Automated End‑to‑End Testing with Flutter Driver and Patrol

Introduction

Automated end-to-end testing (Flutter e2e testing) is critical to ensuring your Flutter app behaves correctly on real devices. While widget tests validate UI components in isolation, end-to-end tests simulate user interactions across your full stack. Flutter Driver provides a low-level protocol for driving the app, and Patrol builds on top of it to simplify cross-platform scenarios, multi-device orchestration, and built-in wait handling. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to set up both Flutter Driver and Patrol, author robust end-to-end tests, and integrate them into CI pipelines.

Setup and Configuration

First, add dependencies to your pubspec.yaml. Under dev_dependencies:

dev_dependencies:
  flutter_driver:
    sdk: flutter
  test: any
  patrol

Enable the Flutter Driver extension in your lib/main.dart (or a dedicated test_driver/app.dart):

import 'package:flutter_driver/driver_extension.dart';
import 'package:your_app/main.dart' as app;

void main() {
  enableFlutterDriverExtension();
  app.main();
}

Create a test entrypoint in test_driver/driver_test.dart:

import 'package:flutter_driver/flutter_driver.dart';
import 'package:test/test.dart';

void main() {
  FlutterDriver driver;

  setUpAll(() async {
    driver = await FlutterDriver.connect();
  });

  tearDownAll(() async {
    await driver.close();
  });

  // Tests go here
}

Implementing Driver Tests

Use Flutter Driver’s API to find widgets, tap, scroll, and read text. For example, testing a login flow:

test('login flow works', () async {
  final emailField = find.byValueKey('emailInput');
  final passwordField = find.byValueKey('passwordInput');
  final loginButton = find.byValueKey('loginButton');
  final welcomeText = find.byValueKey('welcomeMessage');

  await driver.tap(emailField);
  await driver.enterText('user@example.com');
  await driver.tap(passwordField);
  await driver.enterText('securePass');
  await driver.tap(loginButton);
  expect(await driver.getText(welcomeText), contains('Welcome'));
});

Use driver.setTextEntryEmulation if you need to disable keyboard animations.

Enhancing with Patrol

Patrol extends Flutter Driver by offering simplified waiting logic and cross-platform commands. Replace direct driver calls with Patrol’s fluent API. In test_driver/patrol_test.dart:

import 'package:patrol/patrol.dart';
import 'package:test/test.dart';

void main() {
  patrolTest('complete onboarding', ($) async {
    await $.pumpAndSettle();  
    await $(ByValueKey('getStarted')).tap();
    await $(ByType('ListView')).scroll(200, dy: -300);
    await $(ByValueKey('acceptTerms')).tap();
    expect(await $(ByValueKey('welcomeHeader')).text, 'Hello!');
  });
}

Patrol handles common pitfalls: flaky waits, platform differences, and dynamic element queries. It automatically instruments your app, so you don’t need to manually call enableFlutterDriverExtension().

CI Automation

To integrate Flutter e2e testing into CI, use a YAML configuration for GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or similar. Example for GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/e2e.yml):

name: E2E Tests
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  e2e:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    services:
      firebase: # optional emulators
        image: usa-docker.pkg.dev/firebase/emulators/emulator-firestore
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: subosito/flutter-action@v2
        with: sdk: 'stable'
      - name: Install dependencies
        run: flutter pub get
      - name: Build driver app
        run: flutter drive --target=test_driver/app.dart
      - name: Run Patrol tests
        run

Make sure to grant necessary AVD or device access. For GitLab CI, similar steps apply under script:.

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Conclusion

By combining Flutter Driver with Patrol, you gain powerful Flutter integration tests that simulate real-world user journeys across devices. Automated end-to-end testing catches regressions early and boosts confidence in each release.