Running Java GUI tests on GitHub using xvfb

Question

I've got some basic automated GUI tests for my Java desktop application that work when running on my Windows desktop. On GitHub they fail with

java.awt.AWTError at X11GraphicsEnvironment.java:-2

I started from the default Java CI with Gradle workflow, and have added some steps attempting to set up xvfb so it has a display to work with, but it's still failing. Is there a way I can modify the workflow so that X11 is available for the tests?

name: Java CI with Gradle

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set up JDK 11
      uses: actions/setup-java@v2
      with:
        java-version: '11'
        distribution: 'adopt'
    - name: Set up virtual X11
      run: sudo apt-get install xvfb
    - name: Start virtual frame buffer
      run: Xvfb :19 -screen 0 1024x768x16 &
    - name: set display
      run: export DISPLAY=:19
    - name: Grant execute permission for gradlew
      run: chmod +x gradlew
    - name: Build with Gradle
      run: ./gradlew build

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 08 '21 at 04:41

I ended up splitting the GUI tests off using JUnit @Tags, and then adding separate gradle tasks:

task nonGuiTest(type: Test) {
    useJUnitPlatform {
        excludeTags 'gui'
    }
}

task guiTest(type: Test) {
    useJUnitPlatform {
        includeTags 'gui'
    }
}

then in the workflow

I run build -x test initially
then run the non-GUI tests
then use the GabrielBB/xvfb-action@v1 action to set up xvfb
then run the GUI tests

name: Java CI with Gradle

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  build:

    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set up JDK 11
      uses: actions/setup-java@v2
      with:
        java-version: '11'
        distribution: 'adopt'
    - name: Grant execute permission for gradlew
      run: chmod +x gradlew
    - name: Build with Gradle
      run: ./gradlew build -x test
    - name: headless tests
      run: ./gradlew nonGuiTest
    - name: GUI tests
      uses: GabrielBB/xvfb-action@v1
      with:
        run: ./gradlew guiTest

Running Java GUI tests on GitHub using xvfb

1 Answers1