Advanced Appium Tips & Tricks with Jonathan Lipps

Advanced Appium Tips & Tricks
Jonathan Lipps • Founding Principal • Cloud Grey
 
@AppiumDevs • @cloudgrey_io • @jlipps • appiumpro.com
Perfecto Mobile Webinar · The Internet
April 24, 2018

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4/21/2018 2

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What’s new in Appium 1.8?

W3C WebDriver spec support

App management features

Improved screen-related primitives

Clipboard management features

Auxiliary app support via otherApps capability

iOS Screen Recording

iOS Performance data gathering via Instruments

Android Broadcast device logs for log streaming

Android Support ‘Instant Apps’

Android Support ‘Instant Apps’
Many, many bugﬁxes and performance/stability improvements

npm install -g appium

© 2015, Perfecto Mobile Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Poll Question
What feature would you most want to see Implemented in
Appium?
• Support for network virtualization (3G, 4G, packet loss %, etc.)
• Support for visual testing (barcode scanning, check deposit use
cases)
• Support for gesture like Face ID, Finger Print, and more
• Better Cross platform automation for all platforms including
smartwatch, iOS, Android
• Support for audio and video testing (chatbots, MOS,  
etc.)
• Other
4/21/2018 8

Today’s tips: recent selections from appiumpro.com

Finding elements with greater speed and stability

Using deep links to speed up tests and reduce ﬂakiness

Testing app upgrade scenarios

Testing app upgrade scenarios
Cross-platform testing best practices

driver.findElement(By.className(“Button”));

locator strategy

locator strategy selector

Locator Strategy From Support in Appium
class name Selenium Yes
id Selenium Yes
name Selenium Yes
xpath Selenium Yes
accessibility id Appium Yes
-ios predicate string Appium Yes
-ios class chain Appium Yes
-android uiautomator Appium Yes
-ios uiautomation Appium Deprecated
css selector Selenium No
link text Selenium No
partial link text Selenium No
tag name Selenium No

Why use XPath?

It allows for the formulation of complex queries (for example, using the @contains
function)
Why use XPath?

function)
It can identify any element in the UI hierarchy available to Appium
Why use XPath?

function)
…
Why use XPath?

function)
…
that’s about it
Why use XPath?

Why not to use XPath

Path-based selectors are brittle

It is often expensive to generate an XML representation of the UI

It is often expensive to map XML elements found by XPath to native element objects

It is often expensive to map XML elements found by XPath to native element objects
XPath selectors are not cross-platform

Preferred locator strategies

MobileBy.AccessibilityId
Cross-platform locator strategy, will ﬁnd
elements by Accessibility Id (or Name) on
iOS, and Content Description on Android

MobileBy.AccessibilityId
elements by Accessibility Id (or Name) on
iOS, and Content Description on Android
By.id
elements by Id (and a set of other unique
identiﬁers) on iOS, and android:id on
Android

“Advanced” locator strategies

MobileBy.iOSNsPredicateString
iOS-only locator strategy that allows complex
element lookups based on attributes

MobileBy.iOSClassChain
element lookups based on attributes and
hierarchy

MobileBy.iOSClassChain
element lookups based on attributes and
hierarchy
MobileBy.AndroidUIAutomator
Android-only locator strategy that allows use
the UiSelector API to chain element
ﬁnding restrictions

iOS Predicate String example
MobileBy.iOSNsPredicateString(
"type == 'XCUIElementTypeButton' AND value BEGINSWITH[c] 'foo' AND visible == 1"
);

iOS Class Chain example
MobileBy.iOSClassChain(
"**/XCUIElementTypeCell[`name BEGINSWITH “C"`]/XCUIElementTypeButton[10]"
);

Android UiAutomator example
MobileBy.AndroidUIAutomator(
'new UiSelector().className("ScrollView").getChildByText(new
UiSelector().className("android.widget.TextView"), "Tabs")'
);

~30 seconds

30 seconds x 50 tests = 25 minutes

Strategies to set up app state instantly

Android Start the test with custom intents
to navigate directly to the right place
Use intentAction and
optionalIntentArguments parameters
to driver.startActivity

iOS Start the app with custom arguments
using Appium capabilities
Use the processArguments capability
when starting a session

iOS Start the app with custom arguments
using Appium capabilities
Use the processArguments capability
when starting a session
Cross-platform Use deep linking
Implement a custom url scheme in your app,
then simply use driver.get

yourapp://test/login/:username/:password

~5 seconds

5 seconds x 50 tests = ~4 minutes

App upgrades on Android

Get paths to two versions of your app

Start an Appium session using the older version of the app (via the app capability)

Install the new app using driver.installApp

Install the new app using driver.installApp
Trigger the new app to relaunch by using driver.startActivity

App upgrades on iOS

Stop the current app using mobile: terminateApp
App upgrades on iOS

Install the new app using mobile: installApp
App upgrades on iOS

Install the new app using mobile: installApp
Trigger the new app to relaunch by using mobile: launchApp
App upgrades on iOS

Tips for app development

Add labels to any element that might be used in testing (i.e., pretty much every
element)

element)
Add labels as “Accessibility ID” on iOS and “Content Description” on Android—and make
them the same!

element)
them the same!
As much as possible within the product design requirements, keep user ﬂows the same
across apps

element)
them the same!
across apps
Build a test version of your app that has all kinds of state set-up goodies

element)
them the same!
across apps
Make debug versions of builds

element)
them the same!
across apps
Make debug versions of builds
iOS Use Wildcard App IDs in Provisioning Proﬁles (so WebDriverAgent can be built
using a custom Bundle ID that works with the proﬁle)

Tips for the testsuite

Use a Page Object Model strategy (or similar), to keep diﬀerences between platforms
encapsulated

encapsulated
Test step code should be totally platform-agnostic. Only your runner and your object
model should know about platform

encapsulated
Avoid XPath in favor of cross-platform locator strategies

encapsulated
Avoid XPath in favor of cross-platform locator strategies
Dynamically update test name for reports to include platform name or other details, for
easier debugging

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