The slides from my talk "Building High Quality Android Applications with Continuous Integration and Automated device tests" from April 9th at DroidCon 2013 in Berlin

1. Building High Quality Android
Apps
By using Jenkins and Automated Device
Tests

2. Getting to know each other...
Leif Janzik
Team-Lead Android Development
adesso mobile solutions GmbH
Twitter: @ElliotMonster
Blog: www.thoughtsonmobile.com

3. About adesso mobile solutions GmbH
• adesso mobile solutions GmbH, Dortmund, 65 MA (Ende 2012)
• Tochterunternehmen der adesso AG, Dortmund, ca. 1.100 MA
(Ende 2012)
• führender Anbieter in den Bereichen mobiles Internet, mobile
Applikationen und Mobile Marketing
• Portfolio: Beratung, Konzeption, Realisierung, Review, Test und
Betrieb von Mobilisierungs-Projekten und App-Lösungen
• Kunden: Über 200 realisierten Portalen und Applikationen für
Kunden wie Daimler, PAYBACK, ERGO, süddeutsche.de,
SportScheck, die Volksbanken Raffeisenbanken, Bundesagentur
für Arbeit.

4. So you are an Android Developer
and everything is f***ing awesome...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fullcodepress/

5. Everyone loves your Apps
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fullcodepress/

6. Your companies headquarter
looks like these
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fullcodepress/

7. Everything is perfect!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fullcodepress/

8. BUT
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fullcodepress/

9. ... time goes on, and the apps evolves,
new features, new API-levels, bugfixes etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fullcodepress/

10. There are „some“ new devices ...
... every day
http://www.flickr.com/photos/fullcodepress/

11. And after some Versions, Refactorings
& new Features your Code looks more like this...

12. you try to keep everything fine
and running...

13. ... but the number of bugs
continues to grow ...

14. maybe your customers will react
like this?

15. ... but more likely they will
react like this ...

16. ... Your companies new
headquarter ...

17. ... and being a Android Developer
is no fun no more.

18. Ok, maybe I exagerated a bit, BUT
• Android Apps grow more and more complex
• Customers expect a bugfree and undisturbed App
experience
• Tolerance even for minor bugs continues to shrink
• Device fragmentation makes testing a sisysphean task

19. Some „everyday-problems“ we had to solve
• Apps have to be build in many different Versions (e.g.
Development/Staging-Enviroment) or different brandings
• Developers are often disturbed, e.g. when a AdHoc for the
customer is needed
• Changes in App Components lead to new bugs, which
were discovered later.

20. so what is the solution to this problem?

21. exessive Testing ...

22. but testing your own app is
soooooo boring! (so it might be skipped or not done thoroughly)

23. that‘s why we automated much of
our testing and our build process.

24. „Our“ solution
• a clean and reliable development workflow
• a toolchain which supports the developers and keeps
disturbing work away
• Continuous refactoring of the apps
• Maven for lesser configuration for every developer and
easier modularisation
• Automated Device Tests
• Continuous integration

25. What is Continuous Integration?
• Automate everything
• Build as often as possible
• Build early, build often
• e.g. on every commit
• or nightly builds

26. Benefits of Continuous Integration
• Fewer Errors
• very important, not everybody installs every update, so
bugs might never be fixed on a customers device
• Fast Feedback
• Tests everything on every (nightly) build
• Much less manual testing
• Cheaper
• Happier developers
• Regression-Tests without additional effort

27. Automate...
• ...Builds
• ...Unit Testing
• ...Device Tests
• ...Code Coverage & Static Analysis
• ...Deployment

28. 3 Major Build Profiles
Build after Commit Nightly Build Release or Promoted Build
• Build and archive APK • Build Project • Build APK
• Run Unit-Tests without • Run Unit-Tests
• Run Sonar Code archiving/publishin • Run Calabash Tests
Metrics g APK • Keep apk „forever“
• Run Unit-Tests • upload apk to webserver
• Run Calabash Tests for enterprise delivery or
to Google play

29. Why did we choose Jenkins
• Quasi-Standart CI Server (together with hudson)
• A lot of useful plugins
• e.g. Maven Plugin, Checkstyle
Plugin, Android Lint Plugin,
Sonar Plugin
• Well documented Plugin API for
own plugins

30. Our Jenkins System
Jenkins
Master
Jenkins Jenkins Jenkins Jenkins
iOS Android Windows Mobile
Web

31. Automate...
• ...Builds
• ...Unit Testing
• ...Device Tests
• ...Code Coverage & Static Analysis
• ...Deployment

32. why do we need automated ui-tests?
• Not all parts are covered by classic Unit-Tests
• Manual Integration Tests take a lot of time
• Manual tests are very boring and developers tend to skip
them
• Device fragmentation grows every day ...

33. automated UI-Tests with Calabash
• Cucumber based Testing Tool
• Test-Specs are human readable, even for non-programmers
• Both mayor platforms iOS & Android are supported with a identical
Syntax
• Runs in Simulator/Emulator and on Devices

34. Example
Feature: Basic Mathematics
As a user I‘ll be able to do basic mathematic
operations
Scenario: Summate 2 numbers
Given I started the App
When I press button „5“
And I press button „+“
And I press button „3“
And I press button „=“
Then label „result“ should be „8“
Scenario: Substract one number from another
Given I started the App
When I press button „9“
And I press button „-“
And I press button „4“
And I press button „=“
Then label „result“ should be „5“

35. • All Calabash-Tests run on real Devices, so
the results are much more reliable

36. Automate...
• ...Builds
• ...Unit Testing
• ...Device Tests
• ...Code Coverage & Static Analysis
• ...Deployment

37. Publish Code Analysis Results to Sonar

38. Automate...
• ...Builds
• ...Unit Testing
• ...Device Tests
• ...Code Coverage & Static Analysis
• ...Deployment

39. Any questions?

40. Thank you
Have a nice day at DroidCon
PS: if you are an StartUp or have a great idea (for mobile) ask me for
informations on the „adesso mobile fond“