User Interface (UI) testing is an integral part of software development that automates the testing process and ensures your app meets the functional requirements. You cannot achieve a high-quality standard with manual testing because it costs time and lacks reliability. Hence, acquiring QA services from a competent IT firm like QAwerk to write test cases for mobile apps is essential to deal with empathy, and be confident that the code works. There are multiple ways to write test cases for UI testing of the Android platform, but the most efficient and reliable one is to use an Espresso framework.
This article explains what Espresso is and why it is the best framework to write Android UI tests.
Espresso Framework
The Espresso is a lightweight, user-friendly, and efficient Android UI testing framework open-sourced by Google. It allows developers to write test cases for the user interface testing of Android, and deal with synchronization in UI testing. Besides, Espresso framework is the preferred choice of reliable IT companies as it provides them with a set of APIs to write reliable and concise automated UI tests.
The Espresso testing framework has three basic components: View matchers, perform actions, and interpretation assertions. It is highly recommended to write white box-style automated tests.
As a native open-source framework, the Espresso is exclusively built for the functional testing of an Android UI. The framework has full access to the code and ensures thorough testing of each element.
Benefits of Espresso
1. User-friendly
The Espresso is a user-friendly and easy-to-use testing framework that can be used to build a test suite as a stand-alone APK. You can install this APK on your system alongside the android app under testing and can write android UI tests without advanced programming skills.
Similarly, the introduction of the Espresso Test Recorder has made this framework the preferred choice of android developers to write automated UI tests. The Espresso automatically generates the corresponding UI test by reading the user’s interactions with the app.
2. Automatic Synchronization
The second benefit of using the Espresso is that it ensures automatic synchronization of test actions and user interface elements. The framework notifies the developer automatically when the main thread is idle and runs test commands accordingly.
Hence, automatic synchronization makes Espresso more reliable, efficient, and faster than other UI testing frameworks like Appium that lacks server communication.
3. Minimal Integrations with Android Studio
Google has integrated the Espresso with Android Studio to ensure minimal further integrations and create a native Android development environment. Consequently, the developers require minimal efforts in the setup process and can write UI tests without any complications.
4. Quick Feedback
Quick feedback from the testing framework is necessary to accelerate deployment. The Espresso is a robust and fast test framework that helps developers timely identify the defects in their code changes by giving them fast feedback without requiring any external communication server.
5. Concise and Reliable Testing
You can write concise android UI tests by using the Espresso testing framework even if you are not a professional programmer. To create a UI test for your android app, just add assertions to verify UI elements and record your system interactions.
Hence, instead of accessing the android app’s views and activities, reliable UI tests can be generated by simply stating your expectations. This feature allows the developers to optimize the test run speed, and write reliable tests for android UI testing.
6. Reduced Testing Flakiness
The Espresso testing framework offers a more efficient synchronized method of execution to ensure high stability of the test cycle and reduce mobile testing flakiness. Its built-in mechanism validates that each element has been displayed on the screen before moving to the next phase.
This way, the framework minimizes the chances of any interruption in the UI testing process due to common errors like objects not detected or identification of bugs.
Conclusion
Being a robust, easy-to-use, and efficient open-source testing framework, the Espresso is the preferred choice of developers for UI testing of android applications.
The framework has been integrated with an Android Studio that simplifies the setup process. Besides, the automatic synchronization function runs test commands smoothly and ensures thorough testing of each element.
Finally, partner with a trusted QA company like QAwerk to write concise and reliable UI tests for Android applications and exceed your client’s expectations.
