Automating Mobile App Testing in Python with Appium and UI Automator - Best Practices?
I've tried everything I can think of but I'm working on a project and hit a roadblock..... After trying multiple solutions online, I still can't figure this out. Currently developing a suite of automated tests for a mobile application using Python and Appium. The challenge arises when trying to handle different mobile device configurations, specifically with Android's UI Automator. I started by setting up Appium with the following capabilities: ```python from appium import webdriver desired_caps = { 'platformName': 'Android', 'deviceName': 'Android Emulator', 'app': 'path/to/my_app.apk', 'automationName': 'UiAutomator2' } driver = webdriver.Remote('http://localhost:4723/wd/hub', desired_caps) ``` The initial tests seem to work well on an emulator, but when running them on real devices, there are inconsistencies in element locators. I’ve attempted to use different strategies for locating elements, including XPath and ID, but the performance is hit or miss. Here’s what I’ve tried for locating a button: ```python # Using XPath button = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//android.widget.Button[@content-desc="myButton"]') # Using ID button = driver.find_element_by_id('com.example.myapp:id/myButton') ``` To ensure maximum compatibility, I also explored using UI Automator directly to interact with UI elements. However, I’m not sure how to integrate this effectively with Appium. Some community inputs suggest that it might be better to use UI Automator for complex gestures, but that raises the question of how to maintain the readability of the test scripts. Additionally, I encounter issues with wait times, especially for elements that take longer to appear on slower devices. Implementing explicit waits has improved some scenarios, but not all. Here’s how I tried setting it up: ```python from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10) my_button = wait.until(EC.visibility_of_element_located((By.ID, 'com.example.myapp:id/myButton'))) ``` What approaches or best practices do you recommend for structuring these tests effectively? Are there specific patterns or libraries that might help streamline the process, particularly when dealing with varied mobile environments? Any insights on improving stability and performance would also be appreciated. What am I doing wrong? I'm working on a API that needs to handle this. What am I doing wrong?