appium - how to get background color of an element in native android app

Question

Am trying to automate the app using appium. How to get the background color of an element in the Android app.

I tried using

element.getCssValue("background-color")

but I facing below exception:

java.lang.ClassCastException: com.google.common.collect.Maps$TransformedEntriesMap cannot be cast to java.lang.String at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebElement.getCssValue(RemoteWebElement.java:167) at io.appium.java_client.DefaultGenericMobileElement.getCssValue(DefaultGenericMobileElement.java:177) at io.appium.java_client.MobileElement.getCssValue(MobileElement.java:1) at io.appium.java_client.android.AndroidElement.getCssValue(AndroidElement.java:1) at com.mahindracomviva.digibanktest.tests.corecontrollers.DynamicControlsTest.validateThemeColor(DynamicControlsTest.java:130) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod$1.runReflectiveCall(FrameworkMethod.java:50) at org.junit.internal.runners.model.ReflectiveCallable.run(ReflectiveCallable.java:12) at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.invokeExplosively(FrameworkMethod.java:47) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.InvokeMethod.evaluate(InvokeMethod.java:17) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:26) at org.junit.internal.runners.statements.RunAfters.evaluate(RunAfters.java:27) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.runLeaf(ParentRunner.java:325) at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:78) at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.runChild(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:57) 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.internal.runners.statements.RunBefores.evaluate(RunBefores.java:26) at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.run(ParentRunner.java:363) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit4.runner.JUnit4TestReference.run(JUnit4TestReference.java:86) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.TestExecution.run(TestExecution.java:38) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:538) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.runTests(RemoteTestRunner.java:760) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.run(RemoteTestRunner.java:460) at org.eclipse.jdt.internal.junit.runner.RemoteTestRunner.main(RemoteTestRunner.java:206)

Answer 1

1. Native elements does not have css properties. You cannot use this method on native app elements.

2. You can only use this method getCssValue() when your context is webview.

Answer 2

Appium does not directly support getting the background colour.

You can try a workaround such as the one described here:

MobileElement elem = (MobileElement) driver.findElement(By.id("loginButton"));

org.openqa.selenium.Point point = elem.getCenter();
int centerX = point.getX();
int centerY = point.getY();

File scrFile = ((TakesScreenshot)driver).getScreenshotAs(OutputType.FILE);

BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(scrFile);
// Getting pixel color by position x and y 
int clr = image.getRGB(centerX,centerY); 
int red   = (clr & 0x00ff0000) >> 16;
int green = (clr & 0x0000ff00) >> 8;
int blue  =  clr & 0x000000ff;
System.out.println("Red Color value = "+ red);
System.out.println("Green Color value = "+ green);
System.out.println("Blue Color value = "+ blue);