What is appium mobile automation testing
Appium happens to be an open source automation tool that is used for mobile testing, developed and released by Sauce labs, Appium is used to automate both native and hybrid apps. Since it is a cross-platform tool it enables the same test to run and test the app on multiple platforms. It also lets you test various devices parallelly.
Moreover, it is important to note that the need and demand for quality mobile applications are extremely high these days especially considering that a lot of people are choosing to convert their websites into apps. But what is Appium used for? Appium is primarily used for and is currently the best and most convenient way to go when you want to do some mobile automation testing.
Appium is made used for automated testing for hybrid, native, as well as web applications. It supports automation tests on both emulators as well simulators (ios as well as android). Furthermore, appium recently announced that they would also support desktop applications (for windows)
Appium also bears a lot of similarities to selenium webdriver which is another testing tool, this means if you are already familiar with selenium web driver then appium will not have a high learning curve for you. Another thing about appium that is interesting to note at this point is that it has absolutely no dependency on the operating system of the mobile device. It comes with a framework that is capable of converting selenium web driver commands and UI Automation commands for android and ios respectively. It also supports a whole variety of languages like C, C#, Objective, PHP, Javascript, node.js, and ruby.
Some features of Appium are as follows:
- Appium does not need an application source code or a library to carry out the testing.
- Appium comes with a community that is strong and active.
- It has the capability to run the same tests on various different platforms.
- Can accommodate parallel executions.
- Can accommodate minor changes without the requirement of re-installing.
- Stores various languages (Java, C#, PHP, ruby, javascript, node.js, python).
Some advantages of Appium are as follows:
- Since appium is open source, it is completely free to use as well as install.
- Can carry out automated testing for native, web, as well as hybrid applications.
- Appium now supports desktop applications.
- Appium does not require any external additions to make it compatible with automation.
- It is a cross-platform tool that can successfully run tests on multiple platforms (single API for android as well as ios).
Some disadvantages of Appium are as follows:
- Does not provide you with detailed reports.
- The tests that run are highly dependent on the remote web driver which makes it a little slow.
- Appium is able to support older APIs but is not able to do so directly.
- Appium can not run multiple tests on different ios devices at the same time (the only way to go about is to arrange for a multiple number of mac devices).
How does appium work?
- When appium is successfully installed, a server is also installed along with it that exposes the REST API.
- It gets both the command and connection requests from the client. It executes the same command on android or ios devices based on preference.
- Provides HTTP responses.
- In order to complete the execution process, it uses a framework to run the user interface of the app: Apple instruments are used for ios Slenderoid made use for any version of android that is 15 or less.
Some prerequisites to using appium are as follows:
- Installation of Java
- Installation of Android studio
- Installation of external android SDK tools
- Installation of appium jar file
- Installation of appium desktop client
- Installation of Eclipse IDE for java
On a concluding note, it would make sense to mention that appium is a very versatile tool that is the industry standard when it comes to mobile testing. It also makes the regression and smoke testing tasks easy to execute. Moreover, appium is very easy to learn if you are already familiar with selenium. Some alternatives to appium are calabash, robotium, and monkey talk.