PragPub 2009-08: Issue #2 by The Pragmatic Bookshelf

Author:The Pragmatic Bookshelf
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: PragPub—Monthly Magazine
Publisher: The Pragmatic Bookshelf, LLC
Published: 2009-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Driving the App from a Script

How does Bromine know what to do and when? At app launch time, the ScriptRunner object runs a series of instructions from a property list file (parsing this format is a simple library call). These instructions use XPath to describe a GUI object’s location in the hierarchy of user interface elements.

Here’s a simple TestScript.plist that searches the current screen for a UIButton with the title Home, and clicks on it.

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>command</key>

<string>simulateTouch</string>

<key>viewXPath</key>

<string>//UIButton[currentTitle="Home"]</string>

</dict>

</plist>

It’s easy enough to get going with a simple plist file and a few test steps like this one. But let’s consider a twist. We can teach Bromine to listen for instructions while the program is running, rather than reading a static file once.

The sample code for this article includes a modified version of Bromine that accepts test steps handed to it by an embedded web server.[2] This approach frees us from having to stop and restart the app while we’re writing tests. It also lets us drive the app from the command line, using tools like curl:

$ curl -d @TestScript.plist http://localhost:50000/

Now the doors are open to connect your app to any test harness you like.

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