Automation testing is one of the essential tasks in Software testing. It allows automation testers to create a robust framework with an automation script, which can be run during functional or regression testing to save time as well as cost. There are various testing tools available for mobile app automation, but Appium is most widely used for test automation.
Here, we will learn how to install Appium on Mac OS in easy steps:
APPIUM Inspector. Similar to Selenium IDE record and playback tool, Appium has an 'Inspector' to.
Setting up Mac OS for automation testing is a little difficult task if you are a new to Mac-based system. But if you are familiar with commands on the terminal, then it will be easy to complete the setup.
Install Java JDK latest version
First, download Java JDK from below path and install it (if you are using the same system for both automation and performance testing using JMeter then use JDK 8 or higher version of JDK, as they have more compatibilities).
Set Java Home Path using a terminal
Type below command on terminal:
open -e .bash_profile
It will open the bash profile in edit mode. Now you can edit Java_home, Android _home (for Android app automation, you need to install Android Studio from this link https://developer.android.com/studio/#mac-bundle before Android home setup) with below commands:
Copy these commands and set your own username and JDK version and paste on bash profile:
export JAVA_HOME=/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_192.jdk/Contents/Home
export ANDROID_HOME=/Users/<username>/Library/Android/sdk
export PATH=$/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_192.jdk/Contents/Home/
bin:$PATH
export PATH=”/Users/ <username> /Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools”:$PATH
then save from File > Save and close the bash profile text editor.
Now, your Java and Android home environment variable has been set.
How to Install Appium on Mac OS in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1: Install all the pre-requisites for Appium
- Install the latest Xcode Desktop version.
- Install Xcode command line (use Command: Xcode-select –install)
- Install Homebrew with below command:
/usr/bin/ruby -e “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)”
- brew install npm
- npm install carthage
- npm install -g appium
- npm install appium-doctor -g
- Sudo gem install xcpretty
- brew install libimobiledevice –HEAD
- npm install -g ios-deploy
Step 2: Download Appium Desktop and install it
Now, download the latest Appium desktop version from the below link and install it.
And, here download Appium-mac-1.15.1.dmg and install.
Step 3: Setting up WebdriverAgent in XCode
This is a very important setup and needs to be done very carefully, otherwise, you will not be able to launch the Appium app.
(i) Open the terminal and go to WebDriverAgent folder within the Appium installation directory. It will be found at the below place:
Right click on Appium desktop > Contents /Resources/app/node_modules/Appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/ WebDriverAgent
Now, run below two commands:
1) mkdir -p Resources/WebDriverAgent.bundle
2) ./Scripts/bootstrap.sh -d
(ii) Connect your iOS device with the system and open WebDriverAgent.xcodeproj in Xcode. For both the WebDriverAgentLib and WebDriverAgentRunner targets, select “Automatically manage signing” checkbox in the “General” tab, and then select your Development Team. This should also auto select Signing Certificate.
You need to provide Apple developer account credentials to select the team.
Xcode maybe fail to create a provisioning profile for the WebDriverAgentRunner, this needs manual change to the bundle id for the target. Go into the “Build Settings” tab, and change the “Product Bundle Identifier” from com.facebook.WebDriverAgentRunner to something unique that Xcode will accept: like – com.facebooksss.WebDriverAgentRunner.
Similarly, setup WebDriverAgentLib and Integration App in Xcode. Then run (build) integration app. To run the Integration App, Apple id is required, and it should be trusted on a real iPhone device from:
Settings > General > Device Management.
Here click on the Apple id to trust it.
Now close Xcode (end tasks pop up appears), and quit Xcode then run below test command with udid within WebDriverAgent destination on terminal:
xcodebuild -project WebDriverAgent.xcodeproj -scheme WebDriverAgentRunner -destination ‘id=<udid>’ test
If everything is properly set, then you will get terminal like this after running above command:
Test Suite ‘All tests’ started at 2019-10-23 15:49:12.585
Test Suite ‘WebDriverAgentRunner.xctest’ started at 2019-10-23 15:49:12.586
Test Suite ‘UITestingUITests’ started at 2019-10-23 15:49:12.587
Test Case ‘-[UITestingUITests testRunner]’ started.
t = 0.00s Start Test at 2019-10-23 15:49:12.588
t = 0.00s Set Up
Get <udid> by running $ios-deploy -c (before running this command, make sure iPhone is attached with USB and USB debugging is ON)
Launch Appium on Mac OS X
Now, open the Appium app from ‘Application’ and start the Appium Server.
