hello, notdrone!

how can I help you today>

er, today?

hi! first time here. thanks a lot for holding the office hours.

sure!

I'm working on an app with a login screen

mostly, people only show up if they have specific questions to ask

OK

i want to unit test the screen

what all should i be testing?

i have tests for email validation & password validation?

should I be making calls to the server or simply mock the service layer?

um, I can't really tell you what you should be testing

in terms of the server, do you have a test server, or is it just the production server?

both

I usually test against a test server

versus mocks

test server on localhost?

possibly, or on something else

I have a Raspberry Pi that I use for some stuff

got it! so no need to test against the mock?

if you can cover all your tests without mocks, then you do not need mocks

so, it really depends on what you are testing and what the test server has in terms of data

if there are scenarios that you need to test, that the test server cannot handle, then you might need a mock for that

understood. Will try it out and report back in the next office hour.

thanks a lot!

you're welcome!

Hey Mark

Hi

hello, Mike!

how can I help you today?

quick question, I'm using GcmTaskService with OneoffTask. Is it possible to have two executing tasks in same time?

I have never used GcmTaskService, sorry

is there anything wrong with it?

something I should be aware of?

I try to avoid dependencies on Play Services where I can

I am using it to start processing some operations previously saved in db.

i am sending the operations to backend

calling API

and if you are already invested in Play Services, and you want to use GcmNetworkManager, you're certainly welcome to do so

I just haven't used it, so I have near-zero knowledge about it

for this scenario, what would be your other option instead of GcmTaskService?

JobScheduler, AlarmManager, or an API wrapping those up (e.g., Evernote's android-job library)

I see

android-job also happens to wrap GcmNetworkManager, IIRC, if you happen to have it in your project and are running on a Play ecosystem device

OK, thank you.

sorry that I didn't have anything for you on that

not a problem, thank you

arghh, not a chance for office hours next week?

sorry, but I'm on travel

I see, have a nice travel then.

I'll try to add one in the 7:30pm US Eastern slot, perhaps for Thursday

cool, thank you

any last questions?

OK, that's a wrap for today's chat

the next one will be Thursday at 7:30pm US Eastern

have a pleasant day!