How to test content providers on Android

Question

I am trying to test my DB using ProviderTestCase2<T>. I can see the test DB being created. As such I suppose, the tested content provider should use the test DB. But as soon as I try any calls against the MockContentResolver (or the one created with newResolverWithContentProviderFromSql), I get an UnsupportedOperationException. This is documented for the MockContentResolver as normal behavior. As such I am a bit unsure on the purpose of the ProviderTestCase2.

How do you test your content providers?

Thanks

Answer 1

As far as I found, setting up the mock content resolver is not explicitly necessary - I might oversee cases where it is(maybe correct resolving of the provider via URI, hings that need corect getType() working), but for me, it was enough to do something like this:

package org.droidcon.apps.template.provider.test;

import org.droidcon.apps.template.provider.ProfileContract;
import org.droidcon.apps.template.provider.ProfileProvider;

import android.content.ContentProvider;
import android.content.ContentValues;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.test.ProviderTestCase2;

public class ProfileProviderTest extends ProviderTestCase2<ProfileProvider> {

    public ProfileProviderTest() {
        super(ProfileProvider.class, ProfileProvider.class.getName());
    }

    protected void setUp() throws Exception {
        super.setUp();
    }


    /**
     * Very basic query test.
     * 
     * Prerequisites: 
     * <ul>
     * <li>A provider set up by the test framework
     * </ul>
     * 
     * Expectations: 
     * <ul>
     * <li> a simple query without any parameters, before any inserts returns a 
     * non-null cursor
     * <li> a wrong uri results in {@link IllegalArgumentException}
     * </ul>
     */
    public void testQuery(){
        ContentProvider provider = getProvider();

        Uri uri = ProfileContract.CONTENT_URI;

        Cursor cursor = provider.query(uri, null, null, null, null);

        assertNotNull(cursor);

        cursor = null;
        try {
            cursor = provider.query(Uri.parse("definitelywrong"), null, null, null, null);
            // we're wrong if we get until here!
            fail();
        } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
            assertTrue(true);
        }
    }
}