xctest - Xcode7 | Xcode UI Tests | How to handle location service alert?

Question

I am writing UI Test Cases for one one of my app using the XCUIApplication, XCUIElement and XCUIElementQuery introduced in Xcode7/iOS 9.

I have hit a road block. One of the screens in test case requires iOS's Location Services. As expected the user is prompted about allowing use of location service with alert titled: Allow “App name” to access your location while you use the app? with Allow & Don't Allow buttons.

Problem is or so it seems that since the alert is presented by OS itself it is not present in Application's element sub-tree.

I have logged following:

print("XYZ:(app.alerts.count)")//0
var existence = app.staticTexts["Allow “App Name” to access your location while you use the app?"].exists
print("XYZ:(existence)")//false
existence  = app.buttons["Allow"].exists
print("XYZ:(existence)") //false

Even UI recording generated similar code:

XCUIApplication().alerts["Allow “App Name” to access your location while you use the app?"].collectionViews.buttons["Allow"].tap()

I have not found any API that can get me past this problem. For example:

• Tap at a position on the screen
• Get alerts outside the app

So how can I get past this? Is there a way to configure Test Targets so that Location Service Authorization is not required.

Answer 1

Xcode 9

    let springboard = XCUIApplication(bundleIdentifier: "com.apple.springboard")
    let allowBtn = springboard.buttons["Allow"]
    if allowBtn.exists {
        allowBtn.tap()
    }

Xcode 8.3.3

    _ = addUIInterruptionMonitor(withDescription: "Location Dialog") { (alert) -> Bool in
        alert.buttons["Allow"].tap()
        return true
    }
    app.buttons["Request Location"].tap()
    app.tap() // need to interact with the app for the handler to fire

---

Note that it is a bit different as the method name now is addUIInterruptionMonitor and takes withDescription as an argument

Xcode 7.1

Xcode 7.1 has finally fixed a issue with system alerts. There are, however, two small gotchas.

First, you need to set up a "UI Interuption Handler" before presenting the alert. This is our way of telling the framework how to handle an alert when it appears.

Second, after presenting the alert you must interact with the interface. Simply tapping the app works just fine, but is required.

addUIInterruptionMonitorWithDescription("Location Dialog") { (alert) -> Bool in
    alert.buttons["Allow"].tap()
    return true
}

app.buttons["Request Location"].tap()
app.tap() // need to interact with the app for the handler to fire

The "Location Dialog" is just a string to help the developer identify which handler was accessed, it is not specific to the type of alert.

Xcode 7.0

The following will dismiss a single "system alert" in Xcode 7 Beta 6:

let app = XCUIApplication()
app.launch()
// trigger location permission dialog

app.alerts.element.collectionViews.buttons["Allow"].tap()

Beta 6 introduced a slew of fixes for UI Testing and I believe this was one of them.

Also note that I am calling -element directly on -alerts. Calling -element on an XCUIElementQuery forces the framework to choose the "one and only" matching element on the screen. This works great for alerts where you can only have one visible at a time. However, if you try this for a label and have two labels the framework will raise an exception.