Getting Started With Appium Automation Testing For Android

App testing is the best option for meeting  various testing objectives since it is not only fast but also provides more complete coverage. The industry is growing at an accelerated pace. Today, organizations are going to great lengths to ensure cross-platform compatibility of mobile applications to meet the rising customer expectations for high-performance and interoperability.

Mobile app testing can be streamlined and more efficient with the help of Appium, an open-source automation platform. Because of its broad features, Appium automation testing in the mobile application business. Appium holds over 35% of the Android market share and over 40% of the iOS market share.

You can leverage this amazing automated testing platform for mobile applications with the help of this Appium lesson, which provides a comprehensive overview of the framework.

Appium: What Is It?

In addition to native, hybrid, and web application testing, Appium also allows for automation testing on physical devices and emulators. Appium is open source and free to use. Test scripts for Android and iOS platforms can be written in a single API, thereby supporting cross-platform application testing. As Appium enables Selenium Webdriver commands to be converted, it is not dependent upon the operating system.

Some Other Characteristics Include: 

• Besides Java, Objective-C, JavaScript with node.js, PHP, Ruby, Python, C#, and others, Appium supports all Selenium client libraries.
• It supports the Selenium WebDriver client and uses a REST API (Representational State Transfer). Appium can be used to fire tests using the Selenium WebDriver client it provides.

Following Are The Tasks Performed By The REST API:

• Receives connections from clients.
• Observes the command
• Using a mobile device, the command is executed.
• An HTTP response is returned to the client with the status of the command execution.

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Appium’s Appeal: What Makes It Special?

There are a number of reasons why Appium remains the leading choice when it comes to app automation testing for mobile apps, whether they are native, hybrid, or mobile web, running on Android, iOS, or Windows. However, the top reasons are the following:

• The server runs in the background.
• Further functionalities can be provided by synchronizing with TestNG testing framework.
• For better analysis of test results and enhanced debugging, Appium’s UIAutomator generates rich information logs and provides detailed reporting.
• Several languages are supported, including JavaScript, Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, and C#.
• Code can be reused across multiple platforms, such as Android, iOS, and Windows, saving time and effort.
• The API and database test code provides QAs with full control over the back-end APIs and databases. This enables them to evaluate back-end API and database faults.
• UIAutomator, UIAutomation, or Xcode9 can be used to run test automation scripts simultaneously on multiple Android or iOS sessions.
• In order to optimize the program for inappropriate scenarios, it is necessary to duplicate numerous device aspects, such as low battery or an inconsistent network. An app can only be qualified for use in real-world user environments after real-world device testing provides conclusive, reliable data.
• The Appium test framework leverages the standard automation APIs across all platforms, so testers don’t have to modify or recompile the code of applications they’re testing.Testing mobile applications on emulators, simulators, or real devices, giving users the choice of which testing device and environment they prefer. The final-stage testing cannot be performed with emulators or simulators. 
• The tests run across platforms, increasing coverage since they are cross-platform compatible.
• Tests can be monitored in real-time, making their execution more robust.

As an automated testing platform for mobile applications, Appium offers a number of incredible capabilities. Test commands are transformed into REST API queries by the Appium Client libraries on Android using the Mobile JSON Wire Protocol. Appium sends these requests to the Android emulator or device. A bootstrap.jar file is located on an Android device. The bootstrap.jar file interprets these test commands. It uses Selendroid or UI Automator to execute queries on an Android device.

After the tests are completed, the results are sent to the Appium server, which responds to the client with an HTTP response (including status codes).

Test automation with Appium is a great idea. It is, therefore, crucial to conduct Appium testing efficiently. Setting up, running, and scaling in-house device labs is expensive. As a result, LambdaTest is an ideal platform for real device cloud testing. Your developers and testers can do Appium testing on real devices anywhere at any time by using LambdaTest’s online device farm, which eliminates the need for in-house device laboratories.

Other than real device testing, you can also perform mobile browser testing using Appium on LambdTest’s Android emulators and iOS simulators.

Getting Started With Appium Automation Testing For Android

Using Appium, you can test traditional mobile apps on Windows. However, iOS simulators are not able to be automated on Windows due to the fact that iOS simulators run on macOS as part of Xcode, so it is not possible. Using a real iOS device plugged into a Windows machine is technically not possible either, though some folks have figured that out. It is not supported.

The Android tests can be automated on Windows using Appium. Let’s look at the steps that need to be taken.

Specifications

Android testing on Windows requires Appium’s runtime environment, along with Android development requirements.

