Setting a custom assets directory for unit testing in Android Studio

Question

We have the not uncommon requirement of executing unit tests of our Android application which make use of assets which are only required for unit testing.

With the Eclip

Answer 1

I am using Android Studio 1.3 + Gradle 1.2.3 and src/androidTest/assets didn't work for me. I placed everything in src/debug without any changes to build.gradle and it worked. Android seemingly picks up up items from the debug folder automatically while building the apk.

Answer 2

I've stumbled upon an answer for my own question, for which I scored the coveted "Tumbleweed" award reserved for questions that inspire a particularly notable lack of interest. Never-the-less it may prove useful to someone.

In the end I'm going to describe this as a bug in Android's gradle build but in the absence of any conclusive documentation that's going to have to remain an opinion.

It would appear that "androidTest/assets" just doesn't work. However "debug/assets" does. So does "debug/java" incidentally so the solution is to put any and all testing resources and code into the debug root, with the exception of the unit tests themselves.

I also added the following modifications to my build.gradle:

    androidTest {
        assets.srcDirs = ['src/main/assets', 'src/androidTest/assets/', 'src/debug/assets/']
        java.srcDirs = ['src/main/java', 'src/androidTest/java', 'src/debug/java']
    }

And now I have functioning unit tests employing assets and mocks that are unknown to the release build.

Answer 3

I found this right for me

android{
    sourceSets {
        androidTest {
            assets.srcDirs = ['src/main/assets', 'src/androidTest/assets/', 'src/debug/assets/']
            java.srcDirs = ['src/main/java', 'src/androidTest/java', 'src/debug/java']
        }
    }
}

Answer 4

I don't know how it was before, but I was able to create Android instrumented unit tests where I can read test assets or production assets. See this answer for more info.