How to use VisibleForTesting for pure JUnit tests

Question

I´m running pure JUnit4 java tests over my pure java files on my project but I can't find a way to use @VisibleForTesting clearly without making the thing manually public.

Ex:

@VisibleForTesting public Address getAddress() {   return mAddress; } 

The method has to be public to let it be "public" to tests, but in that case the annotation doesn't make sense right? why not just use a comment if the annotation will not do nothing?

Answer 1

Make the method package-private and the test will be able to see it, if the test is in the corresponding test package (same package name as the production code).

@VisibleForTesting Address getAddress() {   return mAddress; } 

Also consider refactoring your code so you don't need to explicitly test a private method, try testing the behaviour of a public interface. Code that is hard to test can be an indication that improvements can be made to production code.

The point of an annotation is that its convention and could be used in static code analysis, whereas a comment could not.

Answer 2

According to the Android docs:

You can optionally specify what the visibility should have been if not for testing; this allows tools to catch unintended access from within production code.

Example:

@VisibleForTesting(otherwise = VisibleForTesting.PRIVATE) public Address getAddress()