Running Robotium Test Cases directly on a phone ( Not the emulator )

Question

I couldn't find any useful resource on the net regarding how robotium can be used to execute the test cases directly on the phone, rather than on the emulator ( which is the usual case )

Some More Details I have a branded android phone. This phone has a builtin app which is manufactured by the phone manufacturer ( not a google app ).. i don't either have the apk or the source code of the app. Given this situation - Is it possible to use robotium for testing this app?

Any help regarding this please?

Answer 1

You need to root your phone and then pull the apk from the device, resign it with the same certificate that your test project uses and then push it back on the phone.

To run the tests on device instead the only thing you need to do is to connect it to your computer (use adb devices to make sure it is properly connected). Then the tests will be run on your device instead.

More information on this can be found on the Robotium wiki pages: Robotium for preinstalled applications

Answer 2

You do not need to root the phone. You might be able to use Robotium, but you would have to delete the signature, and the sign with the debug. This might be hard since it is a Verizon built app. I am currently testing Verizon apps, and in order to test their app with Robotium, I had to sign the test with the Verizon signature and build the test with ant before I run it.

Hope this helps.