by admin | Aug 7, 2019 | Mobile App Testing, Fixed, Blog |
In terms of consumer technology, the ongoing mobile revolution appears to have affected a paradigm-shift in the domains of personal communication, entertainment, shopping, leisure activities, and more. Mobile apps represent an important aspect of the mobile revolution; therefore, these must be tested relentlessly prior to their release in the public domain. In this context, Mobile Test Automation assumes a high level of importance given its critical impact on the health of the digital economy.
Advantage Appium
Originally developed by Dan Cuellar in 2011, the Appium product was initially named “iOSAuto” and was written in the C# programming language. The product was subsequently open-sourced in August 2012 using the Apache 2 license. In terms of Test Automation, Appium in its modern avatar promotes the concept of cross-platform mobile testing and empowers test professionals to re-use automation code across both iOS and Android operating systems. Additionally, the open-source nature of Appium allows testers and testing organizations to reduce costs associated with Mobile Test Automation projects.
Wide Range
Appium allows Test Automation professionals to undertake testing of various categories of mobile applications; these include native apps, hybrid apps, and mobile web apps. The use of standard WebDriver libraries is central to such testing projects. Moreover, Appium expands the ambit of Mobile App Automation by enabling testers to execute automated tests on devices such as connected tablets, smartphones, and other such devices. Further, late editions of Appium are engineered to test large mobile applications that undergo frequent updates in terms of new features and functionality.
Appium for Android
The Appium tool can be easily deployed for Test Automation on Android applications version 2.3 and later. The tool promotes Mobile App Automation by utilizing WebDriver interface to execute tests. Mobile Test Automation engineers can use Appium to test the performance of the Safari and Chrome browsers on mobile devices. This implies the tool can successfully test the consumer experience that results from web browsing on a connected mobile device. This means that Test Automation is critical to ensure a top-notch consumer experience in this age of mobile computing.
Automation Friendly
Mobile Test Automation is an emerging field that may lead future development in the domain of software testing. This fact is underscored by the ability of Appium to automate a variety of testing scenarios for hybrid, web, and native mobile applications. In addition, Test Automation professionals endorse Appium owing to its ability to operate independently of extra agents in fulfilling its mission. Further, Appium carries native support for built-in apps such as phonebook, calendar, and camera that are common in modern mobile devices. The project of Mobile App Automation finds further support since Appium supports a range of Web Driver compatible languages such as Java, Object-C, Ruby, PHP, JS with Node.js, and more.
Large Community
Being open source, the Appium tool is supported by a large and active community of experts and developers. This indicates the tool undergoes regular updates that enhance its profile for Mobile App Automation projects. The strong community base enables the tool to test various testing scenarios that may emerge when future mobile applications enter the market. Additionally, members of the Appium community contribute significantly to enhance the Test Automation functionalities of the Appium tool.
Modular Approach
The Appium tool spotlights the best aspects of Mobile Test Automation because testers can re-use code when initiating different software testing projects. The cross-platform functionality of the tool allows testing professionals to write different test scenarios for iOS and Android using the same API. In addition, the developers of Appium created the tool to support software Test Automation on emulators, simulators, and different physical mobile devices. This aspect make Appium the ideal tool to drive regression testing on modern mobile applications.
Re-Compilation of Code: Not Needed
A majority of Mobile App Automation tools require testers to effect changes in the code underlying a mobile application. However, Appium operates above this requirement and empowers test professionals to test native and cross-platform mobile apps. This implies faster time-to-market for the app being tested. In addition, Test Automation undertaken by the Appium tool enables testers to automate the app testing project without adding specific components.
Server Machines: Not Required
As a test automation framework, Appium is designed on the lines of a HTTP server. This implies that testing professionals can execute tests without requiring the services of a server machine. Such functionality allows Mobile App Automation specialists to work with minimal infrastructure, while reducing the costs of testing operations. Experts in the domain of Mobile Test Automation aver this feature is critical to ensure the commercial success of the tool. Further, Appium carries a robust record-and-playback tool that allows Test Automation engineers to accelerate the testing process.
In Conclusion
We have analyzed and placed in the spotlight the merits of deploying Appium for test automation of mobile apps. Contributions from the Appium community will continue to add robust features to the tool, thereby boosting its competitive advantage vis-à-vis other testing frameworks. Contact us to work with the best software professionals in this realm and more.
by admin | Jul 1, 2019 | Mobile App Testing, Fixed, Blog |
Mobile app testing is a comparatively more complicated process than desktop or web app testing given the numerous challenges faced by mobile app testers. Some of these challenges include device variations, device fragmentation, OS fragmentation, rapid release schedules, several testing tools, unexpected customer app use cases, network compatibility, battery/power consumption, and offline functioning, among others.
In addition to these challenges, there are some added challenges that mobile app testers have and could possibly encounter in 2019. The top 7 additional mobile testing challenges in 2019 are listed below:
Tackling App Performance Issues
It is pertinent in present times that mobile app testing must focus on the delivery of quality apps to users. If there are performance issues affecting the user experience with an app, mobile device users are likely to opt for a competing app. Therefore, it is a challenge for testers to enhance the user experience by tackling app performance issues such as long time to load and run an app, inconsistent performance, poor responsiveness, and incompatibility with different networks or platforms.
