Lets talk about testing push notifications for Android.

Why to do this

• To ensure the device registration works fine. This is required to identify which device the notification needs to be pushed.
• Ensure push notifications work for multiple devices for the same user.
• To have confidence that the notifications are received by the device for the given device. Currently, no way to know if the notfication was delivered & received successfully.

How to do this

• Using Appium
• Tested on a real device
• Making the call to push notification
• Registration of device is tested implicitly i.e.
  • A successful push notification is only received , if the device registration is succesful.

Test Flow

• Login to a device to register the device implicitly ( because the app does it so ). If you have a different flow , do that to ensure the device registration flow is triggered successfully.
• Make the call to push the notification. Mostly a REST call.
• Swipe the Android Status Bar
• Poll & check for the push notification to have arrived & be present.

Code

• Scroll the Notification Menu

  new TouchAction(appiumDriver)
                .press(PointOption.point(0,0))
                .moveTo(PointOption.point(450, 1750))
                .release()
                .perform()
  

• Identify the Push Notification This worked because my push notification was the first notification,else list all the notifications & then find the expected notification

  @AndroidFindBy(id = 'android:id/big_text')
  MobileElement notificationElement
  

• Poll for the element to be displayed & then edtract text for assertion Ensure the notification in question is displayed before the getText() call.

  assert notificationElement.getText().toContain(<Expected Text>)
  

Resources used for reference

• http://appium.io/docs/en/writing-running-appium/touch-actions
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51018055/how-to-scroll-up-in-android-appium
• https://appiumpro.com/editions/15**