5 ms·

Appium: Drive iOS Apps from Any Test Framework

40 points by sah 14y ago

rbreve 14y ago
looks good, I'll give it a try, for testing I've been using http://testingwithfrank.com/ http://testingwithfrank.com/
- jlipps 14y ago
  (disclaimer: I'm an appium committer) While Frank and Appium provide a similar set of solutions to a similar problem, we're driven by slightly different philosophies. Two of Appium's core tenets are (1) you shouldn't have to modify your source code or add 3rd-party libraries to test, and (2) it's better to leverage existing successful "driver" protocols. To that end, we've designed things so that all of the interaction takes place between Appium and your un-modified app, whereas Frank requires compiling in its own libraries for testing. Likewise, we opted to make Appium a Selenium WebDriver-compatible server, so that the thousands of developers who are already familiar with using their favorite WebDriver library can jump in and start writing tests without having to wrap their heads around a new automation model. Frank is an extremely impressive piece of technology, but we felt the need for an approach born out of a different philosophy.
  - pwojnaro 14y ago
    Very cool. With Frank, Calabash and Zucchini already out there (to name just a few), the iOS UI automation space is getting pretty crowded. Having said that, it is definitely nice to see something that is not based on Cucumber. Any ETA on the Android?
    - hugs 14y ago
      No ETA for Android, but it's very high on our list.
  - seivan 14y ago
    You stating your philosophies won me over, mostly because I agree with them. I generally test using the builtin stuff, and only on models. Never controllers or views. This could be useful.
plasma 14y ago
Interesting; recently wanted to get into iOS automation testing and we also have an Android product so a unified test framework would be great. I notice from the screenshots it takes a while to get through each step, is this due to the simulator, Appium itself, or for demo purposes? Cheers
- maudineormsby 14y ago
  This is a delay built into Instruments. Most of the UI actions in an app take some time, so it's not that bad. There is also a way around it; one mode of Appium skips the system clock forward to get around the delay.
alimoeeny 14y ago
So, can I use Cucumber with Appium, like I can use with Frank?
- maudineormsby 14y ago
  I'm not familiar with cucumber, but if it can be used with the selenium-webdriver gem, then it can work with Appium.
- sah 14y ago
  Cucumber does indeed work. We just added an example: https://github.com/appium/appium/tree/master/sample-code/examples/ruby/cucumber/features https://github.com/appium/appium/tree/master/sample-code/exa...

40 points by sah 14y ago

rbreve 14y ago

looks good, I'll give it a try, for testing I've been using http://testingwithfrank.com/ http://testingwithfrank.com/

jlipps 14y ago
(disclaimer: I'm an appium committer) While Frank and Appium provide a similar set of solutions to a similar problem, we're driven by slightly different philosophies. Two of Appium's core tenets are (1) you shouldn't have to modify your source code or add 3rd-party libraries to test, and (2) it's better to leverage existing successful "driver" protocols. To that end, we've designed things so that all of the interaction takes place between Appium and your un-modified app, whereas Frank requires compiling in its own libraries for testing. Likewise, we opted to make Appium a Selenium WebDriver-compatible server, so that the thousands of developers who are already familiar with using their favorite WebDriver library can jump in and start writing tests without having to wrap their heads around a new automation model. Frank is an extremely impressive piece of technology, but we felt the need for an approach born out of a different philosophy.
- pwojnaro 14y ago
  Very cool. With Frank, Calabash and Zucchini already out there (to name just a few), the iOS UI automation space is getting pretty crowded. Having said that, it is definitely nice to see something that is not based on Cucumber. Any ETA on the Android?
  - hugs 14y ago
    No ETA for Android, but it's very high on our list.
- seivan 14y ago
  You stating your philosophies won me over, mostly because I agree with them. I generally test using the builtin stuff, and only on models. Never controllers or views. This could be useful.

plasma 14y ago

Interesting; recently wanted to get into iOS automation testing and we also have an Android product so a unified test framework would be great. I notice from the screenshots it takes a while to get through each step, is this due to the simulator, Appium itself, or for demo purposes? Cheers

maudineormsby 14y ago
This is a delay built into Instruments. Most of the UI actions in an app take some time, so it's not that bad. There is also a way around it; one mode of Appium skips the system clock forward to get around the delay.

alimoeeny 14y ago

So, can I use Cucumber with Appium, like I can use with Frank?

maudineormsby 14y ago
I'm not familiar with cucumber, but if it can be used with the selenium-webdriver gem, then it can work with Appium.
sah 14y ago
Cucumber does indeed work. We just added an example: https://github.com/appium/appium/tree/master/sample-code/examples/ruby/cucumber/features https://github.com/appium/appium/tree/master/sample-code/exa...