Robolectric: IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity

Question

I'm new to Robolectric and instrumentation testing in general on Android. I followed along the guide for Robolectric for testing my first test. However I'm getting:

java.lang.IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.

I searched for the error, but no solution is helping. I'm including everything that could cause this error.

Gradle:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application' apply plugin: 'com.neenbedankt.android-apt' //needed for source code generation apply plugin: 'jacoco' apply plugin: 'de.mobilej.unmock'  android {     compileSdkVersion 22     buildToolsVersion "22.0.1"      testOptions {         unitTests.returnDefaultValues = true     }      defaultConfig {         applicationId "#######"         minSdkVersion 15         targetSdkVersion 22         testHandleProfiling true         testFunctionalTest true         versionCode 1         versionName "1.0"     }     buildTypes {         debug{             testCoverageEnabled false         }         release {             minifyEnabled false             proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.pro'         }     }      lintOptions {         abortOnError false     }      jacoco {         version "0.7.1.201405082137"     }      packagingOptions {         exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES.txt'         exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'         exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE.txt'         exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'         exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'         exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES'         exclude 'META-INF/notice.txt'         exclude 'META-INF/license.txt'         exclude 'META-INF/dependencies.txt'         exclude 'META-INF/LGPL2.1'         exclude 'META-INF/services/javax.annotation.processing.Processor'         exclude 'LICENSE.txt'     }      jacoco {         version "0.7.1.201405082137"     } }  def coverageSourceDirs = [         '../app/src/main/java' ]  unMock {     // URI to download the android-all.jar from. e.g. https://oss.sonatype.org/content/groups/public/org/robolectric/android-all/     allAndroid =             'https://oss.sonatype.org/content/groups/public/org/robolectric/android-all/4.3_r2-robolectric-0/android-all-4.3_r2-robolectric-0.jar'      // classes to keep     // matched by "startsWith" - you also need to include the dependencies manually     // if you start with an "-" the class will match by "equals" (and it will additionally  match     // inner classes of this class)     keep = [             "android.view.LayoutInflater",             "android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity"     ] }  dependencies {     compile fileTree(dir: 'libs', include: ['*.jar'])     compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.2.1'     compile 'com.android.support:recyclerview-v7:22.0.+'     compile 'com.android.support:cardview-v7:22.0.+'      //Easy parsing JSON to POJO and vice versa     compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.3.1'      //Photo's from URL to ImageView     compile 'com.squareup.picasso:picasso:2.5.2'      //REST API into an interface     compile 'com.squareup.retrofit:retrofit:1.9.0'      //Dependency Injection     compile 'com.google.dagger:dagger:2.0.1'     apt 'com.google.dagger:dagger-compiler:2.0.1'     provided 'org.glassfish:javax.annotation:10.0-b28'     compile 'com.jakewharton:butterknife:7.0.1'      //Realm     compile 'io.realm:realm-android:0.82.1'      //RxAndroid (old version)     compile 'io.reactivex:rxandroid:0.24.0'      testCompile 'org.mockito:mockito-core:1.10.19'      //Powermock     testCompile ('org.powermock:powermock-api-mockito:1.6.2'){         exclude group: 'org.mockito'     }     testCompile 'org.powermock:powermock-module-junit4:1.6.2'      //Testing Framework     //compile 'org.mockito:mockito-core:2.0.31-beta'     testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'      //Robolectric     testCompile "org.robolectric:robolectric:2.4" } 

Manifest:

<uses-sdk         android:minSdkVersion="15"         android:targetSdkVersion="22" /> <application         android:allowBackup="true"         android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"         android:label="@string/app_name"         android:theme="@style/AppTheme" >         <activity             android:name=".ui.MainActivity"             android:label="@string/title">             <intent-filter>                 <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />                 <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />             </intent-filter>         </activity> </application> 

values/styles.xml

<!-- Base application theme. --> <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">     <!-- colorPrimary is used for the default action bar background -->     <item name="colorPrimary">@color/colorPrimary</item>     <!-- colorPrimaryDark is used for the status bar -->     <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>     <!-- colorAccent is used as the default value for colorControlActivated,      which is used to tint widgets -->     <item name="colorAccent">@color/accent</item>      <!-- set the application's background color -->     <item name="android:colorBackground">@color/icons</item> </style> 

MainActivity.java

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity{     //implementation } 

MainActivityTest.java

@RunWith(RobolectricTestRunner.class) public class MainActivityRoboTest {      @Test     public void test_onCreate_RecyclerViewShouldBeAvailable() throws Exception {         MainActivity activity = Robolectric.setupActivity(MainActivity.class);         RecyclerView r = (RecyclerView) activity.findViewById(R.id.rv);     } } 

Edit

Full Stacktrace

java.lang.IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.     at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplBase.onCreate(AppCompatDelegateImplBase.java:124)     at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatDelegateImplV7.onCreate(AppCompatDelegateImplV7.java:146)     at android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity.onCreate(AppCompatActivity.java:59)     at ui.MainActivity.onCreate(MainActivity.java:38)     at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:5008)     at org.robolectric.internal.ReflectionHelpers$3.run(ReflectionHelpers.java:64)     at org.robolectric.internal.ReflectionHelpers.traverseClassHierarchy(ReflectionHelpers.java:114)     at org.robolectric.internal.ReflectionHelpers.callInstanceMethodReflectively(ReflectionHelpers.java:59)     at org.robolectric.util.ActivityController$1.run(ActivityController.java:115)     at org.robolectric.shadows.ShadowLooper.runPaused(ShadowLooper.java:268)     at org.robolectric.util.ActivityController.create(ActivityController.java:111)     at org.robolectric.util.ActivityController.create(ActivityController.java:122)     at org.robolectric.util.ActivityController.setup(ActivityController.java:202)     at org.robolectric.Robolectric.setupActivity(Robolectric.java:1388)     at ui.MainActivityRoboTest.test_onCreate_RecyclerViewShouldBeAvailable(MainActivityRoboTest.java:21)     at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:50)     at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12)     at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:47)     at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17)     at org.robolectric.RobolectricTestRunner$2.evaluate(RobolectricTestRunner.java:236)     at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:325)     at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:78)     at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:57)     at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:290)     at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:71)     at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:288)     at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:58)     at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:268)     at org.robolectric.RobolectricTestRunner$1.evaluate(RobolectricTestRunner.java:158)     at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363)     at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:137)     at com.intellij.rt.execution.application.AppMain.main(AppMain.java:140) 

Answer 1

I've just fixed same issue, and my workaround was this:

create a dummy Application and set theme inside onCreate():

public class TestApplication extends Application {      @Override     public void onCreate() {         super.onCreate();         setTheme(R.style.AppTheme); //or just R.style.Theme_AppCompat     } } 

then inside the test you specify the application class in config:

@RunWith(RobolectricTestRunner.class) @Config(application = TestApplication.class) public class YourActivityTest {     //tests } 

Answer 2

I faced that issue when I wanted to start a fragment that had appBar in its layout.

Below approach worked for me.

        launchFragmentInContainer<ProfileSettingsFragment>(themeResId = R.style.AppTheme).moveToState(Lifecycle.State.RESUMED)