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Jennifer Smith
Jennifer Smith

Posted on • Originally published at techmajin.com

How Setting Up Appium Framework For Android Works

Appium is a testing framework that simplifies mobile testing by allowing developers to write tests in any language of their choice while providing the flexibility and scalability needed for modern app development.

Appium tests native, hybrid, and mobile web applications and supports various languages. This architecture is simple yet effective. The WebDriver protocol connects the application under test and a client library that can send commands over HTTP to control how the application behaves. This feature allows developers to utilize tools like Selenium to create automated tests without writing additional code or scripts.

Appium also provides an excellent foundation for scaling up your automated test suite with its easy maintenance capabilities. Furthermore, Appium enables developers to write tests in any language of their choice, making it easy for teams to collaborate on projects quickly and efficiently.

With its cross-platform support, you can even run tests simultaneously on Android and iOS devices without downloading separate software or creating multiple scripts for each platform.

Overall, Appium offers an efficient way of automating mobile testing tasks with minimal effort from the developer. Its features and capabilities have become essential in every mobile tester’s toolbox!

Setting Up The Appium Framework On Android

Setting up the Appium framework on Android can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. You can easily start with Appium and mobile automation testing with the right tools and knowledge. These steps will help set up the Appium framework for Android:

  1. Get the Appium desktop app. This graphical user interface (GUI) allows developers to quickly configure and run tests without typing commands in a terminal window or writing code from scratch.
  2. Verify the Android SDK version installed on your machine. The latest version of Appium requires API level 23 (Android 6.0 Marshmallow) or higher, so make sure your device meets this requirement before attempting to set up Appium for Android automation testing.
  3. Select an app to test with Appium. You can create an app for testing purposes or use an existing application in the Google Play Store.
  4. Configure the desired capabilities object for Appium to recognize your device and provide instructions on how it should behave when running automated tests against it. This includes setting unique identifiers like platformName, deviceName, platformVersion, and appPackage/appActivity, which will be used by Appium during automated tests against your Android device or emulator instance, respectively.
  5. Install the automated test framework of your choice – such as Selenium WebDriver, Espresso Test Recorder, or Robot Framework – which will allow you to write scripts that interact with elements within your tested app to perform various tasks automatically while also verifying expected behavior along the way using assertions or other validation techniques depending on which language you’re using for script creation (i.e., Java).

By following these steps, users can easily get started with Appium automation and mobile automation testing for their applications on any Android device they choose!

Configuring The Test Environment

Configuring the Appium framework for Android doesn’t have to be a difficult process.

Download and Install Client Library

Start by downloading and installing the Appium Client library in your chosen programming language. This library provides an interface between your application under test and HTTP commands controlling its behavior.

Configure Capabilities

Configure the desired capabilities object in your project workspace, informing Appium what device you’re using and what tests it must run.

Select a Testing Framework

Choose a testing framework best suited to your needs, such as JUnit, TestNG, or Calabash.

With all of these components in place, users should now have everything they need to get started with automated mobile testing using Appium.

Installing And Configuring Appium Dependencies For Android

Setting up Appium for Android automation testing is an important step. The right tools can help you begin writing automated tests with confidence. To start:

  1. Download the Appium zip file from the official website and install any necessary dependencies.
  2. Configure your Android device by enabling developer options, downloading drivers, and enabling USB debugging mode to allow communication between Appium and your application under test. Once these steps are complete, it’s time to set up your environment variables, such as ANDROID_HOME and JAVA_HOME, so that Appium can run properly on Android devices.
  3. Install SDKs or libraries for debugging/logging/reporting before launching into test creation. This step will enable performance monitoring, quick issue identification, and logging data from each run for tracking progress over time.

With all these preparations done properly, users should have no problems getting started with mobile automation testing on Android devices.

Running Appium Tests On Android

Running Appium tests on Android requires a few simple steps that will help developers get up and running quickly.

Download and Install Appium Server

You can do this from the official Appium website. Once the download is complete, it can be configured for Android using the appropriate command line flags.

Connect Real Devices To Appium

Next, users need to connect their real device or emulator to Appium. To do this, they must enable USB debugging on their device and enter the appropriate ADB commands to gain access to it through Appium. For emulators, users must install the appropriate ARM image and then set up port forwarding so that Appium can access it.

Download Client Library

Users must download the Appium Java client library to write test scripts in Java for their mobile automation testing tasks. They should ensure they have configured their desired capabilities properly before writing any code or running any tests.

Begin Writing Test Scripts

Developers can begin writing test scripts using the provided library methods and classes to interact with elements onscreen and check for expected results after performing certain actions.

Run Tests

Finally, once you’ve set up everything correctly, users can run their tests on a real device or an emulator through ADB commands such as ‘adb shell am instrument’ or ‘adb shell pm list packages.’

Conclusion

After running these commands, users will receive feedback on whether their tests have passed or failed based on whether the app met all their expected results during execution. With these simple steps outlined here, developers can easily get started with mobile automation using Appium for Android devices without too many difficulties!

To help you with Appium, you can also leverage mobile test automation tools like HeadSpin. These tools give you real-world performance monitoring capabilities that you can use to improve your testing. Reach out!

Source: This post was first published on https://techmajin.com/setting-up-appium-framework-for-android/

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