Issuing a synchronous HTTP GET request or invoking shell script in JavaScript from iOS UIAutomation

Question

I am trying to use Apple\'s UIAutomation to write unit tests for an iOS Application that has a server-side component. In order to setup the test server in various states (as wel

Answer 1

+1 for creative use of "shake()". However, that's not an option for some projects, especially those that actually use the shake feature.

Think outside the box. Do the fetching with something else (Python, Ruby, node.js, bash+wget, etc). Then, you can use the pre-canned response and auto-generate the ui-test.js on the fly by including that dynamically generated json payload as the "sample data" into the test. Then you simply execute the test.

In my opinion, the test is the test, leave that alone. The test data you are using, if it's that dynamic, it ought to be separated from the test itself. By doing it this way of fetching / generating JSON, and referencing it from the test, you can update that JSON however often you like, either immediately right before every test, or on a set interval like when you know the server has been updated. I'm not sure you would want to generate it while the test is running, that seems like it would create problems. Taking it to the next level, you could get fancy and use functions that calculate what values ought to be based on other values, and expose them as "dynamic properties" of the data, rather than that math being inside the test, but at that point I think the discussion is more of an academic one rather than the practical one of how.