Run your Detox tests for Android on BrowserStack
Detox is a gray box end-to-end testing and automation framework for React Native applications. BrowserStack App Automate supports Detox testing on a wide range of real Android devices.
This feature is currently in the beta phase, and we will make updates based on the feedback we receive.
Prerequisites
BrowserStack Username and Access key. You can find this in your account profile section. If you do not have an account yet, sign up for a Free Trial.
We are using the demo-react-native GIT repository as an example here.
Set up and run
Follow these steps to setup and run your Detox tests on BrowserStack:
Install global Detox and Jest CLI
To install the project dependencies, including the patched Detox, run the following commands in your project’s root directory. In our example, we used this path as the root directory.
Build app and app client
React native applications use Metro server as the default bundler. To include the Metro server bundle within the Android assets, run the following commands from the project’s root directory:
You can modify the command in case you use any other bundler of your choice.
Since Detox tests use unencrypted network requests to loopback interface, we need to allow the loopback IP address inside the network_security_config.xml file as follows:
Build the app and app client with Gradle by running the following commands:
Build the app using the latest version of Detox found in the node_modules.
Upload your Android App
You can upload your Android app (.apk or .aab file) to BrowserStack servers using REST API.
Here’s a cURL command that uses sample values to upload an app to BrowserStack:
When you run the sample cURL command, the BrowserStack server returns the following response:
{
"app_name":"Application-release.apk",
"app_url":"bs://56ec4bf5fb368a671f59fb4df85379db2f7b3a1c",
"app_version":"1.0",
"app_id":"56ec4bf5fb368a671f59fb4df85379db2f7b3a1c",
"uploaded_at":"2023-04-12 07:27:54 UTC",
"expiry":"2023-05-11 07:27:54 UTC"
}
The value of app_url in the response is used to specify the application under test in your Detox configuration file.
The app upload may take a few seconds to approximately a minute, depending on your app’s size. Refrain from interrupting the cURL command until you receive the response.
Upload your app client
The app client (.apk or .aab file) is an automatically generated test suite APK, similar to the test suite APK generated for Espresso tests. You will find this file in the same directory where you have built your app. You can upload your app client to BrowserStack servers using the REST API.
Here’s a cURL command that uses sample values to upload an app to BrowserStack:
When you run the sample cURL command, the BrowserStack server returns the following response:
{
"app_client_name":"DetoxAppClient.apk",
"app_client_url":"bs://fd71879ddbbb08e0edb4fd4f52d2c79ec342eaad",
"app_client_id":"fd71879ddbbb08e0edb4fd4f52d2c79ec342eaad",
"uploaded_at":"2023-04-17 00:41:42 UTC",
"expiry":"2023-05-17 00:41:42 UTC"
}
The app_client_url value in the response is used to specify the app client Detox configuration file.
Add BrowserStack’s patched Detox as dependency
Replace the Detox dependency in your project’s package.json with BrowserStack’s patched Detox.
-
While you built the app with the latest Detox version, for running tests on the built APKs, use the mentioned patched Detox version.
-
Delete the
node_modulesandpackage-lock.json, and then reinstall the dependencies with the patched Detox version added to thepackage.json.
Modify Detox configuration
After uploading your app and app client to BrowserStack servers, make modifications to your Detox configuration to direct it to BrowserStack, including additional parameters.
Here’s a sample configuration for running tests on BrowserStack:
Run tests on BrowserStack
To run your tests on BrowserStack, use the following command:
View test results
Once you initiate Detox tests, visit the App Automate dashboard to access your test results, debugging logs, and comprehensive test details.
Alternatively, you can use the REST API to retrieve logs. To do this, you will need the session ID, which is available in the Detox logs provided by your CLI and is also visible on your Dashboard.
Here’s a sample cURL command that shows how obtain logs using the API for a Detox session:
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