How to test PeriodicWorkRequest sooner than MIN_PERIODIC_INTERVAL_MILLIS?

Question

In order to test the recurring work, I need to wait for a whole 15 minutes (reference) to test the recurrence and this is really not efficient. Is there a better and quicker way for developers to test this sooner?

Answer 1

You can test PeriodicWorkRequest sooner than MIN_PERIODIC_INTERVAL_MILLIS which is 15 minutes.

For this, you need WorkManagerTestInitHelper available in androidx.work.testing.

First of all add the following dependency in the build.gradle file for your app or module:

//Current stable release is 2.3.4
androidTestImplementation "androidx.work:work-testing:2.3.4

Next, you need to use setPeriodDelayMet method available with TestDriver which can be used to indicate that an interval is complete and executes PeriodicWorkRequest sooner than MIN_PERIODIC_INTERVAL_MILLIS (15 minutes). Sample code:

@Test
public void testPeriodicWork(Context context) throws Exception {
    // Setup input data
    Data input = new Data.Builder().put(KEY_1, 1).put(KEY_2, 2).build();

    // Create periodic work request
    PeriodicWorkRequest request = new PeriodicWorkRequest.Builder(MyWorker.class, 15,  TimeUnit.MINUTES)
                                       .setInputData(input)
                                       .build();
    // Enqueue periodic request
    WorkManager.getInstance(context).enqueueUniquePeriodicWork(WORKER_TAG, ExistingPeriodicWorkPolicy.REPLACE, request);

    // Initialize testDriver
    TestDriver testDriver = WorkManagerTestInitHelper.getTestDriver();

    // Tells the testing framework the period delay is met, this will execute your code in doWork() in MyWorker class
    testDriver.setPeriodDelayMet(request.getId());

}

You can find more information about testing PeriodicWorkRequest at https://developer.android.com/topic/libraries/architecture/workmanager/how-to/integration-testing#periodic-work

Learn more about testing WorkManager at https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/work/testing/WorkManagerTestInitHelper and https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/work/testing/TestDriver