Testing Worker implementation

WorkManager provides APIs for testing Worker, ListenableWorker, and the ListenableWorker variants (CoroutineWorker and RxWorker).

Testing Workers

Let’s say we have a Worker which looks like this:

class SleepWorker(context: Context, parameters: WorkerParameters) :
    Worker(context, parameters) {

    override fun doWork(): Result {
        // Sleep on a background thread.
        Thread.sleep(1000)
        return Result.success()
    }
}

public class SleepWorker extends Worker {
    public SleepWorker(
            @NonNull Context context,
            @NonNull WorkerParameters workerParameters) {
        super(context, workerParameters);
    }

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public Result doWork() {
        try {
            Thread.sleep(1000);
        } catch (InterruptedException ignore) {
return Result.success();
        }
    }
}

To test this Worker, you can use TestWorkerBuilder. This builder helps build instances of Worker that can be used for the purpose of testing business logic.

// Kotlin code uses the TestWorkerBuilder extension to build
// the Worker
@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4::class)
class SleepWorkerTest {
    private lateinit var context: Context
    private lateinit var executor: Executor

    @Before
    fun setUp() {
        context = ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext()
        executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor()
    }

    @Test
    fun testSleepWorker() {
        val worker = TestWorkerBuilder<SleepWorker>(
            context = context,
            executor = executor
        ).build()

        val result = worker.doWork()
        assertThat(result, `is`(Result.success()))
    }
}

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4.class)
public class SleepWorkerJavaTest {
    private Context context;
    private Executor executor;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        context = ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext();
        executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
    }

    @Test
    public void testSleepWorker() {
        SleepWorker worker =
                (SleepWorker) TestWorkerBuilder.from(context,
                        SleepWorker.class,
                        executor)
                        .build();

        Result result = worker.doWork();
        assertThat(result, is(Result.success()));
    }
}

TestWorkerBuilder can also be used to set tags, such as inputData or runAttemptCount, so that you can verify worker state in isolation. Consider an example in which SleepWorker takes in a sleep duration as input data rather than it being a constant defined in the worker:

class SleepWorker(context: Context, parameters: WorkerParameters) :
    Worker(context, parameters) {

    override fun doWork(): Result {
        // Sleep on a background thread.
        val sleepDuration = inputData.getLong(SLEEP_DURATION, 1000)
        Thread.sleep(sleepDuration)
        return Result.success()
    }

    companion object {
        const val SLEEP_DURATION = "SLEEP_DURATION"
    }
}

public class SleepWorker extends Worker {
    public static final String SLEEP_DURATION = "SLEEP_DURATION";

    public SleepWorker(
            @NonNull Context context,
            @NonNull WorkerParameters workerParameters) {
        super(context, workerParameters);
    }

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public Result doWork() {
        try {
            long duration = getInputData().getLong(SLEEP_DURATION, 1000);
            Thread.sleep(duration);
        } catch (InterruptedException ignore) {
       return Result.success();
        }
    }
}

In SleepWorkerTest, you can provide that input data to your TestWorkerBuilder to satisfy the needs of SleepWorker.

// Kotlin code uses the TestWorkerBuilder extension to build
// the Worker
@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4::class)
class SleepWorkerTest {
    private lateinit var context: Context
    private lateinit var executor: Executor

    @Before
    fun setUp() {
        context = ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext()
        executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor()
    }

    @Test
    fun testSleepWorker() {
        val worker = TestWorkerBuilder<SleepWorker>(
            context = context,
            executor = executor,
            inputData = workDataOf("SLEEP_DURATION" to 1000L)
        ).build()

        val result = worker.doWork()
        assertThat(result, `is`(Result.success()))
    }
}

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4.class)
public class SleepWorkerJavaTest {
    private Context context;
    private Executor executor;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        context = ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext();
        executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
    }

    @Test
    public void testSleepWorker() {
        Data inputData = new Data.Builder()
                .putLong("SLEEP_DURATION", 1000L)
                .build();

        SleepWorker worker =
                (SleepWorker) TestWorkerBuilder.from(context,
                        SleepWorker.class, executor)
                        .setInputData(inputData)
                        .build();

        Result result = worker.doWork();
        assertThat(result, is(Result.success()));
    }
}

For more details on the TestWorkerBuilder API, see the reference page for TestListenableWorkerBuilder, the superclass of TestWorkerBuilder.

Testing ListenableWorker and its variants

To test a ListenableWorker or its variants (CoroutineWorker and RxWorker), use TestListenableWorkerBuilder. The main difference between TestWorkerBuilder and a TestListenableWorkerBuilder is that TestWorkerBuilder lets you specify the background Executor used to run the Worker, whereas TestListenableWorkerBuilder relies on the threading logic of the ListenableWorker implementation.

For example, suppose we need to test a CoroutineWorker which looks like this:

class SleepWorker(context: Context, parameters: WorkerParameters) :
    CoroutineWorker(context, parameters) {
    override suspend fun doWork(): Result {
        delay(1000L) // milliseconds
        return Result.success()
    }
}

To test SleepWorker, we first create an instance of the Worker using TestListenableWorkerBuilder and then call its doWork function within a coroutine.

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4::class)
class SleepWorkerTest {
    private lateinit var context: Context

    @Before
    fun setUp() {
        context = ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext()
    }

    @Test
    fun testSleepWorker() {
        val worker = TestListenableWorkerBuilder<SleepWorker>(context).build()
        runBlocking {
            val result = worker.doWork()
            assertThat(result, `is`(Result.success()))
        }
    }
}

runBlocking makes sense as a coroutine builder for your tests so that any code that would execute asynchronously is instead run in parallel.

Testing an RxWorker implementation is similar to testing CoroutineWorker, as TestListenableWorkerBuilder can handle any subclass of ListenableWorker. Consider a version of SleepWorker that uses RxJava instead of coroutines.

class SleepWorker(
    context: Context,
    parameters: WorkerParameters
) : RxWorker(context, parameters) {
    override fun createWork(): Single<Result> {
        return Single.just(Result.success())
            .delay(1000L, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)
    }
}

public class SleepWorker extends RxWorker {
    public SleepWorker(@NonNull Context appContext, 
@NonNull WorkerParameters workerParams) {
        super(appContext, workerParams);
    }

    @NonNull
    @Override
    public Single<Result> createWork() {
        return Single.just(Result.success())
                .delay(1000L, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    }
}

A version of SleepWorkerTest that tests an RxWorker may look similar to the version that tested a CoroutineWorker. You use the same TestListenableWorkerBuilder but now call into RxWorker’s createWork function. createWork returns a Single that you can use to verify the behavior of your worker. TestListenableWorkerBuilder handles any threading complexities and executes your worker code in parallel.

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4::class)
class SleepWorkerTest {
    private lateinit var context: Context

    @Before
    fun setUp() {
        context = ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext()
    }

    @Test
    fun testSleepWorker() {
        val worker = TestListenableWorkerBuilder<SleepWorker>(context).build()
        worker.createWork().subscribe { result ->
            assertThat(result, `is`(Result.success()))
        }
    }
}

@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4.class)
public class SleepWorkerTest {
    private Context context;

    @Before
    public void setUp() {
        context = ApplicationProvider.getApplicationContext();
    }

    @Test
    public void testSleepWorker() {
        SleepWorker worker = TestListenableWorkerBuilder.from(context, SleepWorker.class)
                .build();
        worker.createWork().subscribe(result ->
                assertThat(result, is(Result.success())));
        }
}