Is it possible to use MessagingCenter or Intents with Xamarin.UI tests?

Question

I am writing Xamarin.UI tests for my Xamarin.Forms application. I am wondering if it is possible to simulate messages from MessagingCenter with tests? Or maybe send an Intent that will be captured by the Android application?

I would like to simulate the inputs/outputs from some hardware, which is communicating it's status with MessagingCenter inside my application.

If anyone has encountered a similar situation or has determined that it is impossible to do this, I would be glad if they share their experience.

Many thanks :)

Answer 1

So, I have managed to achieve was I was looking for with a neat thing that I didn't know of until now -> Backdoor methods

I have added a backdoor method to my MainActivity.cs, which receives the hardware status from the UITests, and then sends it to my Forms application via MessagingCenter.

Backdoor method in MainActivity.cs:

[Export("BackdoorSendStatus")]
public void BackdoorSendStatus(string status)
{
    // In through the backdoor - do some work.
    MessagingCenter.Send(App.Instance, "StatusTopic", status);
}

Test case that uses this metod:

[Test]
public void Test_Backdoor()
{
    App.Invoke("BackdoorSendStatus", "OFFLINE");
    Thread.Sleep(5000);
    App.Invoke("BackdoorSendStatus", "ONLINE");
}