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Espresso

Run your first test

Espresso is a mobile automation framework from Google that helps you write UI tests for your Android applications. BrowserStack App Automate supports Espresso testing on a wide range of real Android devices. This guide will help you run your first Espresso test on BrowserStack.

1. Setup

  1. You will need a BrowserStack username and access key. To obtain your access credentials, sign up for a free plan or purchase a plan.

  2. Espresso tests are built into a separate apk file from your app. Hence, you will need access to both the app (.apk or .aab file) as well as Espresso test-suite (separate .apk file).

Note: If you do not have .apk files and are looking to simply try App Automate, you can download our sample Calculator app and Calculator test-suite. Alternatively, refer to our Espresso sample GitHub repository.

2. Upload your app

Upload your Android app (.apk or .aab file) to BrowserStack servers using our REST API. Here is an example cURL request to upload the app :

curl -u "YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" \
-X POST "https://api-cloud.browserstack.com/app-automate/upload" \
-F "file=@/path/to/app/file/Application-debug.apk"

A sample response for the above request is shown below:

{
    "app_url":"bs://j3c874f21852ba57957a3fdc33f47514288c4ba4"
}

Note the value of app_url returned in the response to above REST API request. This will be used later to specify the application under test for your Espresso test execution.

Note: App upload will take a few seconds to about a minute depending on the size of your app. Do not interrupt the curl command until you get the response back.

3. Upload your test-suite

Upload your Espresso test-suite (.apk file) to BrowserStack servers using our REST API. Here is an example cURL request to upload the test-suite :

curl -u "YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" \
-X POST "https://api-cloud.browserstack.com/app-automate/espresso/test-suite" \
-F "file=@/path/to/app/file/Application-debug-test.apk"

A sample response for the above request is shown below:

{
    "test_url":"bs://f7c874f21852ba57957a3fdc33f47514288c4ba4"
}

Note the value of test_url returned in the response to above REST API request. This will be used later to specify the test-suite containing Espresso test cases for your test execution.

4. Execute Espresso tests

Once the app and test-suite are uploaded to BrowserStack servers, you are ready to run your first Espresso test on BrowserStack. Use the REST API to start the test execution as shown in the example cURL request below :

Select device
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Look for the icon to select a real device.

An example response to the above request is shown below. Note that the build_id is used to uniquely identify your test execution.

{
    "message" : "Success",
    "build_id" : "4d2b4deb810af077d5aed98f479bfdd2e64f36c3"
}

5. Viewing test results

Once you start an Espresso test execution using REST API, you will be able to access the test execution results on the App Automate dashboard as well as using our REST API. You can access overall summary of your test execution and also check the result and debugging logs for every test case in the Espresso test-suite.