Building a robust mobile test automation framework using Appium in Python

by Swapnil Kumbharkar | Jun 13, 2023 | Blog

In this blog, we will explore how to build a robust mobile test automation framework using Appium in Python (behave framework). As a result, it will be very useful for executing the program.

Mobile test automation can be more challenging than web automation, as inspecting and interacting with mobile elements requires additional effort. However, with the help of Appium, an open-source tool, it is possible to overcome these challenges and build a powerful mobile test automation framework. In this blog, we will explore how to create a robust framework using Appium in conjunction with the Behave framework in Python.

Let’s talk about robust test frameworks

Robust test automation framework ranks highly on the list of Software Testing “must-haves”.

It helps improve the overall quality and reliability of software when executed in a structured manner.

If we don’t build the right framework then the results will be: Inconsistent test results, Non-modularized tests, and Maintenance difficulties. The automation framework needs to be well organized to make it easier to understand. An organized framework provides an easier way to maintain and expand.

There are many features that we should consider to make the automation framework more robust. 

• Scalability – The automation framework that you have in your organization should be scalable. It should not just apply to one project. Your automation framework should be applied throughout projects across the organization. It should be an organization-wide test automation framework.
• Re-portability – Every automation framework should have a good reporting capability. The test framework engineer can choose a third-party reporting library.
• Configurable – A framework should be configurable. It should execute scripts in different test environments. The automation framework should not be restricted to a single test environment. The user credentials should not be “hard-coded” in the automation script itself. 
• Re-usability – The framework should follow re-usability. We should use the same methods, and page objects in all the test scenarios in the test automation framework.
• Extendability –  You should be able to integrate easily with other third-party tools via APIs. Automation frameworks should be easily integrated with security testing tools, web proxy debugging tools, test case management tools, or with other global frameworks thereby making it more hybrid in nature. 

Benefits

• Increase product reliability – Accurate, efficient, automated regression tests – reduce risks
• Reduce the product release cycle time – Improve the time to market, Reduce QA cycle time

Let’s start with basic

Appium is an open source Test Automation Framework which is used for automating mobile applications.

Appium supports Android, IOS mobile apps, and Windows PC Desktop apps. We can automate Native, Hybrid, and Mobile web apps using Appium.

Uses of Appium:

• Appium is open source and it is free of cost.
• Appium supports Android, IOS, and Windows to run test scripts.
• Appium supports languages such as Python, Java, Perl, PHP, C#, and Ruby
• Appium supports different operating systems such as Mac, Windows, Linux, UNIX, etc.
• Functional test cases of mobile applications can be easily automated.

Appium Inspector

Appium Inspector is a tool for QA engineers who want to automate mobile applications. Basically, this tool also serves as the standard procedure for identifying mobile application elements.

The following are the used for inspecting the mobile element for both Android and iOS.

• Download the Appium inspector.exe.

This is the link: https://github.com/appium/appium-inspector

• After downloading the exe file launch the Appium inspector.exe file. On top of the web page, select to Cloud-based platform – BrowserStack

BrowserStack is a cloud-based real devices platform that provides support for both manual and automated testing of mobile apps for both Android and iOS devices. One of its standout features is the App Live feature, which allows users to manually test their mobile apps on over 3000 real Android and iOS devices.

BrowserStack supports testing across different environments, including Dev, QA, Staging, and Production apps from the play store or app store. This makes it easy for developers to test their apps in various environments and ensure that they are working correctly in each environment.

To proceed further we need BrowserStack Username and BrowserStack Access Key

For that, Go to https://www.browserstack.com/

Following are the steps that will guide the process

• Create a BrowserStack account by signing up at https://www.browserstack.com/users/sign_up

• Log in to your BrowserStack account ->Navigate to the “Account” section ->Then Go to Summary
• After going to Summery Section you will get Username and Password. Copy both Username and Password and paste them into Appium inspector fields
• Go to Desired Capabilities -> Here we need to add basic capabilities which are required for starting the session. Below image will guide you

• To add capabilities need to click on the “+” symbol as shown in the below image
• Add the capabilities with desired values as shown in the below image

• In the Value field, we need to add data that we want to add.

The most important thing here is for the last field “Appium: app”, we have to upload the .ipa or .ipk or .aab file on BrowserStack.

For that, there are 2 ways mentioned below

1. Through Command Line
2. Directly through BrowserStack

The most important thing here is for the last field “Appium: app”, we have to upload the .ipa or .ipk or .aab file on BrowserStack.

