Can I run Robotium tests automatically in parallel on multiple emulators?

Question

Other than splitting up my Robotium tests into multiple projects and/or suites and running them among multiple emulators all by hand, is there a tool or technique to do this automatically within Eclipse?

Snowflake

Answer 1

If you are going the "manual splitting" way, you may want to look at EclipseRunner. Have your different emulators as separate launch configs and run them as group afterwards. Alternatively you can use CDTs launch groups nearly the same way (and you avoid using the full CDT by installing just the feature "C/C++ Remote Launch" from the CDT update site).

Hauteur

Answer 2

I have used ExecutorService real nicely for the job. It runs on Junit and emulates multiple clients. I know what you are expecting, multiple emulator kinda scenario and automated tests on them. Dont do that. First of all every emulator is a virtual machine, you wont be able to run more than a few emulators on our fastest desktops since every emulator takes up CPU and memory to emulate its own CPU/memory.

Instead test your stuff using ExecutorService using junits, and associate delays (that simulate screen transitions of your application. Run multiple tests on each client piece and test out your multi client scenario.

Once the above is tested and working, test all features / flow with just one client. I can bet, you will be 90% there 200% faster than what you are thinking of doing.

Featherstone

This isn't about speeding up processing time. I'm using Robotium, which is inherently slow due to inserted delays for UI interactions. Running in parallel will definitely increase the test throughput. – Snowflake

In that case eliminate the UI test completely. Just use Junit to start with. – Featherstone

Unit tests do not by any means replace UI platform integration tests. I already have many very fast-running (in parallel) unit tests that run in native code on the host PC. – Snowflake