By Dan Cuellar, Zoosk

1. Setting Apple’s
UIAutomation Free
with Appium
Dan Cuellar
d@zoosk.com
Lead Software Engineer, Test Team

2. Overview
 The Problem
 The Solution
 Run UIAutomation From The Command Line
 Break It Out Of Javascript
 Control it in Real-Time
 How to Code With Appium
 Demo
 Odds & Ends

3. The Problem

4. The Problem w/ UIAutomation
 runs only in Instruments.app
 must be written in Javascript
 does not support realtime control
 many useful js methods (e.g. HTTP requests) have been
removed
 difficult to build libraries and re-use code
 cannot integrate w/ existing Selenium automation
 requires adding http servers to your app’s source code

5. The Solution

6. Solving the Problem
 need command line control
 needs to run on the simulator and real devices
 need to break out of javascript
 need realtime control
 should not require you to add code to your app
 shoud not require the application source code

7. Command Line Control
 /usr/bin/instruments
 -t templatePath (path to Automation.tracetemplate)
 (path to compiled ios application)
 -e UIASCRIPT (path to UIAutomation javascript test)
 -e UIARESULTSPATH (path where results will be saved)
 [-w device udid]
 /usr/bin/xcodebuild (run inside project.xcodeproj)
 -sdk (sdk version)
 -target (build target)
 [-scheme (scheme)]
 TARGETED_DEVICE_FAMILY=1|2 (1=iPhone, 2=iPad)

8. Breaking Out Of Javascript
No HTTP Web Requests in UIAutomation JS
However…
host.performTaskWithPathArgumentsTimeout() can run all
your favorite shell commands
so with friends like cat, curl, and python who needs
Javascript and its HTTP web request methods
… and Don’t Forget the AppleScript (comes in handy when
you need to dismiss OS permissions dialogs)

9. Making It Real-Time
 Technique 1, file based communication
 Javascript loop looking for sequentially number files in a
predetermined folder for commands
 Have your program write raw javascript to the file
 Read the file using cat
 Run the command using eval()
 Write the sequentially numbered response file using
whatever you like (I chose python)
 Technique 2, setup a proxy web service
 Curl to ask if there’s a command you should run
 Curl back posting the result

10. Result
 Now you can control UIAutomation from any language
that can write files or make web requests
 You can reuse all that non javascript based (java, c#,
python, ruby, php) automation code you have for your
selenium tests
 Run tests that use a web browser and an iOS device at the
same time
 The possibilities are endless

11. Coding w/ Appium

12. Pre-Requisites
 install Xcode
 install Xcode Command Line Tools
 Set up a ~/.appium file
[appium]
username = an_osx_admin_username
password = an_osx_admin_password
OPTIONAL
 sudo easy_install pip
 sudo pip install bottle (required for webdriver server)
 sudo pip install selenium (required to code against the webdriver
server)

13. Running Appium
 git clone git://github.com/hugs/appium
 To launch the UIAutomation javascript interpretter
 python appium.py “/path/to/my.app”
 To launch the webdriver server
 Python server.py “/path/to/my.app”

14. Coding Appium like Selenium
from selenium import webdriver
command_url = “http://localhost:4723/wd/hub”
iphone = webdriver.DesiredCapabilities.IPHONE
driver = webdriver.Remote(command_url, iphone)
fields = driver.find_elements_by_tag_name('textField’)
fields[0].send_keys(3)
fields[1].send_keys(4)
buttons = driver.find_elements_by_tag_name('button’)
buttons[0].click()

15. Demo

16. Odds & Ends

17. Failed Prototypes
 Applescript iOS Simulator Automation
 Did not work on actual devices
 Seemed to be highly sensitive to iOS and OS X version
 Not a reliable
 Javascript Server Within UIAutomation
 I could not get a server booted up while running in
Instruments

18. Pitfalls
 Bug in UIAutomation causes 1 second delay between
commands
 I get around this by sending batches of commands
 Noticed NIBs and XIBs are supported while storyboards
are a more of a crapshoot
 It’s tricky to make elements accessible in objective C
 Some controls (UISegmentedControl) are missing supported
accessibility methods
 Applying a label to text will hinder your ability to read the
text in the control (you need to encapsulate it)

19. Resources
Appium Project
 https://github.com/hugs/appium or
http://appium.io
Discussion
 https://groups.google.com/d/forum/appium-discuss