Android Marshmallow: Test permissions with Espresso?

Question

The new permissions scheme introduced by Android Marshmallow requires checking for specific permissions at runtime, which implies the need to provide different flows dependi

Answer 1

The accepted answer doesn't actually test the permissions dialog; it just bypasses it. So, if the permissions dialog fails for some reason, your test will give a false green. I encourage actually clicking the "give permissions" button to test the whole app behaviour.

Have a look at this solution:

public static void allowPermissionsIfNeeded(String permissionNeeded) {
    try { 
      if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M && !hasNeededPermission(permissionNeeded)) {
        sleep(PERMISSIONS_DIALOG_DELAY);
        UiDevice device = UiDevice.getInstance(getInstrumentation());
        UiObject allowPermissions = device.findObject(new UiSelector()
          .clickable(true) 
          .checkable(false) 
          .index(GRANT_BUTTON_INDEX));
        if (allowPermissions.exists()) {
          allowPermissions.click();
        } 
      } 
    } catch (UiObjectNotFoundException e) {
      System.out.println("There is no permissions dialog to interact with");
    } 
  } 

Find the whole class here: https://gist.github.com/rocboronat/65b1187a9fca9eabfebb5121d818a3c4

By the way, as this answer has been a popular one, we added PermissionGranter to Barista, our tool above Espresso and UiAutomator to make instrumental tests green: https://github.com/SchibstedSpain/Barista check it out, because we will maintain it release by release.