Appium

Appium is an open-source project and ecosystem of related software, designed to facilitate UI automation of many app platforms, including mobile (iOS, Android, Tizen), browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari), desktop (macOS, Windows), TV (Roku, tvOS, Android TV, Samsung), and more!.
https://appium.io
https://github.com/appium/appium

Table of contents

  1. Server
  2. Driver
    1. macOS
    2. Windows
  3. Plugin
  4. Inspector

🔲 → Optional
✅ → Required
🔘 → Pick One
ℹ️ → Information

Server

✅ Installation

npm install --global appium

🔲 Validation

appium --version

ℹ️ Location

🔘 macOS

/Users/{USER}/.appium

🔘 Windows

C:\Users\{USER}\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\appium

Driver

Appium supports app automation across a variety of platforms, like iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, and more. Each platform is supported by one or more drivers. All installed drivers are enabled by default.
Appium Ecosystem’s Drivers

macOS

✅ Installation

Suppose I want to setup environment on macOS machine for testing iOS app, macOS app and Android app.

  1. iOS app 
    appium driver install xcuitest
  2. macOS app 
    appium driver install mac2
  3. Android app 
    appium driver install uiautomator2

Or refer to the Appium Ecosystem’s Drivers for installing appropriate drivers to your testing environment.

🔲 Validation

appium driver list --installed

🔲 Doctor

appium driver doctor xcuitest
appium driver doctor mac2
appium driver doctor uiautomator2

ℹ️ Location

/Users/{USER}/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver
/Users/{USER}/.appium/node_modules/appium-mac2-driver
/Users/{USER}/.appium/node_modules/appium-uiautomator2-driver

Windows

✅ Installation

Suppose I want to setup environment on Windows machine for testing Android app and Windows app.

  1. Android app 
    appium driver install uiautomator2
  2. Windows app 
    appium driver install --source=npm appium-windows-driver

Or refer to the Appium Ecosystem’s Drivers for installing appropriate drivers to your testing environment.

🔲 Validation

appium driver list --installed

🔲 Doctor

appium driver doctor uiautomator2
appium driver doctor windows

ℹ️ Location

C:\Users\{USER}\.appium\node_modules\appium-uiautomator2-driver
C:\Users\{USER}\.appium\node_modules\appium-windows-driver

Plugin

Plugins allow you to extend server functionality without changing the server code. The main difference between drivers and plugins is that the latter must be explicitly enabled on Appium server startup.
Appium Ecosystem’s Plugins

✅ Installation

🔲 Images

Plugin for image comparison and finding elements by image.

appium plugin install images

Usage

The plugin must be explicitly activated when launching the Appium server.

appium --use-plugins=images

🔲 Validation

appium plugin list --installed

ℹ️ Location

🔘 macOS

/Users/{USER}/.appium/node_modules/@appium/images-plugin

🔘 Windows

C:\Users\{USER}\.appium\node_modules\@appium\images-plugin

Inspector

A GUI inspector for mobile apps and more, powered by a (separately installed) Appium server. When you’re using it to inspect a mobile app.
https://github.com/appium/appium-inspector

✅ Installation

Appium Inspector is released in two formats:

🔘 Desktop application

🔘 macOS

  1. Visit https://github.com/appium/appium-inspector/releases
  2. Click Appium-Inspector-mac-xxxx.x.x.dmg
  3. Open Appium-Inspector-mac-xxxx.x.x.dmg in Downloads
  4. Drag Appium Inspector to the Applications

🔘 Windows

  1. Visit https://github.com/appium/appium-inspector/releases
  2. Click Appium-Inspector-windows-xxxx.x.x-xxx.exe
  3. Open Appium-Inspector-windows-xxxx.x.x-xxx.exe in Downloads
  4. Do installation procedures of Setup Wizard

🔘 Web application

Appium Inspector is hosted by Appium Pro. You can inspect your app on this site directly at https://inspector.appiumpro.com.