Mobile app testing has become a crucial segment of the development procedure in today’s fast-paced, mobile-driven world. As organisations aim to create ideal experiences across distinct platforms, the need for well-arranged and authentic testing solutions becomes significant. One such solution is Appium, a cross-platform, open-source test automation tool arranged to validate both native and hybrid mobile apps. This article delves into the collaboration of Appium with LambdaTest, providing a comprehensive guide on how to refine the mobile app testing procedure, ensuring quality, and speeding up time-to-market.
Whether you are new to mobile app testing or looking to improve your current testing strategy, this introduction to using Appium on LambdaTest will provide the insight you need to leverage your mobile application’s quality and performance.
A Bit About Native Apps
Native apps are created to work with a specific platform or operating system. This platform can be Windows, Android, iOS, or any mobile operating system. The software development languages, tools, and all APIs used are very particular to that specific operating system. For example, Java or Kotlin are used for Android, while Objective-C or Swift are used for iOS.
Characteristics of native apps include:
1. Elevated Performance: Since native apps are manufactured for a particular platform, they are more effective and take full benefit from the software and the speed of the system.
2. Seamless Combination: Native apps can promptly access the hardware of the device, such as a camera, GPS, microphone, etc. This enables better unification with the system’s characteristics.
3. Exceptional Customer Experience: They offer a better consumer experience, as they follow the specific UI standards of every platform.
4. Offline Potential: Native apps can operate offline, which is a noteworthy advantage in areas with bad connectivity.
A Bit About Hybrid Apps
A hybrid mobile application is a combination of two distinct types of applications – a native app, which is created for a specific operating system like Android or iOS, and a web app, which is attainable through a web browser over the internet. This type of application is designed using front-end programming languages such as JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS, ensuring its ability to work across different platforms. This means that developers can bypass writing different code for iOS and Android. Instead, they can go with a single codebase for a mobile application that can manage multiple platforms.
When consumers upload a hybrid app from an app store and download it on their system, the application’s native shell connects with the attributes of their mobile platform with the assistance of a browser that is merged within the app itself.
Characteristics of hybrid apps include:
1. Multi-Platform Support: Hybrid apps are created to work across various platforms, thereby offering price savings over developing individual native apps for every platform.
2. Faster Development: With a single codebase for every platform, the development and maintenance time can be remarkably minimised.
3. Access To Device Capabilities: Through plugins, hybrid apps can acquire the device’s abilities, like an accelerometer, camera, geolocation, etc.
4. Less Efficient: They are generally slower and less effective than native apps, as there is an additional layer (the WebView) between the source code and the target platform.
What Is Appium?
Appium is an open-source test automation tool used for testing mobile applications. It enables you to create tests against mobile apps running on iOS or Android platforms, regardless of the app’s programming language. It pursues the philosophy of “write once, test everywhere,” enabling developers to create a test script once and use it across all platforms.
Appium supports both native and hybrid mobile applications:
1. Native Apps: Appium assist in testing for native apps written in the Android and iOS SDKs. It connects with these apps by using the device’s accessibility APIs. Since it doesn’t utilise any alterations to the app, you can check the app as a user would use it.
2. Hybrid Apps: For hybrid apps, Appium automates the web view context of the app, i.e., where the web content is provided, allowing you to create tests as if it’s a standard web application. It can uniformly switch between the web view and native contexts, making it efficient for testing hybrid apps.
Setting Up The Test Environment For Appium
Before arranging Appium, ensure that you have downloaded the mandatory dependencies:
1. Node.js: Appium is a Node.js network, so you need Node.js uploaded to your system. You can install Node.js from https://nodejs.org/ and download it.
2. Java Development Kit (JDK): Java is required by the Android SDK (required for Android mobile testing). You can upload JDK from the Oracle website and download it.
3. Android SDK: This is needed for Android mobile testing. You can upload Android Studio (which includes the Android SDK) from the official Android website.
4. Xcode: This is essential for iOS testing and can be downloaded from the Mac App Store.
After installing the required dependencies, you can install Appium. There are two options to download Appium:
1. Via NPM: Open your terminal and enter the command `npm install -g appium`
2. Via Appium Desktop: This is a graphical platform for Appium networks. You can upload it from the official Appium releases page.
Once Appium is installed, you can arrange it for native and hybrid app testing:
1. Native Apps: You need to arrange the track of the .ipa file for iOS/APK for Android or the .app in the desired capabilities of your Appium test script.
