Sample script using Appium for native iOS application

iOS automation using Appium:

Appium is an open source automation tool for native and hybrid apps. It supports for both Android and iOS platforms. Appium drives the device/emulator/simulator using the Apple's UIAutomation library or Android's UiAutomator framework using Selenium's Webdriver JSON wire protocol. So we can use the languages for scripting, which all supported by Selenium.

Requirements:

• MAC OS X 10.7 or higher
• Xcode and command line tools(xcode version 4.6.2 would be fine)
• Node.js
• Appium.app
• Eclipse
• TestNG

1. Prepare the application to be automated:

We need the .app file for appium automation. So download any iOS application and build the .app file.

I downloaded the iOS app named iPhoneCoreDataRecipes from the apple website. The app looks like as below,

                                                            Sample Recipe iOS application

Steps:

• Download the application from  iPhoneCoreDataRecipes
• Extract it and import it into the xcode.
• Run the project, Ensure that the simulator is opened up with the application.
• Open the terminal and go to the project folder
• Run the following command to build the .app file

                     xcodebuild -sdk iphonesimulator6.1

It will build the app and generate the Recipe.app file in yourProjectfolder/Build/Release-iphonesimulator, which is the only one we need to give in our automation script.

Now the application is ready to be automated :)

2. Prepare the machine for iOS automation:

We need node.js to work with appium if we didn't use appium.app. Just follow the below steps,

• Install node.js from the site http://nodejs.org/
• Install webdriver API to the node with the below command,

                       sudo npm install wd
           here npm represents that Node.js Package Manager

• Install Appium to the machine with the below command

                      sudo npm install appium -g

• Now start the appium server with the below command,

                      appium &

Now appium server is started in the default port 4723 and the IP Address 0.0.0.0 (http://0.0.0.0:4723) as below,

                                                              Appium server is started

3. Prepare the automation script:

Actually I do all the scripts using java language. So I use Eclipse IDE and TestNG for scripting.

The goal of the following script is add the recipe named 'Pizza' in the recipe list and verify its presence.

package com.qa.test;

import java.io.File;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.List;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.CapabilityType;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver;
import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.AfterMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeMethod;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class TestRecipe {

public WebDriver driver = null;

@BeforeMethod
public void setUp() throws Exception {
// set up appium
File appDir = new File("/Users/Elang/Documents/iPhoneApps/iPhoneCoreDataRecipes/Build/Release-iphonesimulator");
File app = new File(appDir, "Recipes.app");
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability(CapabilityType.BROWSER_NAME, "iOS");
capabilities.setCapability(CapabilityType.VERSION, "6.1");
capabilities.setCapability(CapabilityType.PLATFORM, "Mac");
capabilities.setCapability("app", app.getAbsolutePath());
driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL("http://0.0.0.0:4723/wd/hub"), capabilities);
}

@AfterMethod
public void tearDown() throws Exception {
driver.quit();
}


@Test
public void testAddRecipes() throws InterruptedException {

String recipeName = "Pizza";
String recipeDescription = "My lovable dish";
String preparationTime = "1 hour";

driver.findElement(By.name("Add")).click();
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//textfield[1]")).sendKeys(recipeName);
driver.findElement(By.name("Save")).click();

driver.findElement(By.name("Edit")).click();

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//tableview[1]/textfield[2]")).sendKeys(recipeDescription);
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//tableview[1]/textfield[3]")).sendKeys(preparationTime);

driver.findElement(By.name("choosePhoto")).click();
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//tableview[1]/cell[1]/text[1]")).click();
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//tableview[1]/cell[1]/image[1]")).click();
driver.findElement(By.name("Done")).click();

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//navigationBar[1]/button[1]")).click();

                // Verify the presence of added recipe.
List<WebElement> recipesDetails = driver.findElements(By.xpath("//tableview[1]/cell"));
//System.out.println("No. of Recipes: "+recipesDetails.size());
boolean result = false;
for(WebElement recipeDetails : recipesDetails) {
//System.out.println("details: "+recipeDetails.getAttribute("name"));
if(recipeDetails.getAttribute("name").equals(recipeDescription+", "+preparationTime+", "+recipeName)) {
result = true;
}
}
Assert.assertTrue(result, "Recipe is not present");
}

}

I used Appium inspector to identify the element locators. See here about how to use the appium inspector.

For the example of Android native app automation in WINDOWS platform, please look at here.

References:

• http://appium.io/
• Appium google group