Android Native - How to test Navigation Components

dimitrilc 1 Tallied Votes 819 Views Share

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will learn how to create an instrumented test for Navigation Components.

Goals

At the end of the tutorial, you would have learned:

  1. How to test Navigation Components.

Tools Required

  1. Android Studio. The version used in this tutorial is Android Studio Chipmunk 2021.2.1 Patch 1.

Prerequisite Knowledge

  1. Intermediate Android.
  2. Basic Navigation Components.
  3. Basic Espresso.

Project Setup

To follow along with the tutorial, perform the steps below:

  1. Create a new Android project with the default Empty Activity.

  2. Add the dependencies below into your module build.gradle file.

     def nav_version = "2.4.2"
     // Kotlin
     implementation "androidx.navigation:navigation-fragment-ktx:$nav_version"
     implementation "androidx.navigation:navigation-ui-ktx:$nav_version"
     // Testing Navigation
     androidTestImplementation "androidx.navigation:navigation-testing:$nav_version"
     def fragment_version = "1.4.1"
     debugImplementation "androidx.fragment:fragment-testing:$fragment_version"
  3. Replace the code in activity_main.xml with the code below. This adds a FragmentViewContainer.

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
     <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context=".MainActivity">
    
        <androidx.fragment.app.FragmentContainerView
            android:id="@+id/nav_host_fragment"
            android:name="androidx.navigation.fragment.NavHostFragment"
            android:layout_width="0dp"
            android:layout_height="0dp"
            app:layout_constraintLeft_toLeftOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintRight_toRightOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
    
            app:defaultNavHost="true"
            app:navGraph="@navigation/nav_graph" />
    
     </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
  4. Add the navigation graph below into res/navigation. This navigation graph contains two destinations and one action.

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
     <navigation xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:id="@+id/nav_graph"
        app:startDestination="@id/homeFragment">
    
        <fragment
            android:id="@+id/homeFragment"
            android:name="com.example.daniwebandroidnavigationtest.HomeFragment"
            android:label="fragment_home"
            tools:layout="@layout/fragment_home" >
            <action
                android:id="@+id/action_homeFragment_to_destination1Fragment"
                app:destination="@id/destination1Fragment" />
        </fragment>
        <fragment
            android:id="@+id/destination1Fragment"
            android:name="com.example.daniwebandroidnavigationtest.Destination1Fragment"
            android:label="fragment_destination1"
            tools:layout="@layout/fragment_destination1" />
     </navigation>
  5. Create a Fragment called HomeFragment using the code below.

     class HomeFragment : Fragment() {
    
        override fun onCreateView(
            inflater: LayoutInflater, container: ViewGroup?,
            savedInstanceState: Bundle?
        ): View? {
            val layout = inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_home, container, false)
    
            val button = layout.findViewById<Button>(R.id.button)
            button.setOnClickListener {
                findNavController().navigate(R.id.action_homeFragment_to_destination1Fragment)
            }
    
            // Inflate the layout for this fragment
            return layout
        }
     }
  6. Create another Fragment called Destination1Fragment using the code below.

     class Destination1Fragment : Fragment() {
    
        override fun onCreateView(
            inflater: LayoutInflater, container: ViewGroup?,
            savedInstanceState: Bundle?
        ): View? {
            // Inflate the layout for this fragment
            return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment_destination1, container, false)
        }
    
     }
  7. Add the layout resource called fragment_home.xml using the code below.

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
     <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context=".HomeFragment">
    
        <Button
            android:id="@+id/button"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="@string/next"
            app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />
     </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>
  8. Add the fragment_destination1.xml layout using the code below.

     <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
     <FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
        xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        tools:context=".Destination1Fragment">
    
        <TextView
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:text="@string/hello_blank_fragment" />
    
     </FrameLayout>
  9. Add the <string> resources below into strings.xml.

     <string name="hello_blank_fragment">Hello blank fragment</string>
     <string name="next">Next</string>

Project Overview

Our app is super simple. It contains a navigation graph and two destinations, one of which is the home destination. After clicking on the Button Next, it will navigate to the next destination.

Android_Navigation_Component.gif

Our goal is to create an instrumented test for this interaction and verify whether the navigation is working correctly.

Creating the Instrument Test

Before creating any test, we will create the test class first. Create the class NavTest in the androidTest source set using the code below.

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4::class)
class NavTest {

   @Test
   fun testNav() {

   }
}

Follow the steps below to add code for testing navigation.

  1. The first thing that we need to do in this test is to retrieve an instance of TestNavHostController.

     //Getting the NavController for test
     val navController = TestNavHostController(
        ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext()
     )
  2. We will use FragmentScenario to start the home destination HomeFragment in isolation. Here we used the convenient method launchFragmentInContainer() from the androidx.fragment.app.testing package to create a FragmentScenario object. We immediately called onFragment() on it to perform further setup.

     //Launches the Fragment in isolation
     launchFragmentInContainer<HomeFragment>().onFragment { fragment ->
    
     }
  3. Inside the body of the lambda, set the navigation graph for the navController created in step 1.

     //Launches the Fragment in isolation
     launchFragmentInContainer<HomeFragment>().onFragment { fragment ->
        //Setting the navigation graph for the NavController
        navController.setGraph(R.navigation.nav_graph)
    
     }
  4. Because the Fragment launched started in isolation does not have any NavController associated with it, we need to associate the navController created in step 1 to the Fragment, so that its findNavController() call will work correctly.

     //Launches the Fragment in isolation
     launchFragmentInContainer<HomeFragment>().onFragment { fragment ->
        //Setting the navigation graph for the NavController
        navController.setGraph(R.navigation.nav_graph)
    
        //Sets the NavigationController for the specified View
        Navigation.setViewNavController(fragment.requireView(), navController)
     }
  5. The next step is using Espresso to find the Button and perform a click() on it, triggering the navigation to the next destination.

     // Verify that performing a click changes the NavController’s state
     onView(ViewMatchers.withId(R.id.button))
        .perform(ViewActions.click())
  6. Finally, we verify whether the navigation happened successfully by comparing the current destination’s ID with the target destination ID.

     assertEquals(
        navController.currentDestination?.id,
        R.id.destination1Fragment
     )

Solution Code

NavTest.kt

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4::class)
class NavTest {

   @Test
   fun testNav() {
       //Getting the NavController for test
       val navController = TestNavHostController(
           ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext()
       )

       //Launches the Fragment in isolation
       launchFragmentInContainer<HomeFragment>().onFragment { fragment ->
           //Setting the navigation graph for the NavController
           navController.setGraph(R.navigation.nav_graph)

           //Sets the NavigationController for the specified View
           Navigation.setViewNavController(fragment.requireView(), navController)
       }

       // Verify that performing a click changes the NavController’s state
       onView(ViewMatchers.withId(R.id.button))
           .perform(ViewActions.click())

       assertEquals(
           navController.currentDestination?.id,
           R.id.destination1Fragment
       )
   }
}

Summary

We have learned how to test Navigation Components in this tutorial. The full tutorial code can be found at https://github.com/dmitrilc/DaniwebAndroidNavigationTest.

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