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pattern
Robot Pattern
robot-pattern
/patterns/pipeline/
Testing
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UI testing

Intent

Robot design pattern intends to separate the "how" of UI testing from the "what". When testing the UI, the purpose should be to test how the view works, and not explicitly test the fields and their values.

Explanation

Robot design pattern suggests building a "testing robot" for each UI screen, which is responsible for finding the relevant buttons and fields on the screen. The test itself should just specify the values and buttons to be tested - not their locations or logistical details.

Real world example

Suppose a developer wants to test a login screen, they can write a test which specifies the username and password, along with with the button to be clicked. They don't have to specify the variables being tested or make assertion statements - the robot should abstract all those details from the developer

In plain words

Robot design pattern abstracts the "what" of UI testing and lets the developer focus on the "how"

Wikipedia says

The Robot Pattern was designed by Jake Wharton at Square back in 2016. The power of this pattern is its ability to create an abstraction layer in order to interact with the UI in a declarative mode. Once created, it is then possible to perform multiple tests in order to verify our use cases without boilerplate code, as well as without maintenance problems related to a refactor.

Programmatic Example

For a login screen, a standard automated UI test for email and password assertion would look like -

onView(withId(R.id.edt_email)).perform(typeText(user), closeSoftKeyboard());
onView(withId(R.id.edt_pass)).perform(typeText(pass), closeSoftKeyboard());
onView(withId(R.id.btn_login)).perform(click());
onView(withId(R.id.tv_result)).check(matches(withText("LOGIN FAILED")));

However, the aim of the robot pattern is to abstract the technicalities and represent the test as this instead -

new LoginRobot().username("[email protected]").password("sunflowers").login().resultSuccess();```

## Class diagram

![alt text](./etc/robot-pattern.png “Robot pattern class diagram")

## Applicability

Use the Robot design pattern when you want to

* Build automated UI tests for an entire app 
* Unsure about the exact location and variables of the UI elements and want 
to maintain the longevity of the tests 


## Credits

* [UI testing with Espresso](https://guides.codepath.com/android/ui-testing-with-espresso)
* [UI testing in Android](https://codingwithmitch.com/blog/ui-testing-with-espresso-android/)