XCUIElement.typeText() is not typing the correct text because of spelling correction. What can I do? - spell-checking

Question

In my UI tests, I want to type some text in a text field which is in a table cell.
So I did this:
let textField = tablesQuery.elementBoundByIndex(index).textFields.elementBoundByIndex(0)
textField.tap()
textField.typeText("Snell's Law\r")
When I run the test, it successfully found the text field and started typing. But instead of typing "Snell's Law", it typed "said last"!
I think this is due to that annoying spell checking thingy that always pops up.
So I went into the settings, and turn the spell checking off:
I ran the test and see that it still types "said last"! So I went back to the settings and check whether I have turned spell checking off properly.
And to my surprise, the spell checking is indeed off! What is happenning? How can I stop the annoying spell checker?

Answer 1

The feature is Auto-correction rather than Spelling correction, which is available on physical devices. In order to prevent the text field from presenting an auto-correct option, you should disable the feature on the text field in your app code/storyboard, if this is a field where autocorrection may not be appropriate, e.g. A search field.
Auto-correction works well for natural language fields for free-flowing text, but not as well for simple, short phrases.

Answer 2

You could use SBTUITestTunnel. This framework extends UI Test's adding several features (net mocking, remote code invocation) among which you can also disable UITextfields autocomplete for a specific test.
Once you install the framework, you would fire up the application in your test target like this:
func testExample() {
let app = SBTUITunneledApplication()
app.launchTunnelWithOptions([SBTUITunneledApplicationLaunchOptionDisableUITextFieldAutocomplete]) {
// do additional setup before the app launches, if needed
}
// From here on UITextField's autocomplete will be disabled
}