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Introduction to Appium

The mobile app market is huge, and it will increase further. Approximately, there are 2 billion smartphone devices worldwide, which is more than two times the number of personal computers in the world. A report (for more information, visit https://www.statista.com/topics/1002/mobile-app-usage/) shows that more than 102 billion apps have been downloaded worldwide, and the number is expected to reach 268 billion by 2017. According to one of the reports (for more information, visit http://www.statista.com/statistics/269025/worldwide-mobile-app-revenue-forecast/), the worldwide mobile revenue for 2015 amounted to $41.1 billion and is expected to reach $101.1 billion by 2020.

With all these promising growth numbers and trends, learning mobile app development and testing will be worth it and will have a huge demand.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

Types of mobile apps
- Native App
- Mobile Web app
- Hybrid App
Appium Architecture
- What is XCUITest
- What is UiAutomator 2

Let's take a look at mobile apps, which form this ecosystem, and how they are broadly categorized based on the way they are developed:

Let's understand the different types of mobile apps.

The mobile world is majorly dominated by two operating systems: iOS and Android. Most apps are made for both the platforms given the user base. In this chapter, we will take a detailed look at the following:

Native app, mobile web, and hybrid app
The characteristics of each type of app
A sample example app of each type

Appium architecture

Now that we have understood the different types of mobile apps, let's take a look at how Appium is architected to support mobile app automation. Appium is basically a web server written in Node.js. The server performs actions in the given order:

Receives connection from client and initiates a session
Listens for commands issued
Executes those commands
Returns the command execution status

So basically, Appium is a client-server architecture.

The Appium server receives a connection from client in the form of a JSON object over HTTP. Once the server receives the details, it creates a session, as specified in JSON, and returns the session ID, which will be maintained until the Appium server is running. So, all testing will be performed in the context of this newly created session. The following is a diagram depicting the Appium architecture:

The Appium server is written in Node.js; it can be installed via npm or directly from source.

XCUITest

XCUITest is an automation framework introduced by Apple with the iOS 9.3 version. However, from iOS 10 and later versions, it's the only supported automation framework.

Appium 1.6.0 uses Apple's new XCUITest framework, which supports iOS 10/Xcode 8. Appium internally uses Facebook's WebDriverAgent project to support XCUITest. For the older iOS version (<=9.3), Appium uses Apple's UIAutomation library. Typical usage would be to pass the following in desired capabilities:

automationName: XCUITest

Facebook WebDriverAgent is a WebDriver server implementation for iOS. It is used to remote control connected devices or simulators and allows one to launch an app, perform commands (such as tap and scroll), and kill applications.

The UIAutomation library communicates with bootstrap.js, which is running inside the device or simulator to perform the commands received by the Appium client:

UiAutomator 2

UIAutomator 2 is an automation framework based on Android instrumentation and allows one to build and run UI tests.

Appium uses Google's UIAutomator to execute commands on real devices and emulators. UIAutomator is Google's test framework for native app automation at the UI level. Typical usage would be to pass the following in desired capabilities:

automationName: uiautomator2

With version 1.6, Appium has provided support to UiAutomator 2. Appium uses the appium-android-bootstrap module to interact with UI Automator. It allows commands to be sent to the device, which are then executed on real devices using Android's UIAutomator testing framework.

When Appium client requests to create a new AndroidDriver session, the client passes the desired capability to the Appium node server. The UIAutomator2 driver module creates the session. It then installs the UIAutomator2 server APK on the connected Android device, starts the Netty server, and initiates a session. Once the Netty server session is started, the UIAutomator2 server continues to listen on the device for requests and responds:

Picture courtesy--GitHub Appium page

Pros of using Appium

Appium has many advantages; some of them are listed here:

It's an open source tool backed by a very active community.
It supports multiple languages (Java, JavaScript, Objective C, C#, PHP, Python, Ruby, Clojure, and Perl).
It doesn't force you to recompile an app or modify it. You can test the same version that you have planned to submit to the play store or app store.
It allows you to write cross-platform tests.

Netty is an NIO client-server framework, which enables quick and easy development of network applications, such as protocol servers and clients.

Key benefits

How to automate testing with Appium

Apply techniques for creating comprehensive tests

How to test on physical devices or emulators

Description

Appium is an open source test automation framework for mobile applications. It allows you to test all three types of mobile applications: native, hybrid, and mobile web. It allows you to run the automated tests on actual devices, emulators, and simulators. Today, when every mobile app is made on at least two platforms, iOS and Android, you need a tool that allows you to test across platforms. Having two different frameworks for the same app increases the cost of the product and time to maintain it as well. Appium helps save this cost. With mobile app growth exploding, mobile app automation is mainstream now. In this book, author Nishant Verma provides you with a firm grounding in the concepts of Appium while diving into how to set up appium & Cucumber-jvm test automation framework, implement page object design pattern, automate gestures, test execution on emulators and physical devices, and implement continuous integration with Jenkins. The mobile app we have referenced in this book is Quikr because of its relatively lower learning curve to understand the application. It's a local classifieds shopping app.

What you will learn

Discover Appium and how to set up an automation framework for mobile testing

Understand desired capabilities and learn to find element locators

Learn to automate gestures and synchronize tests using Appium

Take an incremental approach to implement page object pattern

Learn to run Appium tests on emulators or physical devices

Set up Jenkins to run mobile automation tests by easy to learn steps

Discover tips and tricks to record video of test execution, inter app automation concepts

Learn to run Appium tests in parallel on multiple devices simultaneously

What do you get with Print?

Instant access to your digital eBook copy whilst your Print order is Shipped

Paperback book shipped to your preferred address

Download this book in EPUB and PDF formats

Access this title in our online reader with advanced features

DRM FREE - Read whenever, wherever and however you want

Frequently bought together

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Manju Kolar Aug 14, 2017

“Mobile test automation with Appium” book is written in a tutorial style and focuses on the practical knowledge needed to automate tests. It describes Appium concepts in detail and helps reader to start working on Appium while navigating from chapter to chapter. It also covers the new Appium app which is yet to be widely adopted.This book is going to be a helpful reference to have around when writing tests.

Amazon Verified review

Mauro Apr 26, 2020

Se fosse aggiornato, forse sarebbe anche ok. Il problema è che si riferisce a sdk/path/sistemi completamente obsoleti.E' impossibile seguire un libro con riferimenti "stretti" a jdk, android-sdk, genymotion, cucumber, riferimenti che nel frattempo sono completamente cambiati.Inutile

Paul Schwartzberg Aug 27, 2020

Useless

Doda Oct 13, 2017

Content outdated, most of the methods are deprecated. Do not buy it!

Mobile Test Automation with Appium: Mobile application testing made easy

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Mobile Test Automation with Appium

Introduction to Appium

Native app

Mobile Web app

Hybrid app

Appium architecture

XCUITest

UiAutomator 2

Pros of using Appium

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