Populating Firefox OS with test content

Working on the Firefox OS automation, it’s often been necessary to populate a device with some sample content. For example, when measuring the launch time of the contacts app it’s more realistic if we already have a bunch of contacts on our phone. To solve this, I created a small Python package called b2gpopulate, which uses Web APIs and mozdevice to push various types of content to a device with Marionette enabled.

To install b2gpopulate you will need Python and can simply run pip install b2gpopulate from the command line. If you don’t have pip installed then you can also use easy_install b2gpopulate. Running b2gpopulate is pretty straightforward, however you will need to have a Firefox OS device connected that’s running Marionette, and you will need to forward port 2828 by running adb forward tcp:2828 tcp:2828. The following example will populate the connected device with 200 of each content type:

b2gpopulate --contacts=200 --messages=200 --pictures=200 --videos=200 --music=200

Note that before pushing a database the b2g process is stopped, so don’t panic if you see your device restarting. Run b2gpopulate --help for full usage instructions.

Contacts

Initially I used just the Contacts API to add/remove contacts from the device, but this is a pretty slow process, especially for a large number of contacts. After finding out about the reference workload that Gaia uses in its build I modified this to push a prebuilt database of contacts. This is then topped up using the Contacts API as needed. There are prebuilt databases for 200, 500, 1000, and 2000 contacts.

Messages

The most recent addition to b2gpopulate is messages. Like contacts, this pushes a prebuilt database of 200, 500, 1000, or 2000. Unlike the contacts, there is currently no option to top this up.

Pictures & Videos

This uses mozdevice to push a reference picture or video to the device and then performs a remote copy. In a future version I would like to alternate through a number of reference files so there’s some variance.

Music

This has changed in the version of b2gpopulate I released today. Previously it worked in exactly the same way as the pictures and videos, but because the metadata files doesn’t vary, the music app doesn’t distinguish between them. Now, the metadata is modified for each file using mutagen, and the album/artist is changed every ten tracks.

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I suspect there will be a need for more content types in the future. For example, we could potentially add events, alarms, history, favourites, bookmarks, emails, etc. If your interested in contributing, you can find the repository on GitHub.