Is there any tool for testing Android and iOS apps? I know of Appium but that is used for web apps.
I'm looking for something which I can use to automate UI testing just like selenium for web but on Android and iOS apps.
Also, the company I work for only provides me access to the various app builds and not the code itself so I want to be able to just test the downloaded apps.
cheers
You can use appium for webapps/native apps/hybrid apps for UI testing
So one choice is Appium + Binding language of your choice e.g. Java,C#,Python etc
Other options would be to use direct unit tests frameworks for iOS / Android like
Espresso testing framework for Android apps
Robot Framework for Android apps [this is not a native framework]
Instruments or XCUTest for iOS apps
But if you choose native frameworks you have to learn them and you have to write different frameworks for both platform apps
So recommended tool is Appium as you can build single framework for both the platforms.
You do not require app code while doing automation using Appium.
The only requirement is
for ios you require development builds
for android in case of hybrid app you require development builds
For single framework you can use #AndroidFindBy #IOSFindBy annotations
Related
I'm new to mobile automation and I'm planning to automate a native Android app (not my own so I have only the APK file) so I was reading about the tools available for Android automation. I came across Appium which I understand uses Uiautomator to do so.
I was wondering what are the advantages of using Appium instead of directly using Uiautomator or in which case is better to use Appium or Uiautomator.
If you use native tools for mobile automation then you have to learn different languages to write scripts; e.g. a UIAutomator script will have to be written in Coffee. Similarly for iOS XCUITest, you have to know Swift C or direct methods of the XCUIElement class.
But if you use Appium, you can write scripts in your favorite language; e.g.: Java,C#, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, etc.
With Appium you can use a single framework for both android and iOS platforms. If you use native tools, then you have to maintain different frameworks for you AUT.
Summary -
Native tools - Language dependency, different platforms requiring different frameworks to be maintained, script execution is faster.
Appium - No/Minimal language dependency, easy-to-maintain frameworks, script execution is slower as it is a wrapper over native SDKs.
UIAutomator is only specific to android devices, similarly for iOS devices there was XCUITEST\UIAUTOMATION
With this approach (UI Automator) you will need to have two frameworks in case you have same app for testing on IOS and Android OS (which is usually the case).
Hence Appium arrives as a wrapper which can be used for both android\iOS mobile OS.
If you are a beginner, you can refer below tutorial to learn mobile automation
https://automationlab0000.wordpress.com/2018/09/10/appium/
I'm brand new to Mobile application automation. So, I did a research for selecting a good automation tool for test Android applications.
I need a tool with following requirements
Functional testing
UI testing for different devices, different Android versions
Can write scripts using Java
According to my reading Appium is the best option for functional testing. Can someone give a comment about the best testing tool to cover both functional and UI testing.
Thanks in advance. :)
Appium is a cross-platform tool and works for hybrid as well as native apps where as MonkeyTalk doesn't support hybrid apps.
I can not see the exact difference between Selenium and Appium. Both of these server and framework is it right?
But I see lots of codes in github, when use appium, but the sample code contains of only selenium webdriver elements. Please somebody inform me about two tools. So we use appium and selenium together?
Thank you,
Appium is a casing for Selenium to test native apps (IOS and Android). From Appium introduction
...wrapping the vendor-provided frameworks in one API, the WebDriver API. WebDriver (aka "Selenium WebDriver") specifies a client-server protocol (known as the JSON Wire Protocol).
...In other words, Appium & WebDriver clients are not technically "test frameworks" -- they are "automation libraries".
...WebDriver has become the de facto standard for automating web browsers, and is a W3C Working Draft. Why do something totally different for mobile? Instead we have extended the protocol with extra API methods useful for mobile automation.
Basic difference between selenium and appium
Appium :
It is used in mobile application(android & ios).
Having specific driver eg : AndroidDriver and IOSDriver
If you want to run automation below 17 api in android you have to use selendroid for it.
Selenium :
It is used for mobile web application.
It is having web driver which runs on web application.
Common Things :
Both are opensource.
Both can be customize.
Both use Json-Wire protocol.
for details refer https://www.quora.com/Which-one-is-better-Selenium-or-Appium-for-app-testing
In a nutshell, Appium is a mobile test automation framework (with a tool) that works for all: native, hybrid and mobile-web apps for iOS and Android. Appium is a great choice for test automation framework as it can be used for all these different app/web types. Basically, Appium derives its roots from Selenium and it uses JSONWireProtocol internally to interact with iOS and Android apps using Selenium’s WebDriver.
Selenium is meant for both when encaptulated with appium can be used for mobile automation as well as independently it is for web automation
Appium :
Appium is an automation tool that was built for testing all types of applications whether mobile, web or hybrid applications. It is open-source software that was built using the C# programming language. Dan Cuellar developed the Appium in 2011, it has Apache 2 Licence. At first, it was known as iOSAuto but in 2013 it was named Appium when it came as open-source software.
Selenium :
Selenium is an open-source browser automation tool with Apache Licence 2.0 and it contains a large number of inbuilt libraries for web application testing. It is capable of automating nearly all the web browsers like Chrome, Brave, Firefox, etc. Its stable version was released in October 2021. It is a cross-platform software that was written using different programming languages like Python, Ruby, JavaScript, etc.
I am a newbie to mobile test automation. I searched a bit and read a lot about using calabash (cucumber + ruby) to automate the testing for Android and iOS.
If we don't use the cucumber layer in between (i.e. if we don't have cross functional teams), is it possible to do mobile test automation for android or iOS directly with the programming language through Eclipse/Rubymine?
I do not think cucumber layer is between something. Its the front end using which you write the feature and scenarios. I have been using Calabash for both android and ios automation testing and I do not think it can work without cucumber. But there are cases where people try to use Java or C# instead of Ruby with cucumber. Here is the github link https://github.com/cucumber/cuke4duke. It looks old and i am not sure if there is active development on cuke4duke
I have developed a few Android applications and am currently working on developing an iOS application from scratch. Is there any method by which I can focus on developing my iOS application in such a way that I can reuse some of its components or features for developing the same application on the Android platform?
Is there any method by which I can focus on developing my iOS
application in such a way that I can reuse some of its components or
features for developing the same application on the Android platform?
You can if you use web technologies (HTML, CSS, Javascript). You can do that if you build a web-based app or a hybrid app, i.e. one that uses web-based content running inside a native shell. Look into PhoneGap if you're interested in building a hybrid app -- it offers a quick way to get started. There are also some cross-platform frameworks like Titanium that purport to offer write once/run on several platforms functionality.
If you want to build an app that's fully native on both platforms, you won't be able to reuse application logic. iOS and Android use different frameworks written in different languages running on different hardware, and apps on each platform work somewhat differently as well. Even so, what you can re-use is whatever work you put into the infrastructure that drives the apps. Most apps rely on some sort of server infrastructure to supply or collect data, and that server component can easily serve apps running on either platform.
If you are developing the same application, then you can use j2objc to translate your java (non-UI or hardware/platform specific) code to objective-c.
From the description:
J2ObjC is an open-source command-line tool from Google that translates
Java code to Objective-C for the iOS (iPhone/iPad) platform. This tool
enables Java code to be part of an iOS application's build, as no
editing of the generated files is necessary. The goal is to write an
app's non-UI code (such as data access, or application logic) in Java,
which is then shared by web apps (using GWT), Android apps, and iOS
apps.