Android emulator auto-select

[d4vidi]

Describe your idea

For the Google emulators case, which is the common case when using Detox (on Android), it is mandatory for the onboarding developer to run adb devices / check Android Studio / dig into the SaaS machine's setup in order to select the emulator Detox should run on. While more fail-proof, as a process, it is a bit clunky and probably helps over-complicate the already complex setup flow.

My proposal is that initially, Detox would be integrated (e.g. using detox init) such that the device to use would be in a special mode called auto - which would tell Detox to auot-select an emulator*, based on some logic:

"devices": {
  "android": {
    "type": "android.emulator",
    "device": {
+      "avdName": "auto",
    }
  }
}

Or, in a way, slightly more idiomatic:

"devices": {
  "android": {
    "type": "android.emulator",
+    "name": "auto",
  }
}

Alternatively, the default behavior could be selected in response to not having avd-name specifics in the configuration, so as to ease even further both the developer and our config parsing logic.

"devices": {
  "android": {
    "type": "android.emulator",
-    "device": {
-      "avdName": "auto"
-    }
  }
}

==> Implies 'auto'

This will have to come with a cost elsewhere, of course:

• Have detox test warn that an emulator has been auto-selected, explaining why (link to troubleshooting guide / setup section) and which specific emulator it chose.
• Extend the onboarding guide and detox init such that it would allow for modifying the emulator at a later step. For the detox init case - have it propose to do so interactively (i.e. have it run adb devices behind the scenes and prompt the user for a device selection, etc.).

---

* BTW, this is how Android (native) instrumentation testing works.

[GiovaniBiagi]

Any update on this point? I'm developing a small CLI to give the user the power to select available virtual devices. It's not a very pretty solution but it will have to be that way for now.