delay espresso cannot handle - unit-testing

Question

For testing software with Google Espresso test-framework I have following issue:
At start of the program, a splash screen starts and initialises the entire application. After this, I start an Activity which asks for input.
In Espresso, the application starts and the test starts with following code:
onView(withId(R.id.chooseBookTitle)).perform(click());
This crashes, because the display still shows the splash screen and the chooseBookTitle is only visible afterwards. How to prevent that Google-Espresso will click the key before it is there?
(I don't want to insert wait loops, but keep it event driven. In worse case, I go back to Robotium)

Answer 1

Please check the IdlingResource interface:
As mentioned by Stefano Dacchille (see sample below) you must create an idling ressource implementation that waits to become idle:
public class WaitForSomethingResource implements IdlingResource {
ResourceCallback mResourceCallback;
private boolean isIdle;
#Override
public String getName() {
return WaitForSomethingResource.class.getName();
}
#Override
public void registerIdleTransitionCallback(
ResourceCallback resourceCallback) {
mResourceCallback = resourceCallback;
}
#Override
public boolean isIdleNow() {
return isIdle;
}
/**
* Register an listener, use an event bus or something
* else to get notified about any change you want to track.
*/
public void onProgressChanged() {
isIdle = true;
if (isIdle && mResourceCallback != null) {
mResourceCallback.onTransitionToIdle();
}
}
}
After that, you have to register the IdlingResource implementation within the tests setUp() or #before method by writing:
Espresso.registerIdlingResource(waitForSomethingResource)
Sample:
http://dev.jimdo.com/2014/05/09/wait-for-it-a-deep-dive-into-espresso-s-idling-resources/
API Doc:
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/test/espresso/IdlingResource.html#isIdleNow()

Answer 2

From what I see, you should open directly the activity that contains R.id.chooseBookTitle, otherwise your view will never be on the screen so your test will always fail because Espresso can't find the specified view.
Otherwise, I use Thread.sleep(...) before I do some tests to make the tests wait. Try it before calling onView(withId(R.id.chooseBookTitle)).perform(click()); and see if it's working.
Good luck!