Automation tags lost with multidex - why?

Mobile Testing, Android App Testing.
Otter_T
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2015 5:33 pm

Automation tags lost with multidex - why?

Post by Otter_T » Thu Mar 14, 2019 5:27 pm

I have been working closely with a team of mobile developers to add unique automation identifiers to a fairly new Android app (less than a year old). The identifiers are populated in the ContentDescription field. Needless to say, this has made the process of building automated tests much easier.

The addition of several new features has pushed the app over the 65K method limit, so the latest version was built with multidex. In order to instrument this new version without errors, I had to add "-multidex" to the instrumentation flags. However, when looking at the new app version in Ranorex Spy, the ContentDescription values no longer match the previous non-multidexed version. I've attached screen shots of the same fields in Ranorex Spy before and after multidex. The developers swear they did not alter these values in any way, but what would cause them to change? Are there any additional instrumentation options that would restore these values?
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Otter_T
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2015 5:33 pm

Re: Automation tags lost with multidex - why?

Post by Otter_T » Thu Mar 14, 2019 5:29 pm

The "without multidex" screen shot (for some reason, it didn't attach to my 1st post):
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RobinHood42
Posts: 324
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2015 3:24 pm

Re: Automation tags lost with multidex - why?

Post by RobinHood42 » Fri Mar 15, 2019 3:27 pm

Hi,

You can try to use "-static -multidex". Or only the "-static" flag.

Cheers,
Robin