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Matt
Feb 202 min read

How to Effectively Wait for Animated Buttons Before Clicking in Espresso Tests

Introduction

Testing animated UI elements in Android can be challenging, especially when using automated testing frameworks like Espresso. A common issue arises when trying to interact with buttons that are still undergoing animations. This post will guide you through a solution to ensure your Espresso tests wait for animations to complete before performing any actions on animated buttons.


Background

Espresso is a powerful tool for Android UI testing, allowing developers to write concise and reliable automated UI tests. However, testing animations with Espresso can be tricky due to the asynchronous nature of animations. Standard Espresso methods might fail to interact properly with UI elements that are moving or changing state.


The problem detailed

Consider a scenario where you have a button that slides into view or changes its position dynamically. Standard Espresso actions like click() might attempt to interact with the button before it's settled into its final position, leading to missed clicks and flaky tests.


Proposed solution

To address this, we can create a custom Espresso function: waitUntilAnimatedButtonClickable. This function will:

  1. Wait for the button to complete its animation.

  2. Ensure the button is clickable before proceeding with any further actions.


Step-by-step implementation

  • Creating Custom ViewAction: 

fun ViewInteraction.waitUntilAnimatedButtonClickable(timeoutInMs: Long = 5_000): ViewInteraction {
    val endTime = System.currentTimeMillis() + timeoutInMs

    val waitForAnimationToEnd = object : ViewAction {
        override fun getConstraints(): Matcher<View> = isDisplayed()

        override fun getDescription(): String = "wait for animation to end"

        override fun perform(uiController: UiController, view: View) {
            var lastYPosition = -1f
            var lastXPosition = -1f

            while (System.currentTimeMillis() < endTime) {
                if (lastYPosition == view.y && lastXPosition == view.x) {
                    return
                }

                lastYPosition = view.y
                lastXPosition = view.x

                uiController.loopMainThreadForAtLeast(50)
            }

            throw AssertionError("Timeout waiting for the animation to finish")
        }
    }

    perform(waitForAnimationToEnd)
    return waitUntilCondition(isClickable(), timeoutInMs)
}

Here, we create a ViewAction that checks if the button's position is stable, indicating the end of the animation.


  • Combining Animation Checks with Clickability: 

private fun ViewInteraction.waitUntilCondition(
    condition: Matcher<View>,
    timeout: Long
): ViewInteraction {
    val endTime = System.currentTimeMillis() + timeout

    while (System.currentTimeMillis() < endTime) {
        try {
            check(matches(condition))
            return this
        } catch (e: AssertionError) {
            Thread.sleep(50)
        }
    }

    throw AssertionError("Timeout waiting for condition")
}

This code snippet shows how to combine the animation check with a condition that verifies the button is clickable.


  • Using the Custom Function in Tests: 

onView(withId(R.id.topScoreButton))
                .waitUntilAnimatedButtonClickable()
                .perform(click())

An example of how to use this function in an Espresso test to interact with an animated button.


Advantages of this approach

This method ensures that your Espresso tests are more reliable and reflective of real user interactions. By accounting for animations, you avoid the common pitfalls of flaky tests and ensure that your automated tests accurately simulate user behaviour.


Conclusion

Accurate UI testing is crucial for creating robust and user-friendly Android applications. With the waitUntilAnimatedButtonClickable function, you can enhance your Espresso tests to handle animated UI elements effectively. This approach is a step towards more reliable, accurate, and user-centric automated testing.


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