Writing a unit test to check if a Service has started

Question

I have a class which starts IntentService:

public class MyClass(){
    public void doStuff(){
       Intent intent = new Intent(context, MyService.class);
       intent.putExtra(KEY, stringExtra);
       context.startService(intent);
    }
}

Now I want to unit-test MyClass. I want to check if the intent to start my service was fired and that it has correct extras. Something like this:

public void testServiceStarted(){
    MyClass myClass = new MyClass();
    myClass.doStuff();

    // Assert MyService was stated and received arguments
}

Is this possible with Instrumentation or other frameworks?

possible duplicate of [How to check if a service is running in android?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/600207/how-to-check-if-a-service-is-running-in-android) — Paul Burke, Sep 22 '14 at 11:44
There are tons of these questions on SO. You obviously didn't even take a moment to do a Google search. Shame. — Paul Burke, Sep 22 '14 at 11:45
@PaulBurke you might not have read the question thoroughly. I asked how to write an automated test which checks if service was started. I think this is different. Also I see a difference between "running" and "was started"/"intent to start a service was fired". — , Sep 22 '14 at 12:02
Wow! My mistake, completely missed the "unit-test" and just thought you meant test, as in "determine". Please forgive. Removing down-vote. — Paul Burke, Sep 22 '14 at 12:07
SO is not letting me undo the down-vote for some reason. Telling me it's now locked unless the question is edited. :-( — Paul Burke, Sep 22 '14 at 12:09
@PaulBurke no problem. I've also edit original question to clarify things. — , Sep 22 '14 at 12:25

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 22 '14 at 11:13

I dont know if this is what you are looking for, but this might be useful.

private boolean isMyServiceRunning(Class<?> serviceClass,Context context) {
    ActivityManager manager = (ActivityManager)context. getSystemService(Context.ACTIVITY_SERVICE);
    for (RunningServiceInfo service : manager.getRunningServices(Integer.MAX_VALUE)) {
        if (serviceClass.getName().equals(MySercice.service.getClassName())) {
            Log.i("Service already","running");
            return true;
        }
    }
    Log.i("Service not","running");
    return false;
}

As you can see you will need a Context variable.

Another possible aproach is to have a static boolean in your service starting as false then, when your IntentService starts, change it to true.

Hope it helps

You are not supposed to touch the source code when writing tests for them. — John Glen, Jul 28 '23 at 14:16

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 20 '19 at 21:19

Though this is an old post, I was thinking of answering this question that might help somebody.

I use Roboelectric for writing such unit tests and here is how you can check if a service has started with the right action or intents.

@Config(constants = BuildConfig.class)
@RunWith(RobolectricTestRunner.class)
public class MyServiceTest {

    @Test
    public void testMyServiceStartedWithRightActionAndIntent() {

        final Intent realIntent = ShadowApplication.getInstance().getNextStartedService();

        // Test if the service intent is not null
        Assert.assertNotNull("Obtained the my service intent", realIntent);

        // Test if the service intent has any extra with the maching name with MY_EXTRA
        Assert.assertTrue("My service does not have the right extra", realIntent.hasExtra(MY_EXTRA));

        // Test if the service has the right action.
        Assert.assertEquals("My Service does not have right action", realIntent.getAction(), SERVICE_ACTION);
    }
}

For the Roboelectric setup, please see this link.

Writing a unit test to check if a Service has started

2 Answers2