MonkeyDevice

A monkeyrunner class that represents a device or emulator accessible by the workstation running monkeyrunner.

This class is used to control an Android device or emulator. The methods send UI events, retrieve information, install and remove applications, and run applications.

You normally do not have to create an instance of MonkeyDevice. Instead, you use MonkeyRunner.waitForConnection() to create a new object from a connection to a device or emulator. For example, instead of using:

newdevice = MonkeyDevice()

you would use: 

newdevice = MonkeyRunner.waitForConnection()

Summary

Constants
string DOWN Use this with the type argument of press() or touch() to send a DOWN event.
string UP Use this with the type argument of press() or touch() to send an UP event.
string DOWN_AND_UP Use this with the type argument of press() or touch() to send a DOWN event immediately followed by an UP event.
Methods
void broadcastIntent (string uri, string action, string data, string mimetype, iterable categories dictionary extras, component component, iterable flags)
Broadcasts an Intent to this device, as if the Intent were coming from an application.
void drag (tuple start, tuple end, float duration, integer steps)
Simulates a drag gesture (touch, hold, and move) on this device's screen.
object getProperty (string key)
Given the name of a system environment variable, returns its value for this device. The available variable names are listed in the detailed description of this method.
object getSystemProperty (string key)
. The API equivalent of adb shell getprop <key>. This is provided for use by platform developers.
void installPackage (string path)
Installs the Android application or test package contained in packageFile onto this device. If the application or test package is already installed, it is replaced.
dictionary instrument (string className, dictionary args)
Runs the specified component under Android instrumentation, and returns the results in a dictionary whose exact format is dictated by the component being run. The component must already be present on this device.
void press (string name, dictionary type)
Sends the key event specified by type to the key specified by keycode.
void reboot (string into)
Reboots this device into the bootloader specified by bootloadType.
void removePackage (string package)
Deletes the specified package from this device, including its data and cache.
object shell (string cmd)
Executes an adb shell command and returns the result, if any.
void startActivity (string uri, string action, string data, string mimetype, iterable categories dictionary extras, component component, flags)
Starts an Activity on this device by sending an Intent constructed from the supplied arguments.
MonkeyImage takeSnapshot()
Captures the entire screen buffer of this device, yielding a MonkeyImage object containing a screen capture of the current display.
void touch (integer x, integer y, integer type)
Sends a touch event specified by type to the screen location specified by x and y.
void type (string message)
Sends the characters contained in message to this device, as if they had been typed on the device's keyboard. This is equivalent to calling press() for each keycode in message using the key event type DOWN_AND_UP.
void wake ()
Wakes the screen of this device.

Constants

string DOWN

press() or touch() value. Specifies that a DOWN event type should be sent to the device, corresponding to pressing down on a key or touching the screen.

string UP

press() or touch() value. Specifies that an UP event type should be sent to the device, corresponding to releasing a key or lifting up from the screen.

string DOWN_AND_UP

press(), touch() or type() value. Specifies that a DOWN event type followed by an UP event type should be sent to the device, corresponding to typing a key or clicking the screen.

Public methods

void broadcastIntent ( string uri, string action, string data, string mimetype, iterable categories dictionary extras, component component, iterable flags)

Broadcasts an Intent to this device, as if the Intent were coming from an application. See Intent for more information about the arguments.

Arguments
uri The URI for the Intent. (see Intent.setData()).
action The action for this Intent (see Intent.setAction()).
data The data URI for this Intent (see Intent.setData()).
mimetype The MIME type for the Intent (see Intent.setType()).
categories An iterable data structure containing strings that define categories for this Intent (see Intent.addCategory()).
extras A dictionary of extra data for this Intent (see Intent.putExtra() for an example).

The key for each dictionary item should be a string. The item's value can be any simple or structured data type.

component The component for this Intent (see ComponentName). Using this argument will direct the Intent to a specific class within a specific Android package.
flags An iterable data structure containing flags that control how the Intent is handled (see Intent.setFlags()).

void drag ( tuple start, tuple end, float duration, integer steps)

Simulates a drag gesture (touch, hold, and move) on this device's screen.

Arguments
start The starting point of the drag gesture, in the form of a tuple (x,y) where x and y are integers.
end The end point of the drag gesture, in the form of a tuple (x,y) where x and y are integers.
duration The duration of the drag gesture in seconds. The default is 1.0 seconds.
steps The number of steps to take when interpolating points. The default is 10.

object getProperty (string key)

Given the name of a system environment variable, returns its value for this device.

Arguments
key The name of the system environment variable. The available variable names are listed in Table 1. Property variable names at the end of this topic.
Returns
  • The value of the variable. The data format varies according to the variable requested.

object getSystemProperty (string key)

Synonym for getProperty().

Arguments
key The name of the system environment variable. The available variable names are listed in Table 1. Property Variable Names.
Returns
  • The value of the variable. The data format varies according to the variable requested.

void installPackage (string path)

Installs the Android application or test package contained in packageFile onto this device. If the application or test package is already installed, it is replaced.

Arguments
path The fully-qualified path and filename of the .apk file to install.

dictionary instrument ( string className, dictionary args)

Runs the specified component with Android instrumentation, and returns the results in a dictionary whose exact format is dictated by the component being run. The component must already be present on this device.

Use this method to start a test case that uses one of Android's test case classes. See Testing Fundamentals to learn more about unit testing with the Android testing framework.

