problems when using "waitFor"

[irrigator]

I'm using the newest version of detox and RN and at first my test case looks like this:

await expect(element(by.id('status_text'))).toNotExist();
await element(by.id('fetch_status_button')).tap();
await expect(element(by.id('status_text'))).toHaveText('status: 200');

Problem 1: The tap action will trigger a network request and when that request succeeds the UI will show a Text component containing "status: 200". According to the doc of waitFor, "In most cases, tests should be automatically synchronized with the app.", it seems to me here I can use expect instead of waitFor and the runner will wait for the request to complete. However, it doesn't and the test case fails. So I change expect to waitFor.

Problem 2: This time it does wait for the request. However, I get "TypeError: waitFor(...).toHaveText is not a function". If I change toHaveText to toBeVisible, everything works! So I guess maybe waitFor does not work with toHaveText yet?

[irrigator]

Update

Seems like waitFor will pass any expectation! I change that code to

await expect(element(by.id('status_text'))).toNotExist();
await element(by.id('fetch_status_button')).tap();
await expect(element(by.id('whatever'))).toBeVisible();

And it passes!

[talkol]

Several things.

1. I'm not 100% sure the latest 44 works well. There's a new issue from yesterday about it. Can you try for now with RN 40 just to make sure until 44 is officially supported?

2. In your updated example, the code doesn't have waitFor. It has expect. Are you sure you pasted the correct code?

3. With waitFor, the syntax should not be:

await waitFor(element(by.id('whatever'))).toBeVisible();

It should be:

await waitFor(element(by.id('whatever'))).toBeVisible().withTimeout(2000);

I agree that it's confusing because people forget the waitTimeout at the end. We'll change the syntax so it's easier to understand.

[rotemmiz]

I confirmed that RN 0.44 broke text/label matching in detox. We're on it, trying to fix. ID matching should work anyway.

Your examples don't use waitFor, they use expect , can you please fix them according to @talkol's suggestion and see if it the error persists?

[irrigator]

@talkol @rotemmiz Thanks for your answers! Maybe I didn't make point clear. I do use waitFor after expect fails. The problem with waitFor is that it will pass any random matcher.

[rotemmiz]

Hey @irrigator.
We have updated the documentation and (hopefully) made it clearer.
Please check https://github.com/wix/detox/blob/master/docs/APIRef.waitFor.md again.

BTW, RN44 is now supported in detox@5.0.9

[jeduden]

@rotemmiz Looked at the docs of waitFor withTimeout. should it raise an exception if the timeout expires and the condition hasn't been met ?
This case doesn't seem to be covered in the cases here :

• https://github.com/wix/detox/blob/master/detox/test/e2e/e-waitfor.js

[rotemmiz]

Hey @jeduden,
You're right, waitFor doesn't raise anything.
This is due to am implementation constraint that we have with wrapping the original EarlGrey waitWithTimeout API. We recently updated the manual sync docs, and there is now a clearer explanation on what it actually does (and what it doesn't)

[jeduden]

@rotemmiz in the earl grey docs. the docs are specifying that NO is returned in this case. Is this also the case for withTimeout ? i.e. impossibleCondition().withTimeout(2000) === false ?

[rotemmiz]

@jeduden no, we return nothing currently, I know it's broken, but until we have a small refactor in that area we can't return this value.

[simonracz]

#218