How to detect if iOS app is running in UI Testing mode

Solution 1:

I've been researching this myself and came across this question. I ended up going with @LironYahdav's first workaround:

In your UI test:

- (void)setUp
{
    [super setUp];

    XCUIApplication *app = [[XCUIApplication alloc] init];
    app.launchEnvironment = @{@"isUITest": @YES};
    [app launch];
}

In your app:

NSDictionary *environment = [[NSProcessInfo processInfo] environment];
if (environment[@"isUITest"]) {
    // Running in a UI test
}

@JoeMasilotti's solutions are useful for unit tests, because they share the same runtime as the app being tested, but are not relevant for UI tests.

Solution 2:

I didn't succeed with setting a launch environment, but got it to work with launch arguments.

In your tests setUp() function add:

let app = XCUIApplication()
app.launchArguments = ["testMode"]
app.launch()

In your production code add a check like:

let testMode =  NSProcessInfo.processInfo().arguments.contains("testMode")
if testMode {
  // Do stuff
}

Verified using Xcode 7.1.1.

Solution 3:

You can use Preprocessor Macros for this. I found that you have couple of choices:

New Target

Make a copy of the App's target and use this as the Target to be Tested. Any preproocessor macro in this target copy is accessible in code.

One drawback is you will have to add new classes / resources to the copy target as well and sometimes it very easy to forget.

New Build Configuration

Make a duplicate of the Debug build configuration , set any preprocessor macro to this configuration and use it for your test (See screenshots below).

A minor gotcha: whenever you want to record a UI Testing session you need to change the Run to use the new testing configuration.

Add a duplicate configuration:

Add a duplicate conf

Use it for your Test:

Use it for your *Test*