Android Lollipop Appcompat problems running with Robolectric

Question

I'm not able to run Robolectic test when using new Appcompat support library available since Android Lollipop came out. I've followed:

• https://github.com/robolectric/deckard-gradle
• https://chris.banes.me/2014/10/17/appcompat-v21/

My current progress is available here: https://github.com/fada21/android-tdd-bootstrap

My configuration (distilled) is:

android {
  compileSdkVersion 21
  buildToolsVersion "21.0.1"

defaultConfig {
  applicationId "com.fada21.android.bootstrap"
  minSdkVersion 15
  targetSdkVersion 21

...

dependencies {
  compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])
  compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:21.0.0'
  compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:21.0.0'

...

androidTestCompile('org.robolectric:robolectric:2.4-SNAPSHOT') {

I've raised an issue here: https://github.com/robolectric/robolectric/issues/1332 (look here for more details).

This is errors I'm getting:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Could not find any resource  from reference ResName{com.fada21.android.bootstrap:style/Theme_AppCompat_Light_NoActionBar} from style StyleData{name='AppTheme', parent='Theme_AppCompat_Light_NoActionBar'} with theme null
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowAssetManager$StyleResolver.getParent(ShadowAssetManager.java:456)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowAssetManager$StyleResolver.getAttrValue(ShadowAssetManager.java:394)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowResources.getOverlayedThemeValue(ShadowResources.java:297)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowResources.findAttributeValue(ShadowResources.java:286)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowResources.attrsToTypedArray(ShadowResources.java:189)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowResources.access$000(ShadowResources.java:48)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowResources$ShadowTheme.obtainStyledAttributes(ShadowResources.java:494)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowResources$ShadowTheme.obtainStyledAttributes(ShadowResources.java:489)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowResources$ShadowTheme.obtainStyledAttributes(ShadowResources.java:484)
at android.content.res.Resources$Theme.obtainStyledAttributes(Resources.java)
at android.content.Context.obtainStyledAttributes(Context.java:380)
at android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivityDelegate.onCreate(ActionBarActivityDelegate.java:143)
at android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivityDelegateBase.onCreate(ActionBarActivityDelegateBase.java:139)
at android.support.v7.app.ActionBarActivity.onCreate(ActionBarActivity.java:123)
at com.fada21.android.bootstrap.HomeActivity.onCreate(HomeActivity.java:28)
at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:5133)
at org.fest.reflect.method.Invoker.invoke(Invoker.java:112)
at org.robolectric.util.ActivityController$1.run(ActivityController.java:113)
at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowLooper.runPaused(ShadowLooper.java:265)
at org.robolectric.util.ActivityController.create(ActivityController.java:110)
at org.robolectric.util.ActivityController.create(ActivityController.java:120)
at com.fada21.android.bootstrap.HomeActivityTest.testActivityNotNull(HomeActivityTest.java:24)

Answer 1

NOTE: As of 7/7/15, Roboelectric 3.0 has been released. It solves the problem in question making this answer no longer necessary.

Old Answer:

Until Robolectric 3.0 comes out, here's a fix.

#/app/src/main/res/values/styles.xml
<resources>

    //<!-- Base application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
        //<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
    </style>


    //<!-- Hack for Robolectric to run with appcompat.v7 -->
    <style name="RoboAppTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
        //<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
    </style>

</resources>

And then adjust your custom RobolectricRunner class

public class MyRobolectricTestRunner extends RobolectricTestRunner {
    private static final int MAX_SDK_SUPPORTED_BY_ROBOLECTRIC = 18;

    public MyRobolectricTestRunner(Class<?> testClass) throws InitializationError {
        super(testClass);
    }

    @Override
    protected AndroidManifest getAppManifest(Config config) {
        String manifestProperty = "../app/src/main/AndroidManifest.xml";
        String resProperty = "../app/src/main/res";
        return new AndroidManifest(Fs.fileFromPath(manifestProperty), Fs.fileFromPath(resProperty)) {
            @Override
            public int getTargetSdkVersion() {
                return MAX_SDK_SUPPORTED_BY_ROBOLECTRIC;
            }

            @Override
            public String getThemeRef(Class<? extends Activity> activityClass) {
                return "@style/RoboAppTheme";
            }
        };
    }
}

Basically we are just telling the JVM to use a different app theme. Then use this TestRunner like you normally would with @RunWith(MyRobolectricTestRunner.class).

Note: This addresses activities that only extend Activity, other issues of the same type occur for activities that extend ActionBarActivity

EDIT: As of 4/7/15, Robolectric 3.0-snapshot build is available which accounts for ActionBarActivity. More information is available in the links in the comments