src/devices/tech/test_infra/tradefed/index.jd

page.title=Trade Federation Overview
@jd:body

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<p>TradeFederation (tradefed or TF for short) is a continuous test framework designed for running tests
on Android devices. Its a Java application which runs on a host computer, and communicates to one or
more Android devices using ddmlib (the library behind DDMS) over adb.</p>
<h2 id="features">Features</h2>
<ul>
<li>modular, flexible design</li>
<li>has built in support for running many different types of Android tests: instrumentation, native/gtest, host-based JUnit, etc</li>
<li>provides reliability and recovery mechanism on top of adb</li>
<li>supports scheduling and running tests on multiple devices in parallel</li>
</ul>
<h2 id="fundamentals">Fundamentals</h2>
<p>The lifecycle of a test executed using TradeFederation is composed of four separate stages, designed
around formally defined interfaces.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="bp.html">Build provider</a>: Provides a build to test, downloading appropriate files if necessary</li>
<li><a href="tp.html">Target preparer</a>: Prepares the test environment, e.g. software installation and setup</li>
<li><a href="test.html">Test</a>: Executes test(s) and gathers test results</li>
<li><a href="result.html">Result reporter</a>: Listens for test results, usually for the purpose of forwarding
  test results to a repository</li>
</ul>
<p>The fundamental entity in TradeFederation is a Configuration. A Configuration is an XML file that
declares the lifecycle components of a test.</p>
<p>This separation of the test's lifecycle is intended to allow for reuse.  Using this design, you can
create a Test, and then different Configurations to run it in different environments. For example,
you could create a Configuration that will run a test on your local machine, and dump the result to
stdout.  You could then create a second Configuration that would execute that same test, but use a
different Result reporter to store the test results in a database.</p>
<h3 id="additional-components-of-a-configuration">Additional components of a configuration</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="recovery.html">Device recovery</a>: mechanism to recover device communication if lost</li>
<li><a href="logger.html">Logger</a>: collects tradefed logging data</li>
</ul>
<p>A complete TradeFederation test execution, across its entire lifecycle, is referred to as an
Invocation.</p>