Autopilot

A test driver for Flutter to do QA testing without sharing app source code. It exposes a JSON API using an HTTP server running inside the app. Using these APIs you can write tests in any language for your Flutter app.

Getting started

Add package to dependencies:

flutter pub add autopilot

Create main_test.dart along side of your main.dart file. Make AutoPilot widget parent of your MaterialApp or root widget like below:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:autopilot/autopilot.dart';

import 'my_app.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(
    Autopilot(child: MyApp())
  );
}

Run your app on device/emulator:

flutter run --release --target lib/main_test.dart

On Android forward port 8080 so that you can access it via localhost:

adb forward tcp:8080 tcp:8080

Consider following example:

Text(
  "Hello World!",
  key: Key("txtGreet"),
)

Example of a test in python using pytest:

# example_test.py
import requests

root = "http://localhost:8080"

def get(path):
    return requests.get(root + path).json()

def test_greet():
    greet = get("/texts?key=txtGreet")[0]
    assert greet["text"] == "Hello World!"

Run it:

python -m pytest example_test.py

Inspiration

Flutter has a really amazing testing suite for Unit, UI and Integration testing. But one problem is that you need to know/learn Dart and you have to share the source code of the app to the person who writes tests. This doesn't work in every work environments.

But Flutter framework is so transparent I was able to tap into its internals and build a JSON API which can provide pretty much everything you need to write UI automation tests.

APIs

GET /widgets?parent=:widget_type

Returns entire widget tree.

• parent (optional) - if provided, returns widget tree starting from the first widget of the specified type, otherwise considers the entire widget tree

GET /keys?parent=:widget_type

Returns list of all the keyed widgets.

• parent (optional) - if provided, returns only keyed widgets within the specified parent widget type, otherwise considers the entire widget tree

GET /texts?text=:text&key=:key&parent=:widget_type

Returns list of text widgets.

• text (optional) - filters widgets with matching text
• key (optional) - returns widget that matches key
• parent (optional) - if provided, searches only within the specified parent widget type, otherwise considers the entire widget tree

GET /editables?parent=:widget_type

Returns list of all text fields.

• parent (optional) - if provided, returns only text fields within the specified parent widget type, otherwise considers the entire widget tree

GET /type?text=:text

Types given text to the focused text field

GET /tap?x=:x&y=:y&key=:key&text=:text&center=:center&parent=:widget_type

Taps on screen at an offset, a key or a text.

• x,y (optional) - taps at given offset
• key (optional) - taps on widget with given key
• text (optional) - taps on text widget with given text
• center (optional) - set to true to tap at center of the widget
• parent (optional) - if provided, searches only within the specified parent widget type, otherwise considers the entire widget tree

GET /hold?x=:x&y=:y

Tap and hold on given offset

GET /drag?x=:x&y=:y&dx=:dx&dy=:dy

Taps at (x,y) and drags (dx, dy) offset

GET /scroll?key=:key&dx=:dx&dy=:dy&parent=:widget_type

Taps inside scrollable and drags.

• key - key of scrollable widget
• dx,dy - drag offset
• parent (optional) - if provided, searches only within the specified parent widget type, otherwise considers the entire widget tree

GET /scroll-into?scrollable-key=:key&key=:key&dx=:dx&dy=:dy&delay=:delay&timeout=:timeout&parent=:widget_type

Scrolls until target widget becomes visible.

• scrollable-key - key of scrollable widget
• key - key of widget to scroll into view
• dx,dy - drag offset
• delay (optional) - milliseconds between drags (default: 500)
• timeout (optional) - timeout in milliseconds (default: 5000)
• parent (optional) - if provided, searches only within the specified parent widget type, otherwise considers the entire widget tree

GET /screenshot

Returns screenshot of app in PNG

GET /keyboard

Shows keyboard

DELETE /keyboard

Hides keyboard

POST /keyboard?type=:type

Submits a keyboard action.

Some actions may not be available on all platforms. See TextInputAction for more information.