Mobile Testing - Appium Framework

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Appium is an open-source test automation framework for testing native and hybrid apps and mobile web apps. It drives iOS and Android apps using the WebDriver protocol.

Advantages of Appium

• It’s free and (mostly) open source.

• It has a very well supported and active Google group.

• It’s in the Selenium 3 spec so should be future proof.

• It supports both Android and iOS.

• It does not require anything to be installed on the device – no server or code changes required.

Drawbacks of Appium

• No support for intelligent waits.
• On iOS, you can only execute one test at a time per Mac.
• Limited support for gestures.
• Limited support for Android < 4.1

How to Use Appium

Step 1 − The prerequisites to use Appium is Java SDK (minimum 1.6). If you don’t have Java installed on your system, then follow the steps given below.

• Download JDK and JRE from Oracle JavaSE

• Accept license agreement.

• Install JDK and JRE.

• Set environment variable as shown in the screenshot below.

Step 2 − Download Android Studio from SDK (It will take time because of the size of the file).

• Double click the exe and run the installer.
• Continue with all default options.
• Set the ANDROID_HOME.

Step 3 − Install Android images and tools.

• Click on SDK Manager −

• Select the necessary package. For example, if we are building an App for Android 4.4.2, then make sure the following packages are checked under the Tools section −

  • Android SDK Tools rev 22.6.3
  • Android Platform-tools rev 19.0.1
  • Android SDK Build-tools rev 19.1

Step 4 − Create Android Virtual Devices −

• Open Android Studio and click AVD Manager in the toolbar. AVDs allow us to test and run our Android apps.

• Use the following settings for a Nexus5 AVD −

  • Device: Nexus 5 (4.95, 1080 x 1920; xxhdpi)

  • Target: Google APIs x86 (Google Inc.) - API Level 19

  • Make sure you select the target with Google APIs in the name.

  • CPU: Intel Atom (x86)

  • Check the box for Use Host GPU

  • Click OK.

• You should now see the AVD you created in the AVD Manager, where you can start it, delete it, or create another one!

Step 5 − Download Appium jar files from Appium

Test an App with Appium

To test an App with Appium, follow the steps given below −

Step 1 − Create a test Project in the Android Studio named as “RobotiumTest”.

Choose all the default options until you reach to the main page.

Step 2 − Add the Appium jars into your project. Click Project → App → copy all the jars in lib. Select the copied jars except Selenium, Java client and Junit Jar, then right-click on it and click on "Add as Library".

Step 3 − Click on build.gradle in the App. You will see all the libraries added, as shown in the following screenshot.

Step 4 − Now create a Java class as shown below −

AppiumDriver driver;
@Before

public void testCaseSetup()throws Exception {
   //service.start();
   //reader.readFile();
	
   DesiredCapabilities cap = new DesiredCapabilities();
	
   cap.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.PLATFORM_NAME,"Android");
   cap.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.DEVICE_NAME, "Android device");
   cap.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.NEW_COMMAND_TIMEOUT, "4000");
   cap.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.APP, "c://apk//sample.apk");
	
   driver = new AndroidDriver<MobileElement>("http://127.0.0.1:4444/wd/hub",cap);
}

@Test
public void testcase1()throws Exception {
   driver.findElementByID("Example").click();
   Asser.assertTrue(driver.findElementByID("Example").isDisplayed));
}

@After
public void testCaseTearDown() {
   driver.quit();
}

Step 5 − Running the Test case.

• Click on build variant and select Unit Testing.
• Start the Appium server with the specific port "4444".
  • Download the Appium for Windows from here.
  • Double click on the .exe and install Appium.
  • Click on the icon to up the UI.
  • Change the port if required, as shown below.
  • Click the Play button to start the server.

• Connect the device with USB debugging on or start an emulator.
• Right-click the test class and click on "Run".