Mobile Automation Testing with Robot Framework and Appium for iOS

Mobile Automation Testing on iOS

In this blogpost, we will discuss Mobile Automation testing with Robot Framework and Appium Library using PyCharm IDE.

I have put this article as simple as possible into 3 points as mentioned below. Let's start!

App under test : com.apple.reminders

Set Up
Open Appium GUI Server and Appium Inspector
Test Automation Framework

1. Set Up: The setup is a bit tedious but it's worthwhile to see running the automation tests.

We need to install the following step by step.

Install Java : Download Java from Oracle from the link below. Install from this link Java8-Mac-Download

Set up your bash profile or .zshrc file : Once you've installed Java now set your environment variables

Run this command on Terminal :

nano ~/.zshrc

(OR)

open ~/.zshrc

and Add the below to your .zshrc file:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/libexec/java_home

export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:$PATH

After this run this command on Terminal "source ~/.zshrc"

Install Homebrew : Go to the page Homebrew for reference. Run the command below on your terminal to install Homebrew:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install Node: Run the command "brew install node" on your terminal

Install Appium : npm install -g appium

Download Appium Inspector from the link : Appium-Inspector

Alternatively, you can run "brew install --cask appium" on your terminal.

You install both ways that is from the UI and CLI so that sometimes it will be handy running appium server from terminal and inspecting elements with Appium Inspector.

Run command "appium -v" on your terminal to check the version installed.

Note: In earlier versions of appium both Appium Server and Appium Inspector are in one GUI but now it is changed and both Server and Appium Inspector are separated.

From the UI once downloaded, Open the Appium Server and it looks like this

Open Appium Inspector which is downloaded from above.

Right click and 'open'

From the UI once downloaded, Open the Appium Inspector and it looks like this

If you get error like this below when opening the "Appium Inspector"

Please follow the below steps:

Right-click
Select Open
Now move the appium to the Application folder

Install Python: Use this link: Python to download the latest version of Python

Once downloaded, Run the below commands on your terminal

python3 --version

pip3 --version

Alternatively, It’s not mandatory but if you don't want to download from the python's website you can run this command "brew install python3" on your terminal. It's not mandatory only if you don't want to install from Python

Install Robot Framework: Run the command "pip3 install robotframework" on your terminal

Install Robot Framework Appium Library: Run the command "pip3 install robotframework-appiumlibrary" on your terminal

Run the command "robot --version" on your terminal

Install Pycharm IDE: Go to the page PyCharm and install the community version unless you have a specific need of Professional version

Set your Project Interpreter by adding necessary Libraries as shown below by clicking on PyCharm > Preferences > Project:Your Project Name > Python Interpreter

Also, Install Intellibot plugin from PyCharm > Preferences > Plugins

For parallelisation of your tests, Install pabot: Run the command "pip3 install -U robotframework-pabot". This is not necessary for this blogpost. You can ignore this for now!

Install Xcode from Apple Store: You will need an apple id for installation. Go here Create Your Apple ID to sign up if you don't have one!

Note: This may take a bit more time to install so have a little patience :)!

Once Xcode is Installed, Run this command "sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app" on your terminal to see your installation is good.

Open the Xcode and it should open the default Simulator for you.

Click on Simulator and select iOS version and select a device as shown below. In my case default simulator was iPhone SE but I have changed it to iPhone 12

Install Carthage: Run the command "brew install carthage"

Install appium-xcuitest-driver: Run the command "sudo npm i appium-xcuitest-driver"

Install ios-deploy: Run the command "sudo npm install -g ios-deploy"

Install idevice-installer: Run the command "brew install ideviceinstaller"

Install appium-doctor: Run the command "npm install appium-doctor -g"

Run the command "appium-doctor --ios" to check your configurations are correct

To see list of devices in your system:

Run the command "instruments -s devices" for iOS 12 or below versions.

For iOS 13 and later, Run the command "xcrun xctrace list devices" it will list your list of devices that you can test with.

Please make a note of the ID to select your required device.

