. If so, how could I otherwise create a valid Intent for starting the MainActivity?

The code with ActivityUnitTestCase:

public class MainActivityUnitTest extends 
    android.test.ActivityUnitTestCase<MainActivity> {

    private MainActivity activity;

    public MainActivityUnitTest(String name) {
        super(MainActivity.class);
    }

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

    @SmallTest
    public void testActivity() {

        Intent intent = new Intent(getInstrumentation().getTargetContext(),
                MainActivity.class);
            startActivity(intent, null, null);
            activity = getActivity();       
        assertNotNull(activity);
    }
}

Thank you for any help provided.

Answer 1

The problem was in the parameter "name" in the constructor. When removing it, it ran perfectly well. :)

Answer 2

I call setName() in the constructor and it works.
Try this:

public MainActivityUnitTest(String name) {

super(MainActivity.class);
setName("MainActivity");

}