The selection of the appropriate automated testing framework, which will enable their development and QA teams to design and run automated tests quickly, is a crucial decision for software firms as they define their automated testing strategy.
Many automated mobile app testing frameworks are on the market, making the decision difficult sometimes.
What It Takes To Select A Mobile Test Automation Framework
Before you select a mobile test automation framework, your goal is to understand how these tools impact your teams, tech stack, and organizational progress. So, consider the following:
- Consider if the tool is capable of meeting your testing and business requirements.
- Ensure the tool you are investing in supports the type of application you are building.
- Ensure the framework meets your hosting, speed, usability, and parallel testing requirements.
- The framework must integrate with your CI/CD pipeline.
- If you are using a new tech stack, the framework you choose must support said tech stack.
- Ensure your teams consist of developers adopting shift-left ideologies, follow agile development, have transitioned to agile, and are aware of the waterfall approach to testing.
- The framework must meet the team’s specific needs, mainly that it should follow the testing processes set by your team.
- Ensure your teams are well-equipped with the right skills to work seamlessly with the framework. If they need specialized training, ensure you can provide the same.
- The framework should stay within budget.
- Use the free trial to evaluate the framework before you can use it.
- Lastly, ensure the framework has an active community and can provide comprehensive support.
Popular Testing Frameworks To Choose From
Appium
As an open-source test automation platform, Appium facilitates automated mobile app testing. Engineers may use this to automate the testing of both native and hybrid Android and iOS apps. The Appium framework requires additional components to function properly. Developers execute test cases through the WebDriver interface. As with Selenium, Appium supports various languages for writing test scripts. These include C#, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java, and Ruby.
Testers love Appium because it’s a versatile cross-platform framework that allows them to write test scripts that run on Windows, iOS, and Android while still using the same API. Users of Appium can, in essence, save time and energy by reusing their source code for both Android and iOS.
Selendroid
Using Selendroid, testers can check both native and hybrid mobile apps. Like Selenium for cross-browser testing, Selendroid can run simultaneous test cases on several devices.
Calabash
Developers can use Calabash with multiple languages, an automated testing framework for mobile devices. In addition to .NET, it is compatible with Flex, Java Ruby, Java, Flex, and more. Testers can utilize application programming interfaces to enable native apps on touchscreen devices. There are libraries in this framework that make it possible for test scripts to communicate with hybrid and native apps programmatically.
HeadSpin
HeadSpin provides a comprehensive testing solution to meet various testing needs, from mobile apps to media testing OTT platforms. It provides its users with real, SIM-enabled devices they can connect to anywhere in the world. It seamlessly integrates with your CI/CD pipelines and gives actionable insights to help you build great apps.
XCUITest
The iOS app testing community has adopted this tool as the gold standard. Apple released XCUITest in 2015 as a framework for developing and running UI tests for iOS apps written in Swift and Objective C. It’s generally agreed upon as the best tool for developing automated tests for iOS apps. It’s highly regarded for the speed of execution, user-friendliness, lack of instability, and simplicity of test administration that it provides.
However, since it isn’t cross-platform, tests developed here cannot be used to validate Android apps. In addition, you can use only specific languages while developing tests like Python, Ruby, and Java. Swift is a must-have.
Despite these drawbacks, iOS app development is where XCUITest shines because Apple built it to be fully compatible with its ecosystem.
Espresso
Google’s Espresso is a mobile testing framework for developing and releasing UI tests for Android apps. Both developers and testers commonly use Espresso to test an app’s user interface before release. Developers script out a situation and capture their actions while using a device. They then incorporate assertions to validate actions taken by the app’s UI components using screenshots. Once the recording is complete, the program will save it and provide UI test cases that you can use to verify the application’s functionality.
It facilitates unit testing and black-box analysis in the course of development. With this solid framework, designers can put to the test not only hybrid web views but also native Android views. Both Java and Kotlin are supported when developing Espresso test cases. Some of the most frequently cited and highly regarded features are synchronized test runs, intent validations, and the ability to run recipes.
Conclusion
With a growing number of people using smartphones and spending more time on them, ensuring they have a positive app experience is essential. Teams can make this happen by implementing a testing framework best suited to their requirements. The development team is responsible for following best practices and collaborating with the testing team to create straightforward apps. It is also vital to use real devices for testing. Team members can ship apps more quickly and provide a more stable experience for end customers.
