This document discusses UI automation testing for iOS apps. It provides an overview of different types of automated testing, including unit testing and functional testing. It then focuses on options for automated functional testing, comparing tools like Calabash, Frank, and KIF. It also discusses using UI accessibility features to uniquely identify elements and make tests more robust. The document demonstrates setting up a sample app for UI automation testing and recommends the Tuneup.js library to help structure tests.

1. UI Automation : A
Primer
Cocoaheads, Ann Arbor
October, 2013

2. About Myself…
Principal Software Developer @ Barracuda Networks
Freelance App Developer & Consultant
www.priyaontech.com
www.lunariasoftware.com
TwiIer:@rajagp
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3. Test Categories
• Unit Testing
o Testing from developer’s perspective.
o Testing that a particular function is right
o Rest of system mocked up
• Functional Testing
o Testing from user’s perspective.
o Testing that system behaves right
Today we talk about Functional Testing
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4. Functional Testing -­‐‑
Manual
• Pros
o Non programmer can do it
o No special hardware/software required
o Some aspects have to be manually tested – eg. the actual
rendering, user experience
• Cons
o Time consuming (regression, large data sets and use cases)
o Lack of Reproducibility/ traceability (“Not sure what I did
exactly to cause the app to crash..”)
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5. Functional Testing -­‐‑
Automated
• Pros
o Saves time , effort
• Will offset the initial cost of writing the test scripts
o Consistency / Repeatable / Traceable
o Regression
o Large numbers of test data sets
o Continuous Integration
• Cons
o Need some programming skills
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6. Options
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Tool
Platform
Scripting Language
Technical Details
Calabash
iOS/Andoird
(Device &
Simulator)
BDD. Feature
descriptions wriIen in
Gherkin. Test steps in
Ruby.
Uses Cucumber for driving
tests. A HTTP bounjour server
runs in your app and accepts
commands from test driver
(HTTP/JSON). Open Source.
Uses Private APIs
Frank
iOS (Device &
Simulator)
BDD. Feature
descriptions wriIen in
Gherkin. Test steps in
Ruby.
Uses Cucumber for driving
tests. A HTTP Frank server
runs in your app and accepts
commands from test driver
over “Franky” protocol (HTTP/
JSON). Open Source
Uses Private APIs
KIF
iOS
( Simulator/
device)
Objective-­‐‑C
Framework integrated into
app. No HTTP server or
external driver. Open Source.

7. Options
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Tool
Platform
Scripting Language
Technical Details
Fone
Monkey/
Monkey
Talk
iOS/Andoird
(Device &
Simulator) &
Web Apps
JS, Obj-­‐‑C, monkeyTalk
scripts
Record actions using
MonkeyTalk console, save/edit
script & playback. Open
Source . Premium Support will
cost $$$
We’ll discuss UIAutomations today

8. UI Automation
• Automated functional test framework
from Apple
• UI interactions with app driven using
test scripts
• Test scripts written in Javascript
• Test scripts executed using
“Automation” instrument
• Actively developed & maintained
(well….maybe)
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9. UI Automation
• Good user interaction coverage
• Can work with no/minimal app
changes (recommend UIAccessibility)
• Works on simulators and devices
• Only on apps that are signed with
development profile
• Simplicity
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10. UI Accessibility
• Informal Protocol
• Interface to assist people with disabilities
• Uniquely identify every element in the view
hierarchy
• Every UIKit element can be specified to be
accessible, using "label" attribute
• Recommended to use w/ UI Automations
o In order to interact with an element, you need to identify it
• Identifying element by position makes script fragile
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11. UI Accessibility Rules
• Individual View
o Enable Accessibility
o Set Accessibility Label on the view
• Container View
o Disable Accessibility on container view
o Enable Accessibility on every contained view
that you want accessible
o Specify Labels for container and contained views
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12. UI Element Hierarchy
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Target
Application
Window
View
View
UIATarget.localTarget()
.frontMostApp()
.mainWindow()
[UIAElement].logElementTree()

13. Tuneup.js
• A set of Javascript utilities to facilitate writing
of UIAutomation scripts
• Lot of convenience Wrapper functions to
handle repetitive tasks(isDeviceiPad,
isDeviceiPhone ,assertLeftButtonNamed …)
• Enforce a structure to your test scripts –
Invoke “test” function
• Alex Vollmer, http://www.tuneupjs.org
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14. Demo
Get it at : hIp://priyaontech.com/ndownloads
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15. Thank you!
Further Reading : Test iOS Apps with UI Automation
Bug Hunting Made Easy
By Jonathan Penn
www.priyaontech.com
@rajagp
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