Replicate pull to refresh in XCTest UI testing

Question

I am trying to replicate a pull to refresh on a UITableView using the new Xcode UI testing framework in Xcode 7 (beta 3)

My current approach is dragging from the table to whatever element below the table I can find. This works when there is a fixed item below the table like a UIToolbar or UITabBar I would rather not rely on having a UITabBar or UIToolbar but I can't figure out a way to do the pull to refresh/drag action without using the method in XCUIElement.

func pressForDuration(duration: NSTimeInterval, thenDragToElement otherElement: XCUIElement) 

But it fails when I don't have a toolbar/tabbar and try to drag using the cells

This is the relevant portion of my code:

func testRefresh() {     //For testing cell     for _ in 0...9 {         addCell()     }     refreshTable() }  func refreshTable(var tbl: XCUIElement? = nil) {     let app = XCUIApplication()      if tbl == nil {         let tables = app.tables         if tables.count > 0 {             tbl = tables.elementAtIndex(0)         }     }      guard let table = tbl else {         XCTFail("Cannot find a table to refresh, you can provide on explicitly if you do have a table")         return     }      var topElement = table     let bottomElement: XCUIElement?      //Try to drag to a tab bar then to a toolbar then to the last cell     if app.tabBars.count > 0 {         bottomElement = app.tabBars.elementAtIndex(0)     }     else if app.toolbars.count > 0 {         bottomElement = app.toolbars.elementAtIndex(0)     }     else {         let cells = app.cells         if cells.count > 0 {             topElement = cells.elementAtIndex(0)             bottomElement = cells.elementAtIndex(cells.count - 1)         }         else {             bottomElement = nil         }     }     if let dragTo = bottomElement {         topElement.pressForDuration(0.1, thenDragToElement: dragTo)     } }  func addCell() {     let app = XCUIApplication()     app.navigationBars["Master"].buttons["Add"].tap() } 

Additional failed attempts:

• swipeDown() (multiples times as well)
• scrollByDeltaX/deltaY (OS X only)

Answer 1

You can use the XCUICoordinate API to interact with specific points on the screen, not necessarily tied to any particular element.

1. Grab a reference to the first cell in your table. Then create a coordinate with zero offset, CGVectorMake(0, 0). This will normalize a point right on top of the first cell.
2. Create an imaginary coordinate farther down the screen. (I've found that a dy of six is the smallest amount needed to trigger the pull-to-refresh gesture.)
3. Execute the gesture by grabbing the first coordinate and dragging it to the second one.

let firstCell = app.staticTexts["Adrienne"] let start = firstCell.coordinateWithNormalizedOffset(CGVectorMake(0, 0)) let finish = firstCell.coordinateWithNormalizedOffset(CGVectorMake(0, 6)) start.pressForDuration(0, thenDragToCoordinate: finish) 

More information along with a working sample app is also available.