More information

The automate toolkit was designed to be easily extensible. Its components were developed as generic as possible to enable a platform independent usage of certain parts for future use. The components of the Android specific implementation can be seen in Figure 3.

automate components — Figure 3. Components of the (Android specific) automate toolkit.

This five components are separated into five repositories (see build @home), with their dependencies depicted in Figure 4.

automate repository dependencies — Figure 4. Dependencies within the automate repositories.

Managers

Managers are used to gather data (e.g. device or interaction information, …) and convert them into different kinds of structured data that can be analysed later. In order to get access to the data, a manager or a couple of them have a corresponding file export handler, which will create structured CSV files from the internal data representation. The following sections go into the details of the managers that are already included in the automate toolkit. The details include a short description as well as data they gather and how the exported data will be structured.
All structured CSV files have a number of general columns (deviceId, sessionId, sequenceNr, projectId and appVersion), which are described in the following.

Field	Content type
deviceId	String (see ANDROID_ID)
sessionId	UUID
sequenceNr	Number (unique per session)
projectId	UUID (optional)
appVersion	Number (see android:versionCode)

App Sequence Manager

Listens for events of app screen visit changes and app interactions (clicks, scrolls, …), and creates a structured XML document out of one session. A session starts when the screen is turned on and the device returns from sleep mode, and it lasts until the device returns to sleep mode again (which usually means the display is off again) or when the device is turned off completely.

Data fetching strategy	Event-based
Update frequency	Not applicable

XML structure

    <session>
    <appUsage packageName="…" name="…" startTime="…">
    <state name="…" className="…" duration="…" interactionCount="…" orientation="…"/>
    </appUsage>
    </session>

The session is just the outer tag to have a single root. Every time an app is opened, there is an appUsage tag with the packageName of the package and the startTime as a timestamp. Inside every appUsage there's a list of state tags which stand for a change in the view (usually Android Activity). They include the name and className of the view if returned by the Android accessibility environment as well as the duration, device orientation and interactionCount in that state.

CSV Export (appsequence.csv)

Field	Content type
timestamp	Unix timestamp
xml	XML string

Widget Interaction Manager

Collects the different interaction events for the current screen. A screen is usually a view like the Android Activity. Interactions are characterized by the interaction type (click, scroll, long click, context click, selected), class name and text, as well as a content description if available. Additional information are the time the interaction occurred as well as the screen bounds of the widget that was interacted on. Due to restrictions on Android, some data can be missing.

Data fetching strategy	Event-based
Update frequency	Not applicable

CSV Export (appinteraction.csv)

Field	Content type
className	Text
contentDescription	Text
eventTime	Unix timestamp
interactionClassName	Text
interactionEventTime	Unix timestamp
interactionText	Text
interactionType	Text (Click, Long Click, Selected, …)
orientation	Number (compare with Android documentation)
packageName	Text
parentBoundsBottom	Number
parentBoundsLeft	Number
parentBoundsRight	Number
parentBoundsTop	Number
screenBoundsBottom	Number
screenBoundsLeft	Number
screenBoundsRight	Number
screenBoundsTop	Number
title	Text
viewIdResourceName	Text (compare with Android documentation)

Network Info Manager

This manager waits for changes to the network connection and updates the information accordingly. The relevant data is the network type and subtype that Android reports as well as a flag if the network connection is roaming or not.

Data fetching strategy	Event-based
Update frequency	Not applicable

CSV Export (networkinfo.csv)

Field	Content type
duration	Length in milliseconds
isRoaming	Boolean
startTime	Unix timestamp
subType	Number (compare with Android documentation)
type	Number (compare with Android documentation)

Device Info Manager

Collects the basic device information that rarely changes, like device name and carrier, OS version, resolution, SIM card country and locale.

Data fetching strategy	Poll
Update frequency	On session start

CSV Export (deviceorientation.csv)

Field	Content type
date	Unix timestamp
device	Text
localeCountry	Text
localeLanguage	Text
location	Text
operator	Text
OS	Text
resolutionHeight	Number
resolutionWidth	Number
timezoneOffset	Number
versionName	Text

Battery Info Manager

Whenever the Android battery system manager reports changes to the battery status, this manager compares and updates the stored data, if deemed relevant.

Data fetching strategy	Event-based
Update frequency	Not applicable

CSV Export (batteryinfo.csv)

Field	Content type
duration	Number
health	Number (compare with Android documentation)
isPresent	Boolean (compare with Android documentation)
level	Number (compare with Android documentation)
plugged	Number (compare with Android documentation)
scale	Number (compare with Android documentation)
startTime	Unix timestamp
status	Number (compare with Android documentation)
technology	Text (compare with Android documentation)
temperature	Number (compare with Android documentation)
voltage	Number (compare with Android documentation)

Light Condition Manager

Receives updates from the sensor manager and records changes to the classification of the light condition based on a publication by DisplayMate.

Data fetching strategy	Event-based
Update frequency	Depends on the delay of the sensor manager

CSV Export (lightcondition.csv)

Field	Content type
classification	Number (according to DisplayMate)
endTime	Unix timestamp
startTime	Unix timestamp

Orientation Change Manager

Stores the amount of time the device was in one of the possible screen orientations.

Data fetching strategy	Event-based
Update frequency	Not applicable

CSV Export (deviceorientation.csv)

Field	Content type
endTime	Unix timestamp
orientation	Number (compare with Android documentation)
startTime	Unix timestamp