APPIUM
  • Android &iOS are the most popular mobile OS. There are millions of applications designed for these platforms that need to be tested.
What is Appium?
  • APPIUM is a freely distributed open source mobile application UI Testing framework.
  • Appium allows native, hybrid and web application testing and supports automation test on physical devices as well as an emulator or simulator both.
  • It offers cross-platform application testing, i.e. single API works for both Android and iOS platform test scripts.
  • Appium supports all languages that have Selenium client libraries like- Java, Objective JavaScript with node.js, PHP, Ruby, Python, C#, etc.
How APPIUM Works?
 Appium is an 'HTTP Server' written using a Node.js platform and drives iOS and an Android session using Web driver JSON wire protocol. Hence, before initializing the Appium Server, Node.js must be pre-installed on the system.

 When Appium is downloaded and installed, then a server is set up on our machine that exposes a REST API.

 It receives connection and command request from the client and executes that command on mobile devices (Android / iOS).

 It responds back with HTTP responses. Again, to execute this request, it uses the mobile test automation frameworks to drive the user interface of the apps. 

A framework like:-
     o Apple Instruments for iOS (Instruments are available only in Xcode 3.0 or later with OS X v10.5 and later)
     o Google UIAutomator for Android API level 16 or higher
     o Selendroid for Android API level 15 or less



Introduction to APPIUM

Prerequisite to use APPIUM
1. Install ANDROID SDK (Studio)
2. Install JDK (Java Development Kit)
3. Install Eclipse
4. Install TestNg for Eclipse
5. Install Selenium Server JAR
6. Appium Client Library
7. APK App Info on Google Play
8. js (Not Required - Whenever Appium server is installed, it by default comes with
"Node.exe" & NPM. It's included in Current version of Appium.)
9. Install Appium Desktop

Install Appium Desktop:
  • Appium Studio is an Open source GUI app to install Appium Server. It comes bundled with all the pre-requisites to install and use Appium Server. 
  • It also has an Inspector to get basic information on your Apps. 
  • It comes with a Recorder to create boilerplate code to automate your mobile apps.
Step 1) Go to http://appium.io/ and click on Download Appium.

Step 2) For Windows, select the exe file and download. The file is around 162MB will take
time to download based on your internet speed.

Step 3) Click on the downloaded exe.

Step 4) On a Windows machine, there is no need to install Appium. It runs directly from the
exe. Once you click the exe you will see the following image for few minutes.
For Mac, you need to install the dmg

Step 5) Next you will see the Server Start Window.

Step 6) On clicking the Start Server Button, a new server is launched on the specified host and port.

Step 7) Click New Session Window.

Step 8) You can enter the Desired Capabilities and start a session.

Limitations using APPIUM
1. Appium does not support testing of Android Version lower than 4.2

2. Limited support for hybrid app testing. e.g.: not possible to test the switching action of application from the web app to native and vice-versa.

3. No support to run Appium Inspector on Microsoft Windows.

APPIUM Inspector
  • Similar to Selenium IDE record and playback tool, Appium has an 'Inspector' to record and Playback. 
  • It records and plays native application behavior by inspecting DOM and generates the test scripts in any desired language. However, currently, there is no support for Appium Inspector for Microsoft Windows. 
  • In Windows, it launches the Appium Server but fails to inspect elements. However, UIAutomator viewer can be used as an option for Inspecting elements.

Download link for more Detail:  Introduction to APPIUM

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