Appium for iOS with XCUI Instruments with Webdriver agent application

Appium iOS Automation setup with XCUI TEST WebDriver Agent

STEP BY STEP PROCEDURE::

Brew install and Update:

Homebrew is a free and open-source software package management system that simplifies the installation of software on Apple’s OS X operation system.

To install brew:

Ruby –e “$(curl –fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”

To update the Homebrew: brew update

Install npm and Update:

Installing Node.js and NPM is pretty straightforward using Homebrew. Homebrew handles downloading,unpacking and installing Node and NPM on your system.

Open the Terminal app and type brew install node

To see if Node is installed, type node -v  in Terminal. This should print the version number of Node

To see if NPM is installed, type npm -v in Terminal. This should print the npm version number.

For Updating Node and NPM:

New versions of Node and NPM come out frequently. You can use Homebrew to update the software it installs.

1. Make sure Homebrew has the latest version of the Node package. In Terminal type 

brew update

2. Upgrade Node: brew upgrade node 

To Uninstall Node and NPM:

 

Use Homebrew to uninstall packages that it installed: brew uninstall node.

Use Homebrew to uninstall npm: brew uninstall npm.

Install Xcode:

Apple’s XCode development software is used to build Mac and iOS apps, but it also includes the tools you need to compile software for use on your Mac.

Download XCode from: https://developer.apple.com/xcode/download/  and install.

Install Appium, XcuitestDriver and Appium Doctor:

Appium:

Appium is an open-source tool for automating native, mobile web, and hybrid applications on iOS and Android platforms.

Download latest Appium version from:  https://bitbucket.org/appium/appium.app/downloads/  and install.

Note: use “Sudo”, if you want to install as ADMIN

1.       Command to install Appium: npm install –g Appium@1.6.3

2.       To check Appium version : Appium –v

3.       To uninstall Appium: Sudo npm uninstall –g Appium

XCUITEST:

1.       Command to install Xcuitest Driver: npm install appiun-xcuitest-driver

2.       To uninstall Appium: Sudo npm uninstall appiun-xcuitest-driver

3.        

Appium Doctor:

1.       Command to install AppiumDoctor: npm install appiun-doctor –g

2.       To check iOS configuration: Appium-doctor --ios

3.       To uninstall Appium: Sudo npm uninstall appiun-doctor

4.       Usage:

--ios	To Check iOS setup
--android	To check Android Setup
--dev	To check dev setup
--debug	To show Debug message
--yes	Always respond Yes
--no	Always Respond No
--demo	To run Appium-doctor demo for dev
-h or –help	To show help

Appium Inspector:

No official Appium Inspector is released for Appium 1.6 or above. So there are few workarounds to identify iOS native elements.

Workaround-1: Accessibily Inspector

a.       Open XcodeàOpen Developer Tool à Click on Accessibility Inspector.

b.      Connect  an iOS device to MAC machine  and open that device in Quick Time player

c.       Select  connected device as Target Device in Accessibility Inspector

d.      Inspect required elements

e.      Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BgkVp0v3BM

Workaround-2: By Using Older Version Appium GUI

a.       Open GUI of Appium (Older version, ex:1.5.3)and set all required capabilities.

b.      Start Appium 1.6.3(1.6 or above) from command prompt.

c.       Once server is started, start inspecting elements by click on Appium Inspector on GUI

Install External Dependencies:

Ideviceinstaller:

Ideviceinstaller is a tool to interact with the installation_proxy of an iOS device allowing installing, upgrading, uninstalling, archiving, restoring and enumerating installed or archived apps.

In order to install this tool, Open the terminal and run the following command:

Command: brew install --HEAD  ideviceinstaller

Carthage:

Carthage builds your dependencies and provides you with binary frameworks, but you retain full control over your project structure and setup. Carthage does not automatically modify your project files or your build settings.

Command: brew install carthage

Note: if you previously installed the binary version of Carthage, you should delete    “/Library/Frameworks/CarthageKit.framework”

Ios-deploy:

Install and debug iOS apps without using Xcode. Designed to work on un-jailbroken devices.

Ideviceinstaller  doesn't work with iOS 10 yet. So we need to install ios-deploy

Command: npm install –g ios-deploy

DeviceConsole:

Command: npm install –g deviceconsole

Xcpretty:

Xcpretty is a fast and flexible formatter for xcodebuild.

It does one thing, and it should do it well.

Command: gem install xcpretty

Libimobiledevice:

Command: brew install libimobiledevice –HEAD  #install from head to get important update

WebDriverAgent Configuration:

1.       Go to node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/WebDriverAgent

2.       mkdir –p Resources/WebDriverAgent.bundle

3.       sh ./Scripts/bootstrap.sh –d

4.       Open Xcode with WebDriverAgent.xcodproj

5.       Build WebDriverAgent Project with Sign.

Steps to execute XCUITEST scripts:

a.       Sign WebDriverAgent and WebDriverAgentRunner with Apple Account and Check by building it on Simulator and Real Device.

b.      Resign the Application which you want to automate and provide the path of the resigned ipa file in script.

c.       Create the script, Start Appium and Run the testcases.

Links:

·         https://discuss.appium.io/t/appium-xcuitest-example-how-to-get-started-appium-using-xcuitest-for-real-device/12415

·         https://github.com/appium/appium-xcuitest-driver

·         https://discuss.appium.io/t/installation-steps-to-get-appium-fully-working-on-macos-10-11/12336/4