Arguments
className The name of an Android component that is already installed on this device, in the standard form packagename/classname, where packagename is the Android package name of a .apk file on this device, and classname is the class name of an Android component (Activity, ContentProvider, Service, or BroadcastReceiver) in that file. Both packagename and classname must be fully qualified. See ComponentName for more details.
args A dictionary containing flags and their values. These are passed to the component as it is started. If the flag does not take a value, set its dictionary value to an empty string.
Returns

  • A dictionary containing the component's output. The contents of the dictionary are defined by the component itself.

    If you use InstrumentationTestRunner as the class name in the componentName argument, then the result dictionary contains the single key "stream". The value of "stream" is a string containing the test output, as if InstrumentationTestRunner was run from the command line. The format of this output is described in Testing in Other IDEs.

void press (string name, integer type)

Sends the key event specified by type to the key specified by keycode.

Arguments
name The name of the keycode to send. See KeyEvent for a list of keycode names. Use the keycode name, not its integer value.
type The type of key event to send. The allowed values are DOWN, UP, and DOWN_AND_UP.

void reboot (string bootloadType)

Reboots this device into the bootloader specified by bootloadType.

Arguments
into The type of bootloader to reboot into. The allowed values are "bootloader", "recovery", or "None".

void removePackage (string package)

Deletes the specified package from this device, including its data and cache.

Arguments
package The Android package name of an .apk file on this device.

object shell (string cmd)

Executes an adb shell command and returns the result, if any.

Arguments
cmd The command to execute in the adb shell. The form of these commands is described in the topic Android Debug Bridge.
Returns
  • The results of the command, if any. The format of the results is determined by the command.

void startActivity ( string uri, string action, string data, string mimetype, iterable categories dictionary extras, component component, iterable flags)

Starts an Activity on this device by sending an Intent constructed from the supplied arguments.

Arguments
uri The URI for the Intent. (see Intent.setData()).
action The action for the Intent (see Intent.setAction()).
data The data URI for the Intent (see Intent.setData()).
mimetype The MIME type for the Intent (see Intent.setType()).
categories An iterable data structure containing strings that define categories for the Intent (see Intent.addCategory()).
extras A dictionary of extra data for the Intent (see Intent.putExtra() for an example).

The key for each dictionary item should be a string. The item's value can be any simple or structured data type.

component The component for the Intent (see ComponentName). Using this argument will direct the Intent to a specific class within a specific Android package.
flags An iterable data structure containing flags that control how the Intent is handled (see Intent.setFlags()).

MonkeyImage takeSnapshot ()

Captures the entire screen buffer of this device, yielding a screen capture of the current display.

Returns
  • A MonkeyImage object containing the image of the current display.

void touch ( integer x, integer y, string type)

Sends a touch event specified by type to the screen location specified by x and y.

Arguments
x The horizontal position of the touch in actual device pixels, starting from the left of the screen in its current orientation.
y The vertical position of the touch in actual device pixels, starting from the top of the screen in its current orientation.
type The type of key event to send. The allowed values are DOWN, UP, and DOWN_AND_UP.

void type (string message)

Sends the characters contained in message to this device, as if they had been typed on the device's keyboard. This is equivalent to calling press() for each keycode in message using the key event type DOWN_AND_UP.

Arguments
message A string containing the characters to send.

void wake ()

Wakes the screen of this device.

Appendix

Table 1.Property variable names used with getProperty() and getSystemProperty().

Property Group Property Description Notes
build board Code name for the device's system board See Build
brand The carrier or provider for which the OS is customized.
device The device design name.
fingerprint A unique identifier for the currently-running build.
host
ID A changelist number or label.
model The end-user-visible name for the device.
product The overall product name.
tags Comma-separated tags that describe the build, such as "unsigned" and "debug".
type The build type, such as "user" or "eng".
user
CPU_ABI The name of the native code instruction set, in the form CPU type plus ABI convention.
manufacturer The product/hardware manufacturer.
version.incremental The internal code used by the source control system to represent this version of the software.
version.release The user-visible name of this version of the software.
version.sdk The user-visible SDK version associated with this version of the OS.
version.codename The current development codename, or "REL" if this version of the software has been released.
display width The device's display width in pixels. See DisplayMetrics for details.
height The device's display height in pixels.
density The logical density of the display. This is a factor that scales DIP (Density-Independent Pixel) units to the device's resolution. DIP is adjusted so that 1 DIP is equivalent to one pixel on a 160 pixel-per-inch display. For example, on a 160-dpi screen, density = 1.0, while on a 120-dpi screen, density = .75.

The value does not exactly follow the real screen size, but is adjusted to conform to large changes in the display DPI. See density for more details.

am.current package The Android package name of the currently running package. The am.current keys return information about the currently-running Activity.
action The current activity's action. This has the same format as the name attribute of the action element in a package manifest.
comp.class The class name of the component that started the current Activity. See comp.package for more details.
comp.package The package name of the component that started the current Activity. A component is specified by a package name and the name of class that the package contains.
data The data (if any) contained in the Intent that started the current Activity.
categories The categories specified by the Intent that started the current Activity.
clock realtime The number of milliseconds since the device rebooted, including deep-sleep time. See SystemClock for more information.
uptime The number of milliseconds since the device rebooted, not including deep-sleep time
millis current time since the UNIX epoch, in milliseconds.