uiautomator-v18:2.1.2 -> UiObject2.setText() fails on APK <= 19 if the current TextBox is empty

[yuypa]

On Android APK <= 19, UiAutomator up to 2.1.2 fails with the when
UiObject2 txtField = getEditTextByAnyMeans();
txtField.setText("blah");

the reason is quite simple ( UiObject2.java:601 ):

        CharSequence currentText = node.getText();
        if (!text.equals(currentText)) {
            ...
            if (!node.performAction(AccessibilityNodeInfo.ACTION_SET_SELECTION, args) &&
                    currentText.length() > 0) {
                // TODO: Decide if we should throw here
                Log.w(TAG, "AccessibilityNodeInfo#performAction(ACTION_SET_SELECTION) failed");
            }

node.getText() is returning null and currentText is null , and "currentText.length()" is causing the app to crash.

bellow is the stack trace:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at android.support.test.uiautomator.UiObject2.setText(UiObject2.java:601)
at com.example.LoginTestCase.testLogin(LoginTestCase.java:33)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:525)
at android.test.InstrumentationTestCase.runMethod(InstrumentationTestCase.java:214)
at android.test.InstrumentationTestCase.runTest(InstrumentationTestCase.java:199)
at junit.framework.TestCase.runBare(TestCase.java:134)
at junit.framework.TestResult$1.protect(TestResult.java:115)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.junit3.AndroidTestResult.runProtected(AndroidTestResult.java:77)
at junit.framework.TestResult.run(TestResult.java:118)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.junit3.AndroidTestResult.run(AndroidTestResult.java:55)
at junit.framework.TestCase.run(TestCase.java:124)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.junit3.NonLeakyTestSuite$NonLeakyTest.run(NonLeakyTestSuite.java:63)
at junit.framework.TestSuite.runTest(TestSuite.java:243)
at junit.framework.TestSuite.run(TestSuite.java:238)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.junit3.DelegatingTestSuite.run(DelegatingTestSuite.java:103)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.junit3.AndroidTestSuite.run(AndroidTestSuite.java:69)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.junit3.JUnit38ClassRunner.run(JUnit38ClassRunner.java:90)
at org.junit.runners.Suite.runChild(Suite.java:128)
at org.junit.runners.Suite.runChild(Suite.java:27)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$3.run(ParentRunner.java:290)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$1.schedule(ParentRunner.java:71)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runChildren(ParentRunner.java:288)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.access$000(ParentRunner.java:58)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner$2.evaluate(ParentRunner.java:268)
at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363)
at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:137)
at org.junit.runner.JUnitCore.run(JUnitCore.java:115)
at android.support.test.internal.runner.TestExecutor.execute(TestExecutor.java:54)
at android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner.onStart(AndroidJUnitRunner.java:240)
at android.app.Instrumentation$InstrumentationThread.run(Instrumentation.java:1701)

[slinzner]

Can you please file a bug for the support library under: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/entry?template=Test%20Support%20Library%20bug