The document presents an overview of improving Android app testing using Appium and Sauce Labs, featuring insights from Isaac Murchie, a software developer at Sauce Labs. It contrasts traditional Android testing methods, like UI Automator, with Appium's more flexible and scalable approach, emphasizing Appium's support for multiple devices, ease of use, and community-driven development. Ultimately, the document concludes that Appium enhances Android testing by providing a more intuitive and robust framework for automation.

1. © Sauce Labs, Inc.
Improving Android app testing with
Appium and Sauce Labs
Presented by Isaac Murchie, Software Developer (Ecosystem and Integration) for Sauce Labs, Inc.May 12, 2015
Unlock the value of scalable testing for mobile apps.

2. © Sauce Labs, Inc.
Hi! I’m Isaac Murchie.
I am an Ecosystem and Integrations developer at Sauce
Labs, where I work in a variety of languages, on a variety of
tools, in order to help make the experience of testing as
painless as possible. I am also a core contributor to Appium,
the award-winning cross-platform mobile automation
framework.
Find us online
@saucelabs | @imurchie
facebook.com/saucelabs
isaac@saucelabs.com
Sauce Labs
539 Bryant Street, Ste. 303
San Francisco, CA 94102

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Agenda: Better testing withAppium and Sauce Labs
Writing an Android test
Ever tried using Android’s UI
Automator?
Writing a better Android test
with Appium
Much better, no?
But…
Scaling? What scaling.
Scaling with Sauce Labs
You don’t have to be stuck with a single
device!
All the things are correct
Follow your bliss.

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Testing testing testing

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Writing an Android test
i.e., UI Automator all the things

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Android UI Automator
“The UI Automator testing framework provides a set of APIs to build UI tests that
perform interactions on user apps and system apps. The UI Automator APIs [sic]
allows you to perform operations such as opening the Settings menu or the app
launcher in a test device. The UI Automator testing framework is well-suited for
writing black box-style automated tests, where the test code does not rely on internal
implementation details of the target app.”

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Android UI Automator: Example

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Android UI Automator: Pros and Cons
Pros:
• Provided by Android.
• Provides tools for debugging and
viewing the running app.
• Can run against multiple devices by
changing the build tools.
Cons:
• Text-based matching makes
localization difficult, and only supports
basic Latin alphabet.
• Terrible documentation.
• Slow, brittle.
• In order to run against a different
device, build tools must be edited.
• Tied to Java, and the tools provided.
• Slow development and release
process.

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Writing a better Android test with Appium
i.e., hiding UI Automator!

10. © Sauce Labs, Inc.© Sauce Labs, Inc.
Android on Appium: Automated Mobile Testing
“Appium is built on the idea that testing native
apps shouldn't require including an SDK or
recompiling your app. And that you should be
able to use your preferred test practices,
frameworks, and tools. Appium is an open source
project and has made design and tool decisions
to encourage a vibrant contributing community.”
2209 stars and 1526 forks, with 141 contributors,
on GitHub.
Appium is an award-
winning open source
test framework for
automating native,
hybrid and mobile
apps.

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Android on Appium: Example

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Android on Appium
Stop! Demo time.

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Android on Appium: How it works
Test Script Appium
Server
Device
Manipulation
(adb, etc)
Device
Automation
(UI Automator)
Android
Device
HTTP

14. © Sauce Labs, Inc.
Android on Appium: Pros and Cons
Pros:
• Open source, and based on the open
standard test protocol, Selenium
WebDriver.
• Client-server architecture.
• Uses Android UI Automator when
available, Selendroid otherwise.
• Allow use of any language and
framework for writing tests.
• Can run against multiple devices by
providing different configuration.
• Supports managing device.
• Full unicode support.
Cons:
• Difficult setup.
• Only a single Android device can be
automated at once by the server.
• Lack of image recognition.

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But
Scaling…

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Running Appium

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Scaling with Sauce Labs
No longer are you tied to your machine.

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Sauce Platform: Largest Cloud forAutomated Testing
• Test web + mobile apps across more than
500 platforms
• Industry standard Selenium WebDriver
protocol
• Enterprise scalability + industry standard
SLA
• Capture screencasts, logs + test
metadata
TEST APP SAUCE
CONNECT
SE DRIVERS FOR
YOUR SCRIPT
Java, Ruby, Python, JS, PHP, .net

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Appium on Sauce

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Appium on Sauce
Stop! Demo time.

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Appium on Sauce
A few observations:
• One test took ~1 minute. Five tests took ~2 minutes.
• Able to specify versions on the fly.
• Use whatever framework you want to run tests in parallel.

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Know that all the things are correct

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Conclusion: TestingAndroidApps
Android testing is difficult, and made more so by the tools
provided by the vendor
Appium solves many of the problems in Android testing by
abstracting away the device and app, leaving tests to
concentrate on testing.
Open to using QA best practices.
Less brittle, more intuitive.
Better control over device automation.

24. © Sauce Labs, Inc.© Sauce Labs, Inc.
Thanks!
Keep in touch!
@saucelabs @imurchie