In this fast-paced world, the use of mobile phones is rapid, and it is necessary to provide a user-oriented experience. So to ensure a user-friendly experience testing becomes an important part of the software development cycle. Android testing verifies and evaluates the Android application’s quality, performance, and functionality. It utilizes special techniques and frameworks to recognize and fix defects.
There are different types of Android testing, each aiming at the various aspects of the performance and functionality of an application. Unit testing is one of them. Unit testing examines the individual units of a segregated application, which can be done using a real device or emulators.
JUnit is a popular unit testing framework that helps make tester’s lives easier when creating and running automated tests on different Android devices and emulators. Implementing JUnit testing helps developers get insights into the performance and behavior of the application under diverse conditions.
In this article, we will discuss the JUnit testing framework, its working features, and why it is preferred over other testing frameworks. We will also discuss how Android emulator tests work and implement JUnit testing for robust Android emulator test automation.
JUnit: A Java-based testing framework
JUnit is an open-source Java-based robust testing framework. It provides advanced and basic concepts of unit testing in Java. It makes writing tests reliable and efficient. JUnit can be used for apps made in most languages but is particularly for testing Java applications. It can be used to create automated tests. It also supports robust assertions, extensive reporting capabilities, and varied test cases.
Being a versatile framework, JUnit allows for testing in different languages. It is designed to assist various tests like functional, encompassing units, and integration tests. Many graphs are provided in JUnit that represent the test progress. The graph displays a green color if the test runs smoothly and a red color if the test fails. Developers can develop reliable and bug-free code with the help of JUnit.
After having a brief description of JUnit let us also get an idea about the features and benefits of JUnit.
How does JUnit work?
As JUnit is a Java-based testing platform, it allows developers to write and run tests on the Java platform. It also prints out the test results with the help of a built-in reporter. The main goal of automation testing in Java is to find errors in code and ensure that the software is doing what it is supposed to do.
JUnit also provides many tests. Running these tests simultaneously is helpful rather than running them individually. The JUnit tests are listed below:
- Unit test- Individual test codes are tested in unit tests.
- Integration test- Integration tests tell how the parts work together.
- System test- System tests test the entire system, such as web servers.
Features of JUnit such as assertions, confirm expected system behavior and simplify the creation and execution of tests. It also provides test runners for presenting test results and executing tests.
Features of JUnit
Some key features of JUnit are listed below:
- JUnit is an open-source network used for writing and running tests.
- It identifies test methods by providing annotations.
- It provides error-free quality code.
- It runs tests automatically and provides feedback for intermediate results.
- It enables developers to write code faster and of better quality.
- It has test runners to run tests.
- The test results do not require manual checking.
- It provides assertions to expect results.
- It provides a way to create test suites that can be run together.
- It makes the code stable, relatable, and error-free.
Why is JUnit preferred over other frameworks?
Some benefits of JUnit are mentioned below:
- JUnit ensures that every part or function is tested in the software. It tests the software even before System-level testing.
- Even if there is a big or small change in the code, JUnit ensures that the function performs well.
- JUnit easily creates and manages a rich unit test suite for the entire software.
- All IDEs support JUnit as it has become a standard for testing in the Java programming language.
- Ant can also be integrated to allow executing test suites as part of the build process.
- JUnit maintains code readability and organization. It provides a structured testing approach that allows developers to create organized and clear test suites. This simplifies navigating and understanding of the codebase.
- The ability to detect and rectify errors in code lies in JUnit. It executes tests systematically which makes it easier for the developers to detect errors.
- JUnit uplifts the overall quality of the software. It enforces an inclusive testing methodology. This ensures the intended functioning of the codebase.
- It facilitates efficiency gain in the development process. Automation of test cases simplifies repetitive testing tasks. It allows developers to focus more on complex aspects of code resulting in code refinement. This leads to an improved testing process.
Getting started with JUnit automation testing
Automation testing is the testing of an application through an automated process. It increases the success rate and test accuracy and provides faster and reliable results so it is preferred over manual testing.
JUnit plays a crucial role in automation testing as it creates repeatable test cases. Talking about JUnit without automation testing is insufficient because automation testing has significantly less error margin. LambadTest is an all-in-one test automation platform that is used for testing web and mobile applications both manually and automated at scale.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that allows testers to perform both real-time and automation testing by providing access to more than 3000 environments, real mobile devices, and browsers online.
Along with this, it provides integrated debugging and testing features. It also allows users to conduct cross-browser testing to ensure website compatibility so that it renders the same across all browser versions. By using this automation testing in the development process, testers can reduce manual work and boost efficiency.
What is an Android emulator test?
Android emulators are software that imitate the software and hardware of an Android mobile. If the developers face a lack of Android phones or devices they can use Android emulators to test the application on other devices as it imitates the Android OS and interface.
Android emulator tests are necessary while developing an Android mobile with many features. It includes testing a function and making sure it does not break. The developers can implement JUnit testing in Android Emulator Test to make the process easier and less time-consuming. JUnit has set a benchmark for Java-based applications. Nowadays, it is also being used to perform test automation.
In short, Android emulator testing provides testing for Android phones or applications on other devices due to the lack of Android devices. Developers often make use of Android emulators in the process of app development. It provides the developers with options like testing, running, and debugging their apps without a physical Android device.
How do Android emulators work?
Android emulators, such as BlueStack, Genymotion, or NoxPlayer, are software apps preinstalled on the computer. It can simulate the experience of using Android’s hardware and software.
Since emulators imitate the architecture of any system targeted, it is easier for the tester to find emulators for all kinds of hardware and software. Mentioned below are some capabilities and limitations of Android emulator testing. Testers will surely benefit from the knowledge of these capabilities and limitations.
Capabilities
The emulator is useful while working with physical sensors such as the accelerometer. It will be easier to arrange the settings through the visual, extended controls of the emulator if testing a specific app feature that depends on sensors.
Data transfer is quicker on a virtual device than on physical devices connected via USB. The .apk files can be placed from the computer to the virtual mobile devices with the help of drag-and-drop files. It is especially great when developers need to test apps quickly under context.
Limitations
Separate directories created by the AVD Manager store each virtual device’s data, cache, and SD card. A single virtual device can occupy 3.5 GB of disk space. After some time, a library of virtual devices can eventually take up the user’s workstation.
Since the workstation affects virtual devices’ performance the emulator will burn and crash if there is not enough free disk space launch.
Implementing JUnit testing for robust Android emulator test automation
JUnit has several annotations and features that are implemented in the code. These annotations and features help for robust Android Emulator test automation. JUnit annotations are indicators that tell the compiler what to do with the code. Some of the annotations are:
@Test- This annotation contains the code for the initial test. It identifies the actual test cases. As JUnit allows multiple tests to be grouped as one, this annotation is required.
@Before- Before annotation write codes that run tasks before every test.
@After- After annotation indicates the task that has to be run after the code has been executed. The test results might have to be sent to a monitoring service after every test.
@BeforeClass- This indicates the code to be run before running all the tests. @BeforeClass is only run once.
@AfterClass- AfterClass indicates that the code is executed after the execution of all tests.
These annotations of JUnit when implemented, are extremely helpful for building a robust Android emulator test automation.
Conclusion
JUnit testing is most preferred for a robust Android emulator test automation as it is a robust testing framework. It makes writing tests reliable and efficient. JUnit can be used for apps made in most languages but is particularly for testing Java applications. It also supports robust assertions, extensive reporting capabilities, and varied test cases. Being a versatile framework, JUnit allows for testing in different languages.
Hope this article helps you with the knowledge of implementing JUnit testing for robust Android emulator test automation.