Why is my JSONObject related unit test failing?

Question

I\'m running my tests using gradle testFlavorType

JSONObject jsonObject1 = new JSONObject();
JSONObject jsonObject2 = new JSONObject();
jsonObje         


        

Answer 1

The class JSONObject is part of the android SDK. That means that is not available for unit testing by default.

From http://tools.android.com/tech-docs/unit-testing-support

The android.jar file that is used to run unit tests does not contain any actual code - that is provided by the Android system image on real devices. Instead, all methods throw exceptions (by default). This is to make sure your unit tests only test your code and do not depend on any particular behaviour of the Android platform (that you have not explicitly mocked e.g. using Mockito).

When you set the test options to

testOptions {
    unitTests.returnDefaultValues = true
}

you are fixing the "Method ... not mocked." problem, but the outcome is that when your code uses new JSONObject() you are not using the real method, you are using a mock method that doesn't do anything, it just returns a default value. That's the reason the object is null.

You can find different ways of solving the problem in this question: Android methods are not mocked when using Mockito