2. Hybrid Apps: For running hybrid apps, you need to modify the WebView context in your Appium test script.
Creating A LambdaTest Account And Integrating With Appium
Go to the LambdaTest website and sign up for a new account. You can start with a free account, which offers confined access to live testing and other features. Once you have an account, you can combine Appium with LambdaTest. You need to set the LambdaTest username and access key in the desired capabilities of your Appium test script. Remember to replace `YOUR_USERNAME` and `YOUR_ACCESS_KEY` with your actual LambdaTest username and access key.
“`java
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability(“username”, “YOUR_USERNAME”);
capabilities.setCapability(“accessKey”, “YOUR_ACCESS_KEY”);
“`
With these settings, your Appium tests would be implemented on the LambdaTest Selenium Grid. Remember, before executing your tests, you need to make sure your test scripts are arranged correctly to connect with the LambdaTest Selenium Grid, and you have described the correct desired capabilities for the device on which you want to test your mobile application.
Testing Native Mobile Apps With Appium On LambdaTest
LambdaTest offers a real device cloud where you can acquire various mobile devices/emulators for testing. Once you have set up your Appium environment and combined it with LambdaTest, as mentioned before, you can connect to a mobile device/emulator by defining the accurate desired capabilities in your Appium test scripts. Desired capabilities are a set of keys and values that enables you to define the type of mobile environment in which you want to run your test. It includes details such as platform version, platform name, device name, app, and other Appium-specific capabilities.
Writing Appium Test Scripts For Native Apps
Writing Appium tests is identical to writing Selenium WebDriver tests. You can utilise the same WebDriver API commands and write your test scripts in the language of your choice.
Executing And Monitoring Native App Tests On LambdaTest
To run your Appium tests on LambdaTest, you simply need to execute your test scripts. These tests will be arranged and executed on the LambdaTest Selenium Grid. You can observe your tests in real time through the LambdaTest dashboard. LambdaTest provides an interactive consumer interface where you can observe your tests run in real time. You can also utilise the dashboard to control your tests, view test status, debug information, etc.
Analyzing Test Results And Generating Reports
Once your tests are executed, LambdaTest recklessly creates thorough test reports. These reports include test details like test runtime, browser, platform, screenshots, video logs, and more. You can access these reports from the LambdaTest dashboard. LambdaTest also enables you to distribute these reports with your team members directly from the dashboard. The reports provide observation into how your app behaves across distinct devices and platforms, helping you recognize and sort compatibility errors effectively.
Testing Hybrid Mobile Apps With Appium On LambdaTest
To test a hybrid app, you need to obey the same steps to set up the testing environment as for a native app. When arranging the desired capabilities for a hybrid app, you also need to include the `app` capability with the path or URL of your hybrid app.
Writing Appium Test Scripts For Hybrid Apps
When writing Appium test scripts for hybrid apps, one important factor is to shift between the Native and WebView contexts. Hybrid apps have both a native context (for the native UI components) and a WebView context (for the web content). You can get the latest context with `driver.getContext()`. For all contexts, go with `driver.getContextHandles()`, and switch to a distinct context with `driver.context(“CONTEXT_NAME”)`.
Executing And Monitoring Hybrid App Tests On LambdaTest
Implementing hybrid app tests on LambdaTest is the same as executing native app tests. You run your test scripts, and the tests will be performed on the LambdaTest cloud infrastructure.
Dealing With Common Challenges In Hybrid App Testing
Hybrid apps merge elements of both native and web apps, which can lead to different problems in testing:
1. Switching Contexts: One of the main objections in testing hybrid apps is switching between Native and WebView contexts. Ensure your test scripts correctly manage this context switch.
2. Compatibility: Hybrid apps should operate correctly on both Android and iOS platforms. Ensure you test your hybrid app on various devices, platforms, and platform versions.
3. Performance: Hybrid apps can sometimes be more sluggish than native apps, so performance testing is crucial. Check your app’s performance across various devices and network situations.
4. UI Consistency: The hybrid app’s goal is to contribute a constant consumer interface across every platform. Support the stability of your app’s UI across various devices and screen sizes.
Using a cloud-based testing platform like LambdaTest can notably help conquer these objections by arranging a wide range of real devices and browsers for thorough testing.
Conclusion
The combination of Appium with LambdaTest has structurally transformed the way we test Native and Hybrid Mobile Applications. By providing an adjustable and variable testing environment, this integration entices developers to validate the functionality, performance, and consumer experience across distinct devices and platforms. The scope of mobile application development indeed looks optimistic with such advanced tools at our disposal, ensuring that quality is never negotiated, regardless of the complications in the application.
