Qt Quick Test

Introduction

Qt Quick Test is a unit test framework for QML applications. Test cases are written as JavaScript functions within a TestCase type:

import QtQuick 2.3
import QtTest 1.0

TestCase {
    name: "MathTests"

    function test_math() {
        compare(2 + 2, 4, "2 + 2 = 4")
    }

    function test_fail() {
        compare(2 + 2, 5, "2 + 2 = 5")
    }
}

Functions whose names start with test_ are treated as test cases to be executed. See the documentation for the TestCase and SignalSpy types for more information on writing test cases.

Using the Module

QML API

The QML types in Qt Quick Test are available through the QtTest import. To use the types, add the following import statement to your .qml file:

import QtTest

C++ API

Using the C++ API requires linking against the module library, either directly or through other dependencies. Several build tools have dedicated support for this, including CMake and qmake.

Building with CMake

Use the find_package() command to locate the needed module components in the Qt6 package:

find_package(Qt6 COMPONENTS QuickTest REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(mytarget PRIVATE Qt6::QuickTest)

See also the Build with CMake overview.

Building with qmake

There are two ways to link against the corresponding C++ library. If your test project uses a QML TestCase, you should already have the following line in your project file:

CONFIG += qmltestcase

This will cause the test to link to the C++ QtQuickTest library.

If you have a C++-only test project, you can add the following line to your project file:

QT += qmltest

Running Tests

Test cases are launched by a C++ harness that consists of the following code:

#include <QtQuickTest>
QUICK_TEST_MAIN(example)

Where "example" is the identifier to use to uniquely identify this set of tests. Finally, add CONFIG += qmltestcase to the project file:

TEMPLATE = app
TARGET = tst_example
CONFIG += warn_on qmltestcase
SOURCES += tst_example.cpp

The test harness scans the specified source directory recursively for "tst_*.qml" files. If QUICK_TEST_SOURCE_DIR is not defined, then the current directory will be scanned when the harness is run. Other *.qml files may appear for auxillary QML components that are used by the test.

The -input command-line option can be set at runtime to run test cases from a different directory. This may be needed to run tests on a target device where the compiled-in directory name refers to a host. For example:

tst_example -input /mnt/SDCard/qmltests

It is also possible to run a single file using the -input option. For example:

tst_example -input data/test.qml

tst_example -input <full_path>/test.qml

If your test case needs QML imports, then you can add them as -import options to the test program command-line.

If IMPORTPATH is specified in your .pro file, each import path added to IMPORTPATH will be passed as a command-line argument when the test is run using "make check":

IMPORTPATH += $$PWD/../imports/my_module1 $$PWD/../imports/my_module2

The -functions command-line option will return a list of the current tests functions. It is possible to run a single test function using the name of the test function as an argument. For example:

tst_example Test_Name::function1

The -help command-line option will return all the options available.

tst_example -help

Executing C++ Before QML Tests

To execute C++ code before any of the QML tests are run, the QUICK_TEST_MAIN_WITH_SETUP macro can be used. This can be useful for setting context properties on the QML engine, amongst other things.

The macro is identical to QUICK_TEST_MAIN, except that it takes an additional QObject* argument. The test framework will call slots and invokable functions with the following names:

Name	Purpose	Since
void applicationAvailable()	Called right after the QApplication object was instantiated. Use this function to perform setup that does not require a QQmlEngine instance.	Qt 5.12
void qmlEngineAvailable(QQmlEngine *)	Called when the QML engine is available. Any import paths, plugin paths, and extra file selectors will have been set on the engine by this point. This function is called once for each QML test file, so any arguments are unique to that test. For example, this means that each QML test file will have its own QML engine. This function can be used to register QML types and add import paths, amongst other things.	Qt 5.11
void cleanupTestCase()	Called right after the test execution has finished. Use this function to clean up before everything will start to be destructed.	Qt 5.12

The following example demonstrates how the macro can be used to set context properties on the QML engine:

// src_qmltest_qquicktest.cpp
#include <QtQuickTest>
#include <QQmlEngine>
#include <QQmlContext>

class Setup : public QObject
{
    Q_OBJECT

public:
    Setup() {}

public slots:
    void qmlEngineAvailable(QQmlEngine *engine)
    {
        engine->rootContext()->setContextProperty("myContextProperty", QVariant(true));
    }
};

QUICK_TEST_MAIN_WITH_SETUP(mytest, Setup)

#include "src_qmltest_qquicktest.moc"

The .moc include is based on the file name of the .cpp file. For example, in the example above, the .cpp file is named src_qmltest_qquicktest.cpp. If the file was named MyTest.cpp, the include would be:

#include "MyTest.moc"

Reference

• QML Types
• C++ API

Licenses

Qt Quick Tests is available under commercial licenses from The Qt Company. In addition, it is available under free software licenses. Since Qt 5.4, these free software licenses are GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3, or the GNU General Public License, version 2. See Qt Licensing for further details.