Greater Need for Shift Left Testing
To ensure comprehensive testing of a mobile app, testing companies need to incorporate Shift Left Testing (test early and test often approach) in their mobile testing strategy. The Shift Left Testing process enables the mobile app testers to test an app in the early stages of its development rather than testing it only before release. The use of Shift Left Testing mechanism is a challenge because it requires the deft use of automated testing tools so that the testing of an app can be performed alongside its development.
Continuous Mobile Testing Requirements
The DevOps and Agile scenarios are paving the way for faster development of apps and frequent addition of new features to existing apps. Continuous Mobile Testing requirements pose a challenge even for a top mobile testing company because of the emphasis on continuous mobile testing skills of the testers. It is imperative for mobile app testers to be experts at Agile testing in order to make continuous testing a part of the continuous integration process for updating an app with new features and functionalities.
Focus on Social Media Testing
The increasing focus on social media is emerging as another big challenge for mobile app testers in the current year – 2019. It is crucial for testers to acquire social media testing skills because the present-day mobile app users trust social media reviews more than any other data. Hence, with all mobile apps now necessitating interface with the social media, testers should be proficient in running an app by different social media platforms when they test the app at various development stages.
Global Testing of Apps
In present times, almost all mobile apps, irrespective of the operating system and functionality, are developed for mobile phone users across the globe. Given this reality, it is a challenging task for the testers at a mobile app development company to test an app globally, on a range of networks, from one location. To overcome the challenge of global testing, mobile app companies generally outsource the testing tasks, but the results of the testing may sometimes not be desirable from the perspective of global usage.
Lack of Suitable Testing Tools
Mobile app development companies often lack the right testing tools that can enable their testers to test their app for use on smart devices. Due to the unavailability of suitable testing tools, testers are not able to get adequate test coverage while testing an app on a variety of mobile devices. Without the knowledge and use of proper testing tools, testers fail to capitalize on automated testing because of which there are delays in testing and, eventually, also in the release of the app to the market.
Coping Up With App Marketing Schedules
The rise of app store and in-app advertising has made it difficult for mobile app testers to cope up with the marketing schedules of the app marketers. With market app advertising on the increase, testers at most of the leading mobile testing companies have limited time to test the app exhaustively. Since a shorter testing time is becoming a challenge in mobile app testing, it is vital for mobile app companies to put a testing plan in place when they start the development of an app.
In Conclusion:
The astounding pace of mobile app development has made mobile app testing a very critical process since the users of smartphones demand well-designed, responsive, engaging, and feature-rich mobile apps. To overcome the challenges for mobile testing in 2019, mobile app testers should build top-notch app testing strategies based on a broad understanding of the different areas of mobile testing like technology, devices, usability, and user experience. Connect with us – we keep abreast with all the latest technologies, tools, and methodologies to glide past these challenges.
by admin | Jul 14, 2019 | Mobile App Testing, Fixed, Blog |
Choosing a right cloud testing tool is a cumbersome job given the option of multiple tools in market. However, an unbiased review from a QA company/testing experts will help the users to choose the apt tool. This week, we would like to review Lambdatest. Let’s go through all the features one by one.
Real Time Testing
Most of our ELearning Course testing projects, we use cloud test tools to test the courses on multi OS/platforms. For example: If a tester wants to test an application on Windows 10 and macOS, then the tester needn’t use two physical desktops (one for Windows and another for macOS). Just open two cloud real time testing instances and perform the testing. This eases and speeds up your testing on multi OS and browsers.
LambdaTest provides cross browser testing support on real mobile devices and Desktops and it has a comprehensive list of mobile devices. For desktops, we can see Windows and mac OS options. However, Linux is missing in the supported platforms. We would strongly recommend LambdaTest if you are testing web applications on multi browsers and mobile devices.
Suggestion to LambdaTest- Please add Real Time testing for Native Mobile Apps as well.
In LambdaTest Real Time Testing session, you can mark bug by entering comments & drawing on a screenshot, change screen resolution in the middle of your testing session. Screen video recording is also possible.
Visual UI Testing
LambdaTest has three features for Visual UI testing. Screenshot, Responsive, and Smart Testing.
Screenshot This is a notable feature in LambdaTest. You can take screenshots for a given URL on 25 mobile/desktop browsers in one go. Once the screenshots are ready, the tester can validate them one by one in slider view.
Responsive Another important feature. You can perform responsive mobile app testing on multiple devices simultaneously.
Smart Testing Smart Testing is a feature to compare screenshots with baseline images.
Automation Testing
You can send Selenium browser commands using LambdaTest’s Remote URL and desired capabilities as shown below.
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability("build", "your build name");
capabilities.setCapability("name", "your test name");
capabilities.setCapability("platform", "Windows 10");
capabilities.setCapability("browserName", "Chrome");
capabilities.setCapability("version","76.0");
capabilities.setCapability("visual",true);
LambdaTest supports Java, JavaScript, Python, C#, Ruby, and PHP to run your automation scripts on 2000+ different browsers
Integration with other tools
You can integrate LambdaTest with Jira, Slack, Bitbucket, Mantis, Azure DevOps, Clubhouse, Asana, Paymo, Monday, Trello, Teamwork, Microsoft Teams, Github, Hive, Gitlab, and Bugherd.
Conclusion
LambdaTest is a useful cloud testing tool which eases responsive multi browser testing. Native mobile app testing support is missing. We hope that it will be implemented in the near future.
by admin | May 31, 2019 | Mobile App Testing, Blog |
by admin | May 24, 2019 | Mobile App Testing, Blog |
by admin | Jun 13, 2019 | Mobile App Testing, Blog |
