UIImpersonator tests work in FlashBuilder, but not when run from Ant

Question

I'm in the process of converting a Flex 3 project to use FlexUnit4 tests.
Everything compiles in Flashbuilder 4.5 and runs nicely. I've converted all the tests
to use flexunit 4, which highlighted a few issues, but nothing too major, and all the
tests now pass when run in Flashbuilder.
So... now, I'm trying to convert the CI build to use the 4.5 SDK and flexunit4. So far,
so good. Everything runs and I get a nicely formatted JUnit report. Unfortunately, though,
any test that uses the UIImpersonator fails with an async method timeout, suggesting that
the CreationComplete event hasn't fired.
Here's a typical example of one of my UI test cases:
          [Test(async, ui)]
          public function testAvailableProductsSetupAdminForSell() : void {
               var view:OrderBasketView = new OrderBasketView();
               var user:CfxUser = new CfxUser();
               user.admin = true;
               ModelLocator.instance.userDetails = user;
               view.buyOrSell = OrderType.SELL;
               helper.createComponentAndAddListener(view, this, availableProductSetupAdminForSellCreationComplete);
          private function availableProductSetupAdminForSellCreationComplete(event:Event, view:OrderBasketView) : void {
               Assert.assertTrue(view.availableProductTypes.contains(ProductType.PRODUCT_1));
               Assert.assertTrue(view.availableProductTypes.contains(ProductType.PRODUCT_2));
               Assert.assertTrue(view.availableProductTypes.contains(ProductType.PRODUCT_3));
and helper.createComponentAndAddListener looks like this:
        public function createComponentAndAddListener(view:UIComponent, testCase:Object, creationComplete:Function) : void {
               _view = view;
               _view.addEventListener(FlexEvent.CREATION_COMPLETE, Async.asyncHandler(testCase, creationComplete, 4000, _view));
               UIImpersonator.addChild(_view);
If I use FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.parent.addChild(_view) in place of UIImpersonator.addChild(_view), all the tests pass.
I was wondering if it's a function of the fact that my helper class has no metadata that indicates it's a ui test, but that wouldn't explain why it works in FlashBuilder and not when run with ant.
I also wondered if it was a function of running with headless server set to true, but when I changed it to false the same thing happened.
My environment is:
ubuntu 11.04
ant 1.7.1
Sun jdk 1.6.0_26
Flex SDK 4.5.1.21328
FlexUnit 4.1.0-8-4.1.0.16076
I'm using the auto-generated TestRunner.mxml
Any thoughts, anyone? Now that I can get it to work by adding the UI components to the topLevelApplication, at least I can make progress, but I'd like to get to the bottom of the problem, because that shouldn't be necessary.
Thanks in advance,
-Chrisl

Answer 1

Changing to the topLevelApplication did not work. What's funny is that it then failed on a completely unrelated test by hanging and never returning... I'm thinking there must be something else that is going on here, but it's not clear what... :-/ Here is an example of my setup/teardown and a test that work great in the UI but not in CI...
[Before(async, ui)]
public function setUp():void
    _fromToList = new FromToList();
    _fromToList.setStyle('skinClass', FromToListSkin);
    Async.proceedOnEvent(this, _fromToList, FlexEvent.CREATION_COMPLETE, 1000);
    FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.parent.addChild(_fromToList);
    // UIImpersonator.addChild(_fromToList);
[After(ui)]
public function tearDown():void
    FlexGlobals.topLevelApplication.parent.removeChild(_fromToList);
    // UIImpersonator.removeChild(_fromToList);
    _fromToList = null;
[Test(async)]
public function should_remove_selected_item_in_to_list_to_from_list():void
    _fromToList.fromArrayList = _dpArray;
    _fromToList.toArrayList = _toDpArray;
    var sequence:SequenceRunner = new SequenceRunner(this);
    sequence.addStep(new SequenceSetter(_fromToList.toList, { selectedItem: _toDpArray[1]}));
    sequence.addStep(new SequenceWaiter(_fromToList.toList, FlexEvent.VALUE_COMMIT, 100));
    sequence.addStep(new SequenceCaller(_fromToList, _fromToList.remove));
    sequence.addStep(new SequenceWaiter(_fromToList, FromToListChangeEvent.FROM_TO_LIST_CHANGE_EVENT, 100));
    sequence.addAssertHandler(handleListHasChangedThenRemoveEvent, {});
    sequence.run();
private function handleListHasChangedThenRemoveEvent(event:FromToListChangeEvent, passThruData:Object):void
    assertThat(_fromToList.toArrayList.length, equalTo(_toDpArray.length - 1));
    assertThat(_fromToList.fromArrayList.length, equalTo(_dpArray.length - _toDpArray.length + 1));
    assertTrue(_fromToList.fromArrayList.contains(_toDpArray[1]));
So you can see that I'm using Sequences to manage waiting for stuff to get updated in the background, and basically testing when I select an item in a list and act on it that it updates the model like I expect. Again, works GREAT in the UI Runner.
I'm open to suggestions...