Android WorkManager has error when testing with Robolectric

Question

I'm using Android work manager with a custom initialization. to do that i disable auto-initialization in the manifest like this

        <provider
        tools:replace="android:authorities"
        android:name="androidx.work.impl.WorkManagerInitializer"
        android:authorities="${applicationId}.work_manager_init"
        android:enabled="false"
        android:exported="false" />

And in application code I use this code

private fun initWorkManager() {
    WorkManager.initialize(this, Configuration.Builder().run {
        setWorkerFactory(appComponent.daggerWorkerFactory())
        build()
    })
}

And it works fine when I run my application. But when I'm testing with roboletric any class that needs the context by RuntimeEnvironment.application throws this exception

java.lang.IllegalStateException: WorkManager is already initialized.  
Did you try to initialize it manually without disabling 
WorkManagerInitializer? See WorkManager#initialize(Context, 
Configuration) or the class levelJavadoc for more information.

The initWorkManager() get calls and throw this beacuse it doesn't know auto-init is already disabled in the manifest and somehow my test cannot read the values from the manifest file.

Any help or suggestion will be appritiated.

Haily

Which version of Robolectric are you using? Did you specify a special manifest file to be used by your tests? Did you maybe override the manifest in your test/ directory? You could also try to only initialize Workmanager by yourself if it is NOT a robolectric test. – Fray

I have this problem also, except my application does not require a custom initialization. If I manually call WorkManager.initialize() as above I get the same error. If I don't call initialize(), I instead get ```java.lang.IllegalStateException: WorkManager is not initialized properly. The most likely cause is that you disabled WorkManagerInitializer in your manifest but forgot to call WorkManager#initialize in your Application#onCreate or a ContentProvider.`` It seems like there's not a good way out of this. It complains whether or not initialize() is called. Catch 22. – Sheaves

I have exactly same problem. I disabled the default inicialization via Manifest and it works when I run the app normally but when I run the Roboelectric test it fails with the error you mentioned. – Branscum

Anyone found a solution/workaround? – Cattery

Answer 1

I solved a similar issue with the help of the Androidx Work Manager testing utils. For reference see the docs here: Android work manager testing docs

Basically what you need to do is add a dependency to include the work manger test utils:

testImplementation 'androidx.work:work-testing:2.0.1'

Then you will be able to call code in your test setup similar to this:

final Configuration config = new Configuration.Builder()
    .setMinimumLoggingLevel(Log.DEBUG)
    .setExecutor(new SynchronousExecutor())
    .build();
WorkManagerTestInitHelper.initializeTestWorkManager(
    context, config);

Whereas the context could obtained in different ways, depending on your test infrastructure.

With this approach no other steps like excluding something from the manifest are necessary.

Blabbermouth