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Appium Essentials
Appium Essentials

Appium Essentials: Explore mobile automation with Appium and discover new ways to test native, web, and hybrid applications

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Appium Essentials

Chapter 2. Getting Started with Appium

Today, a lot is going on in the field of mobile development, and we need to test these developments to meet the expectations of the end users. It is this progress that has contributed to the growth of mobile automation. Dan Cuellar came up with a brilliant idea that involved integrating the tool with Selenium, post which he created Appium. Appium is a good tool and is widely used to automate mobile apps. The best part is that it is open source.

In this chapter, we will learn the following:

  • The advantages of Appium
  • System requirements for Android/iOS
  • Installing different software
  • Creating emulators and simulators
  • Setting up an Eclipse Java project

Appium – pros and cons

Appium is an open source tool for automating mobile apps, such as native, web-based, and hybrid applications designed for the Android, iOS, and Firefox OS platforms.

Before diving into Appium's advantages, let's discuss its shortcomings, as follows:

  • No direct support for Android Alert Handling: Alert handling is not implemented yet for native apps via Alert API but, we have an alternative to handle it which we will see in Chapter 7, Advanced User Interactions. Hopefully, alert handling will be implemented soon.
  • Limited support for Android versions: Appium directly supports Android Version 17 or later, but if we want to work with versions older than version 17, then we can use the integrated tool Selendroid.
  • Lack of image recognition: We can't locate images; to work with images, we have to work with screen coordinates, which is not the best way but again it's in their road map to apply the locator strategy to find images.
  • Mobile gestures support...

System requirements for Android/iOS

We have read about Appium; now, it's time to know about the system requirements for Android/iOS.

Android requirements on Windows and Mac

The following are the system requirements for Appium on Android:

  • Java (version 7 or later)
  • Android SDK API (version 17 or later)
  • Android Virtual Device (AVD) or real device

iOS requirements

These are the system requirements for iOS devices to start with Appium:

  • Mac OS X 10.7 or later
  • Xcode (greater than or equal to 4.6.3; 5.1 is recommended) with the command-line build tool
  • Java version 7 or later
  • Homebrew
  • Node and npm

In the following section, we will look at how to install different software.

Installing different software

To get started with Appium, we need to install some software on our machines. Let's start the installation process on different machines.

Appium installation for Android

The prerequisites for the installation of Appium on Android are as follows:

  • JDK (Java development kit)
  • Android SDK (Software development kit)
  • Appium for different OSes

Installing JDK on Windows

In order to install the JDK, you can visit http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html.

After installing the JDK, you need to set the environment variables. To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Open System Properties by pressing the Windows logo + Pause key or right-click on My Computer and then click on Properties.
  2. Click on Advanced system settings.
  3. Click on Environment Variables.
  4. Under User variables, click on New. Then, you will get the following screenshot:
    Installing JDK on Windows
  5. Enter the Variable name as JAVA_HOME.
  6. Enter the Variable value as the installation path for the JDK, for example...

Creating emulators and simulators

We'll now look at how we can create emulators and simulators, starting with an iOS simulator and then move on to an Android simulator.

An iOS simulator

We don't need to create a simulator for Mac; it already comes with Xcode under developer tools. When you start the Appium server for the first time, it will prompt you to authorize the use of Instruments, or if you are running it from npm, run sudo authorize_ios to work with the simulator.

An Android emulator

There are two ways to create an AVD for testing android apps:

  • Create the AVD from the command line
  • Create the AVD using the AVD Manager

Let's create AVD using the command line, as follows:

  1. Open the Command Prompt and type android list targets; this will generate a list of available targets.
  2. Run android create avd –n <name of the AVD> -t <targetID which you can get from the first step> --abi <again you can get it from first step>.

Note

You can also customize the AVD with...

Setting up an Eclipse Java project

We need an integrated development environment (IDE) to write test scripts; in the market, there are a lot of open source IDE's such as Eclipse, NetBeans, IntelliJ IDEA, and others. Here we are going to use an Eclipse IDE. If you have downloaded the Android ADT bundle, then you will get Eclipse along with it. Otherwise, you can download it from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/eclipse-ide-java-ee-developers/lunasr1a.

Once you have downloaded the IDE, launch it by double-clicking on the eclipse.exe icon.

After this, you need to perform the following steps to set up the Java project:

  1. After clicking on the icon, it will ask you for a Workspace location. Enter the location and click on the OK button, as shown here:
    Setting up an Eclipse Java project
  2. Click on the Workbench icon on the welcome screen, which is at the top-right corner of the screen.
  3. Create a new project by clicking on the shortcut icon; you can also do this by navigating to File | New | Project. A dialog box will appear...

Appium – pros and cons


Appium is an open source tool for automating mobile apps, such as native, web-based, and hybrid applications designed for the Android, iOS, and Firefox OS platforms.

Before diving into Appium's advantages, let's discuss its shortcomings, as follows:

  • No direct support for Android Alert Handling: Alert handling is not implemented yet for native apps via Alert API but, we have an alternative to handle it which we will see in Chapter 7, Advanced User Interactions. Hopefully, alert handling will be implemented soon.

  • Limited support for Android versions: Appium directly supports Android Version 17 or later, but if we want to work with versions older than version 17, then we can use the integrated tool Selendroid.

  • Lack of image recognition: We can't locate images; to work with images, we have to work with screen coordinates, which is not the best way but again it's in their road map to apply the locator strategy to find images.

  • Mobile gestures support: Some of the gesture...

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Description

This book is intended for automation testers and developers who want to enhance their skills from web-based automation to mobile application automation using Appium. Basic knowledge of mobile application testing, Selenium WebDriver, and programming is assumed.

Who is this book for?

This book is intended for automation testers and developers who want to enhance their skills from web-based automation to mobile application automation using Appium. Basic knowledge of mobile application testing, Selenium WebDriver, and programming is assumed.

What you will learn

  • Understand the desired capabilities that need to be acquired before starting Appium
  • Get to know and use the settings that are required to automate mobile applications
  • Interact with mobile applications by identifying elements using different locator strategies and techniques
  • Install mobile apps onto an emulator/simulator or a real device using Appium scripts
  • Test scripts written to automate applications
  • Configure mobile devices and perform automation testing on them
  • Explore the advanced features of Appium such as scroll, zoom, and swipe
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Length: 188 pages
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Language : English
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Table of Contents

8 Chapters
1. Appium – Important Conceptual Background Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Getting Started with Appium Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. The Appium GUI Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Finding Elements with Different Locators Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Working with Appium Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Driving Appium on Real Devices Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Advanced User Interactions Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

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Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon Empty star icon 3.5
(19 Ratings)
5 star 47.4%
4 star 10.5%
3 star 5.3%
2 star 15.8%
1 star 21.1%
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Jitendra Kumar Jul 20, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This is very good help for beginners in mobile automation testing .Author has started from the basics & the book has been written in a good way to cover all that which requires to run Appium.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Ajay Mar 22, 2023
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Good Book for beginners
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Ram Jul 18, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Very effective for beginners,covers most advanced topics in Appium.its a quick reference for anyone who's working on Appium automation.Author has described everything from basic to advance , I admire the author’s approach towards explaining the concepts .I would very much recommend this book for all the Appium users!
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megha sapra Jul 20, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Easy understandable.Described each and every concept thoroughly.Good book for mobile tester. Appium Essentials
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liyiwan Mar 02, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
even i haven't saw it,but it maybe good for us!
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