Alternatives to UIAutomatorViewer to inspect an Android app while running it

Question

The developers I'm working with in my team need to make automated integration tests and in some of them need to make actions on particular elements within specific pages of their app.

To do so, they're using UI Automator, but the "uiautomatorviewer" is causing some problems due to uncovered Java versions (that's what it seemed to me). They need a similar tool because, for example, if they want to catch a specific button and simulate the act of clicking it, for what I have understood until now, they have to call a method called resourceId(String) of UiSelector class, passing in it a string made of an "id", which some elements don't have explicitly declarated in the code, and so that's why they need to be able to debug the running app to see what is, for example, that id of that specific button.

I've seen this string is formed by what looks like a package (ex. com.android.vending:id/the_id).

I've done this technical example because they need something allowing them to know how to find the name of the id and how to find the name of the "package" to use. Are these informations available somewhere on Android Studio?

I've tried to use the Chrome DevTools but, for what I have understood about it, it doesn't work with native apps but only inspects web pages, correct me if I'm wrong.

I think also Genymotion works in the same way and doesn't allow to inspect apps.

If there is a simpler alternative allowing to get the strings to pass to the "resourceId" method without using "uiautomatorviewer" and similar softwares, could you suggest me how to do it?

If not, could you suggest me a good alternative to "uiautomatorviewer"?

Answer 1

maybe this github repo help you to alternative way:

android inspector

Answer 2

If you want to list the ID's and some other useful info to incorporate in your tests you can use AndroidViewClient's dump:

dump

and produces something like

android.widget.FrameLayout
   android.view.View com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher:id/scrim_view
      android.view.View
   android.widget.ScrollView com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher:id/workspace
      android.widget.FrameLayout com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher:id/universal_smartspace_container
         android.widget.TextView com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher:id/clock Friday, May 13
      com.android.launcher3.widget.LauncherAppWidgetHostView
         android.widget.LinearLayout com.google.android.deskclock:id/digital_widget
            android.widget.TextView com.google.android.deskclock:id/clock 12:41
            android.widget.TextView com.google.android.deskclock:id/date FRI, MAY 13
   android.widget.TextView  Messages
   android.widget.TextView  Play Store
   android.widget.TextView  Chrome
   android.widget.FrameLayout com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher:id/search_container_all_apps
      android.view.View com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher:id/mic_icon

Specifying command line options dump produces a wide variety of info:

usage: dump [OPTION]... [serialno]

Options:
  -H, --help                       prints this help
  -V, --verbose                    verbose comments
  -v, --version
  -I, --ignore-secure-device       ignore secure device
  -E, --ignore-version-check       ignores ADB version check
  -F, --force-view-server-use      force view server use (even if UiAutomator present)
  -S, --do-not-start-view-server   don't start ViewServer
  -k, --do-not-ignore-uiautomator-killed don't ignore UiAutomator killed
  -w, --window=WINDOW              dump WINDOW content (default: -1, all windows)
  -a, --all                        dump all information about Views
  -i, --uniqueId                   dump View unique IDs
  -x, --position                   dump View positions
  -b, --bounds                     dump View bounds
  -d, --content-description        dump View content descriptions
  -g, --tag                        dump View tags
  -c, --center                     dump View centers
  -f, --save-screenshot=FILE       save screenshot to file
  -W, --save-view-screenshots=DIR  save View screenshots to files in directory
  -D, --do-not-dump-views          don't dump views, only useful if you specified -f or -W
  -A, --device-art=MODEL           device art model to frame screenshot (auto: autodetected)
  -Z, --drop-shadow                drop shadow for device art screenshot
  -B, --glare                      screen glare over screenshot
  -h, --use-uiautomator-helper     use UiAutomatorHelper Android app
  -X, --debug=LIST                 debug options

However, if you want JSON output, you can use CulebraTester2-public and then

dump -ha

and you'll get

{
  "id": "hierarchy",
  "text": "Window Hierarchy",
  "timestamp": "2022-05-13T19:52:55.823Z",
  "children": [
    {
      "id": 0,
      "parent": -1,
      "text": "",
      "package": "com.google.android.apps.nexuslauncher",
      "checkable": false,
      "clickable": false,
      "index": 0,
      "content_description": "",
  ...

Finally, using culebra -G you can also automatically generate tests (in python).