For example: iPhone 12 Simulator (15.5) (A05B3D2C-B7CE-41A2-BD62-C1F09E35761A)

To see the list of Libraries installed:

Run the command "pip3 list | grep robot"

2. Start Appium and Open Appium Inspector:

On your terminal, run the command "appium"

Now open "Appium Inspector"

Make sure you set your capabilities as shown below. Put the value "/wd/hub" in the Remote Path field otherwise you will face an issue of connecting to the app.

{
  "deviceName": "iPhone 12",
  "platformName": "iOS",
  "automationName": "XCUITest",
  "app": "com.apple.reminders",
  "udid": "A05B3D2C-B7CE-41A2-BD62-C1F09E35761A",
  "platformVersion": "15.5"
}

For reference you can check this link for capabilities : Capabilities

Now click on "Start Session"

If you get an error like below, Just re-start your Appium Server and Appium Inspector close and start them again.

Again, First Start the Appium server and then the Appium Inspector.

Now, Your Appium Inspector is opened properly.

Your Appium Inspector looks like this.

Now, You can Grab the elements !!!

3. Test Automation Framework : I have created the Test Automation Framework using Screen Object Design Pattern.

I say screen object design because this is not actually different from typical page object design pattern on Web. It's just we are testing the screens on mobile, so the page from web is replaced by screen for mobile but the functionality remains the same.

Folder Structure:

Test Setup:

ScreenObjects/Locators:

While grabbing locators from Appium Inspector make sure your first priority would be "Accessibility ID" and then ID, name and xpath.

Sometimes, it's hard for you to find elements. So please ask your developer to add the Accessibility ID's or ID's for your automation testing.

*** Settings ***
Documentation                         Screen Objects for Landing Screen

*** Variables ***
${MY_LISTS_TITLE}                      xpath=//*[@label='My Lists']
${REMINDERS_LABEL}                     xpath=//*[@label='Reminders']
${NEW_REMINDER_LABEL}                  xpath=(//*[@label='New Reminder'])[1]
${ADD_LIST_LABEL}                      Add List
${REMINDER_COUNT_AS_ONE}               xpath=//XCUIElementTypeStaticText[@name="1"]
${REMINDER_COUNT_AS_ZERO}              xpath=//XCUIElementTypeStaticText[@name="0"]

*** Settings ***
Documentation                         Screen Objects for New Reminder Screen

*** Variables ***
${NEW_REMINDER_BUTTON}                xpath=(//*[@label='New Reminder'])[1]
${TITLE_TEXT_INPUT}                   name=Quick Entry Title Field
${NOTES_TEXT_INPUT}                   name=Quick Entry Note Field
${ADD_BUTTON}                         xpath=//XCUIElementTypeButton[@name="Add"]

*** Settings ***
Documentation                         Screen Objects for Reminders List Screen

*** Variables ***
${LISTS_LABEL}                        xpath=(//*[@label='Lists'])[1]
${REMINDERS_SCREEN_TITLE}             xpath=//*[@label='Reminders']                
${TEST_TITLE}                         xpath=//*[contains(@value,'TEST_')]
${TEST_NOTES}                         name=This is for Test Demo
${EMPTY_LIST}                         name=Empty list
${NO_REMINDERS_LABEL}                 name=No Reminders

Pages/Screens: Create Screens instead of Pages which is similar to page object design.

The Screens will have the Screen Objects, necessary Libraries and Keywords required for each individual screen. The keywords are defined as for example "NewReminderScreen.ElementsVisible" which tells about the actions to be done on that particular screen.

Custom Keywords/User-Defined Functions: We can create our own functions sometimes in Python when some robot framework keywords doesn't get the job done for us.

Tests: The Tests have the Scenario, Scenario Description and Test Steps defined in the Test case.

Test Setup and Test Teardown for opening and closing the application using the appium server.

Import the necessary Libraries and Resources in the settings section.

Write all your keywords with a prefix of screen names in the Test Cases section so that the test identifies the keywords written down in different screens.