The Chronicle of iPhone Automation -- From Frank to UISpec to UIAutomation to KIF

The Chronicle of iPhone Automation
From Frank to UISpec to UIAutomation to KIF
HinlingYeung
QA Automation Engineer from Trulia, Inc

Background
iPhone app
iPad app
Android app
Mobile site
more phone/device apps to come in a short future
Mobile traffic keeps increasing

To help maintain our sanity…
Let’s automate some of our devices!

Now let’s get back to the topic.
After watching Pete Hodgson’s presentation about Frank, I was very hopeful about iPhone automation…

Then I follow the online documentations…
And successfully setup up Frank!

However, when I actually start automating my first test case.
I hit my first wall:

mbp-1350:cucumber hyeung$ cucumber features/login.feature
Feature:
As an iOS developer
I want to click the Log in button
So I can see the warning message of missing email address and password
Scenario: # features/login.feature:6
PING FAILED!!!!
FRANK! Given I launch the app # features/step_definitions/launch_steps.rb:1
When I wait 30 seconds # features/step_definitions/frank_steps.rb:1
When I touch the "No Thanks" Button # features/step_definitions/frank_steps.rb:29
end of file reached (EOFError)
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:135:in `sysread'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:135:in `rbuf_fill'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:62:in `timeout'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:93:in `timeout'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:134:in `rbuf_fill'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:116:in `readuntil'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/protocol.rb:126:in `readline'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2020:in `read_status_line'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:2009:in `read_new'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:1050:in `request'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/net/http.rb:543:in `start'
./features/step_definitions/frank_steps.rb:30:in `/^I touch the "([^"]*)" Button$/'
features/login.feature:9:in `When I touch the "No Thanks" Button'
Failing Scenarios:
cucumber features/login.feature:6 # Scenario:
1 scenario (1 failed)
3 steps (1 failed, 2 passed)
0m37.113s

So…
Keep on debugging the ruby scripts, Frank, and possibly UISpec
OR
Let’s get to the bottom: UISpec

Then I start setting up UISpec…
adding libraries…
Adding dependencies…
Adding header files…
Adding more header files…
Oops…linking error. Then adding .m files…
Add some test code:
-(void)itShouldShowErrorMessageAfterClickingLogInButton {
[[app.find.labeltext:@"For Sale"] flash];
[[app.find.labeltext:@"For Rent"] flash];
[[app.find.labeltext:@"My Trulia"] flash];
…
}

Looks Really Promising…
Let’s try “touch” it instead of just “flash” it.
Then I hit another wall:
“touch” results in no reaction or EXC_BAD_ACESS error

Sigh…

I really need something that just work!
Then I talked to a friend of mine who works in the MobileMe automation team in Apple:
Me: What do you use to automate your iphone app?
Friend: Javascript
Me: Javascript? You mean Javascript JAVASCRIPT? The one we use on the browser?
Friend: yes. Check the apple dev center.
Results: UIAutomation from Apple

UIAutomation with Instruments
http://alexvollmer.com/posts/2010/07/03/working-with-uiautomation/
Add some accessibilityLabels
Setup the Instruments template
Write some Javascript
A little counter intuitive but click “record” and it starts running.
And it works!

Let’s integrate the tests with Jenkins
I hit another wall:
There is no good way to kick off the tests from command line and integrate my results to Jenkins!

Then I found KIF…
KIF – Keep It Functional
By Square (Eric Firestone) -- https://github.com/square/KIF
Blog: http://corner.squareup.com/2011/07/ios-integration-testing.html
Couple linking errors later…

YEAH!
It actually works from end to end with simple enough setup.
With instructions to start the test in command line
And quits after the test finish running.
And output results to the console.
Results are not in a CI-ready format but THAT’S OK IF THAT’S THE ONLY PROBLEM!

Final Solution
KIF
Add accessibilityLabel to textField, Button, and View
isAccessibilityElement = YES
Symbiote from Frank to inspect the labels on app
WaxSim to launch app from command line
Modify the KIF log to output test results that can be turned into standard junit result format

The Chronicle of iPhone Automation -- From Frank to UISpec to UIAutomation to KIF

by Hinling Yeung

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

The Chronicle of iPhone Automation -- From Frank to UISpec to UIAutomation to KIF Presentation Transcript