How to set Allow Mock Location on Android Device before executing AndroidTest with uiautomator and espresso?

Question

Basically every time I have to execute an AndroidTest that makes use of mock location provider I need to manually check the box on device emulator: Settings--> mock locations. How to automate this task directly from the android test? Is there any way using espresso/uiautomator/something else?

Answer 1

I managed to do that in the way I wanted. Thanks to the links posted on comments. I added in my gradle file the following snippet:

task enableMockLocationForTestsOnDevice(type: Exec) {
    Properties properties = new Properties()
    properties.load(project.rootProject.file('local.properties').newDataInputStream())
    def sdkDir = properties.getProperty('sdk.dir')
    def adb = "$sdkDir/platform-tools/adb"
    description 'enable mock location on connected android device before executing any android test'
    commandLine "$adb", 'shell', 'appops', 'set', 'indian.fig.whatsaround', 'android:mock_location', 'allow'
}

afterEvaluate {
    // Note: the app must be already installed on device in order to this to run!
    connectedDebugAndroidTest.dependsOn enableMockLocationForTestsOnDevice
    connectedAndroidTest.dependsOn enableMockLocationForTestsOnDevice
}


// execute android tests before realising a new apk
tasks.whenTaskAdded { task ->
    if (task.name == 'assembleRelease') {
        task.dependsOn('enableMockLocationForTestsOnDevice')
        task.dependsOn('testReleaseUnitTest') // Run unit tests for the release build
        task.dependsOn('connectedAndroidTest') // Installs and runs instrumentation tests for all flavors on connected devices.

    }
}

If you also need to run the task before launching the app via android studio you need to add it as before run editing the "run" configuration.