1. The latest stable version of NodeJS, or Appium Desktop (currently 10+).
2. Java Development Kits (JDKs)
3. Tools related to Android Studio

System Setup

1. JDK is usually installed to ensure compatibility with older test suites, but you can use whatever version you want). You will need to sign up and log in to Oracle. 
2. Appium Desktop bundles its own version of NodeJS, so you can skip this step if you’re running Appium Desktop. It’s a good idea to have the ability to run Appium from the command line. And Appium Desktop’s Inspector is able to communicate with Appium running on the CLI).
3. JAVA_HOME environment variabl has to be set. This is supposed to be done in your system settings. Here is a quick guide on setting a variable if you’ve never set one before. As a result, a new variable called JAVA_HOME must be created. In a command prompt, type echo %JAVA_HOME% and you should see your JDK path. 

Android Setup

The installation of Android Studio can be safely followed by going-through the below mentioned steps:

1. You’ll find two important items in the launch window of Android Studio: the “AVD Manager” and “SDK Manager”. Click on the SDK Manager first.
2. Open the SDK Manager and ensure at least one Android SDK has been installed. You will need the “Android SDK Location” later on.
3. Open the AVD Manager after closing the SDK Manager. In the AVD Manager, you will create and launch Android Virtual Devices, also known as emulators. After the AVD Manager opens, click “Create Device” to start the emulator creation wizard if you have no other devices.
4. Pick something fun from this list. At this point, it doesn’t really matter which configuration preset you select.
5. Work through the other prompts. You can pick defaults unless you know you have other needs. When asked to select the emulator’s system version, you must select the image of the emulator you have downloaded. Click on the “Download” link beside the emulator if it is not already downloaded to make it available.
6. Regardless of what name you give the emulator, you can use it.
7. Launch it by clicking on the green play button icon once it’s been created. You’ll see something that looks like an Android device booting up. Please let it boot up fully and play around with it to make sure everything is working properly.
8. Lastly, we must ensure that Android SDK location is available to Appium. Creating another environment variable (like we did for JAVA_HOME) is how we do this. This one is named ANDROID_HOME.
9. To make certain commands (such as adb) available from a command prompt from a command prompt, add part of the Android SDK path to your system PATH. Look for an existing variable called PATH in the same place you edited the environment variables. This special string should be added to the end: ;%ANDROID_HOME%\platform-tools. What will this do? It is important to note that the semicolon separates this path segment from those that preceded it. An environment variable, and the path to the program adb.exe in that directory, is referenced by %ANDROID_HOME%.
10. Open a new command prompt and save out of all dialogs. Hit enter after typing adb devices. The emulator you booted up a moment ago will be detected by ADB if everything is configured properly.
11. To run the emulator binary from the command line, add %ANDROID_HOME%/emulator to the path, so that you don’t have to run Android Studio every time. (Do not forget to include the; between paths if you do add this).

Appium Automation Best Practices 

Now we have curated some of the best practices that you must follow while using Appium.

• It is always recommended to perform a feasibility study and concept study before testing a mobile app to get a sense of the cost and feasibility of its execution, as well as any concerns.
• An effective framework must have a defined folder structure for ease of tracing elements and portability to any drive location for various kinds of programs. A proper procedure should also be in place for handling errors and recovering errors. The error in the framework itself should be fixed before we move on to the script.

• Consider the following points when automating various OS and application categories:

• Automating different types of OS and applications should be considered in key scenarios to determine the scope and time it takes.
• Develop it with OS-specific components that are essential and unique.

• Assembling scenario-specific unit tests and analyzing the data will require the team to estimate the total effort involved in creating OS-Device compatible scripts, developing the system, and testing the system.
• A proper plan must be in place to enable Appium to locate the UI elements in the shortest amount of time. The UI locator must also be able to detect any changes to the hierarchy of the elements.
• Since cloud-based technologies are cost-effective and easy to maintain, they are generally recommended for use. As physical device labs are expensive, cloud-based app testing platforms are the most practical way for organizations to maximize test coverage and effectiveness while minimizing manual work. As soon as a tricky situation is identified, the team must customize and implement the appropriate fixes to resolve it execute automated mobile app testing with Appium. Even the framework you decide to build upon needs to be feasible.

You should include Appium in your test automation plan. Setting up, operating, and scaling in-house device labs is expensive, so using a real device cloud platform like LambdaTest is essential to conducting Appium testing efficiently. Your developers and testers can conduct Appium testing on real devices from anywhere, anytime with LambdaTest’s online device farm, which eliminates the need for in-house device labs. In addition to being fast, reliable, scalable, and secure, LambdaTest is a leading test execution and orchestration platform. With 3000+ operating systems, browsers, and real device combinations, users can test web and mobile apps manually and automatically. In 130+ countries, This platform is used by over 500 enterprises and 1 million+ users to ensure faster developer feedback and thus a faster go-to-market.

Conclusion

Here’s what we’ve done: we’ve installed the Appium server, as well as the Android-specific dependencies. That’s it!

The Appium server has already been started (just run it from an admin command line), an Appium test has been loaded into your preferred editor, any tweaks need to be made to your system, and the test can then be started. Upon launching your app on the Android emulator, the Appium server should release logs and send you notifications if everything goes well.

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