After providing the desired capabilities in Appium Inspector, you can start the session. You can save this desired capability for next time for quick access.
By using the abovesteps, Click on ‘Start Session’ and this will start to install the app under test on the device and UI will be displayed in Appium Inspector, here you can find the locators and start writing automation test script.
Appium Desktop in the new open-source GUI app that helps you access the Appium Server using a graphical interface. From an Appium Beginner’s perspective – if you want to write test scripts with Appium, you would need 2 things. First, you would need to start the Appium Server. And second, you would also need a mechanism using which you can identify the controls (buttons, text boxes etc) in the mobile app which you want to automate. Appium Desktop helps you perform both these tasks –
- Appium Desktop provides a GUI for the Appium Server. Using this GUI tool, you will be able to start and stop the Appium server, and also see the logs
- It also provides an Inspector using which you can get the properties of the elements in your mobile app
Please Note: Appium comes in both GUI and non-GUI versions (non-GUI versions can be operated from the command prompt). We will be working with the GUI version in our Appium Tutorial series, as its much easier to install and use as compared to the non-GUI version. We will encourage you to check out the non-GUI version as well. You can go to this link and read about its features and how its installed – Download Appium (Non GUI version)
We have many more articles comping up for Appium Desktop. We will provide the links at the end of this article, as and when we publish these articles
What topics are covered in this article
Appium Desktop has a lot of features that help you make it easy to write tests for Appium. However, in this article you will learn about the download and install process of Appium Desktop on a windows machine. We have lot more other articles for Appium Desktop as well – where we will cover in detail, the process of using it for writing your test scripts. You can have a look at out Appium Tutorial main page, where we have added all these articles in a step by step manner.
Download Appium Desktop
Follow the steps given below to download the latest version of Appium Desktop –
1. Open Appium Desktop’s GitHub page – https://github.com/appium/appium-desktop/releases
2. This page lists down all the versions of Appium Desktop. You will have to download the latest version which is shown at the top of the page. The latest version on the website is v1.6.1 (as on 30 May 2018).
Please Note: New beta versions are released very often. Even if you see a newer version on Github, please go ahead and download that version. The steps given in this article would remain the same (only the screenshot contents might change)
3. In the Downloads section of the latest release, you will find different packages for Windows, Mac, Linux etc
4. Click on the windows version to download and save it on your machine
With this, we complete the download process for Appium Desktop. Let us now install it on our machine.
Install Appium Desktop
Use the steps given below to install Appium Desktop
1. Open the folder location where you have downloaded Appium Desktop and double click on the exe to start the installation process
2. Appium will first ask you Installation Options. Leave the already selected option as it is and then click on Install button
3. Once the installation process starts, you will see the Appium Setup window as displayed below
4. Once installation is complete, you will see the below Appium Desktop window
5. Now, leave the Run Appium checkbox selected and click on Finish button. Appium Desktop Start screen will be displayed
6. To verify that the installation and setup is successful, click on Start Server button. This would start the Appium server and you would see ‘The server is running’ message in Appium window
This shows that the Appium Desktop has been installed successfully.
7. Click on Stop Server button to stop the Appium server
After Appium server is stopped, you can close the Appium Desktop window. With this we complete the Appium Desktop download and installation process. Try it out and let us know if you face any issues while setting up Appium Desktop. You can also share your feedback with us with using the comments section. Your feedback will go a long way in helping us improve our articles and make it more useful to all our readers.
Next Steps…
Want to learn more about Appium Desktop? Then check out the links given below (we will keep adding more articles here).
1. Learn more about the different features of Appium Desktop
2. Mobile elements inspection with Appium Desktop – Part 1
3. Mobile elements inspection with Appium Desktop – Part 2
If you are looking for complete Appium setup, then please check out our Appium Tutorial guide. This is a complete tutorial series that will help you setup Appium from scratch.