Let’s start

• Through Command Line

To upload the .ipa or .ipk or .aab file on BrowserStack, the following Curl command is very useful.

Curl is a command line tool that enables data exchange between a device and a server through a terminal. Using this command line interface (CLI), a user specifies a server URL (the location where they want to send a request) and the data they want to send to that server URL.

Go to cmd and write this curl command

curl -u “username:accesskey” -X POST “https://api-cloud.browserstack.com/app-automate/upload” -F “file=@path of the file where you save your apk or IPA file” -F “custom_id=any name “

• Directly through BrowserStack:

 Go to “App Live” -> Click on Uploaded Apps -> And Upload your file.

But here 1st one is preferable: Through this command, we get “app_url” which is required in Desired Capabilities:

Copy that app_url and paste it into Desired Capabilities.

Here you need to Click on Start Session -> You will get below the window.

You can select the element in the App or from the App Source section and the attributes including ID, Name, Text, etc will be displayed on the right side under the Selected Element section and you can create Xpaths using those attributes.

Developing Framework

1. Python: https://www.python.org/downloads/ visit the site to download and install Python in your system if it is not there. 
2. Install Selenium and Behave using:

pip install selenium 

Pip install behave 

For more details please visit: https://pypi.org/project/behave/  &  https://pypi.org/project/selenium/ 

3. Pycharm IDE (Professional or Community): https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/download/ 

4. Install Appium-Python-Client:

pip install Appium-Python-Client

For more details please visit: https://pypi.org/project/Appium-Python-Client/

5. Install allure for report generating using:

pip install allure-behave 

For more details please visit: https://pypi.org/project/allure-behave/ 

6. We can also install all the required packages using the requirement.txt file using the below command. 

pip install -r requirement.txt

Framework Structure Overview

Here is the overview of our mobile test automation framework using Appium in Python.

You have to follow the below 7 steps to build a robust mobile test automation framework using Appium.

Step 1: 

Create a project in Pycharm (here I am using Pycharm professional) and as mentioned in the prerequisites install the packages

Step 2:

In this step, we will be creating a Features folder in which we will be creating our feature files for different scenarios. Every step in a Feature File describes the action we are going to perform on UI. A feature file is something that holds your test cases in the form of a scenario and scenario outline. In this framework, we are using a scenario. Both scenario and scenario outlines contain steps that are easy to understand for non-technical persons. We are giving tags for the feature files. We can also give it for the scenarios present in that file. Depending on our test cases. Note that the feature file should end with a .feature extension.

@iOS
#@android
Feature: Simple Calculator
 Addition of two numbers
 Scenario: Verify addition of two numbers
   Given I am on calculator home page
   When I enter '4'
   And I enter operator of addition
  And I enter operator of addition this should be like And I enter 
 ‘+’ operator so if possible you can update code as per this
   And Enter number '2'
   And I enter operator '='
   Then I see result as '6'

Step 3:

After creating the feature file now create a step file. Both feature files and step files are essential parts of the BDD framework. The steps with ‘When’ are related to the user actions like navigation, clicking on the button, and filling in the information in input boxes. The steps with ‘Then’ are related to the verifications or Assertions. In this, we are using both iOS and Android, so the step file should look like this. We are creating only one-step files for both iOS and Android.

Purpose of Step file: The step file is to attach steps from the feature file to the page file, where actual implementation is available.

from behave import *
use_step_matcher("parse")
@given("I am on calculator home page")
def step_impl(context):
   print("User is on Homepage")

@when("I enter '{number}'")
def step_impl(context, number):
   str = context.config.userdata["deviceType"]
   print("str " + str)
   if str == "['iOS']":
       context.iOS_cal.iOS_tap_number1(number)
   else:
       context.android_cal.tap_number1()

@step("I enter operator of addition")
def step_impl(context):
   str = context.config.userdata["deviceType"]
   print("str " + str)
   if str == "['iOS']":
       context.iOS_cal.iOS_tap_operator()
   else:
       context.android_cal.tap_operator()

@step("Enter number '{number}'")
def step_impl(context, number):
   str = context.config.userdata["deviceType"]
   print("str " + str)
   if str == "['iOS']":
       context.iOS_cal.iOS_tap_number1(number)
   else:
       context.android_cal.tap_number2()

@step("I enter operator '{operator}'")
def step_impl(context, operator):
   str = context.config.userdata["deviceType"]
   print("str " + str)
   if str == "['iOS']":
       context.iOS_cal.iOS_equals(operator)
   else:
       context.android_cal.equals()

@then("I see result as '{result}'")
def step_impl(context, result):
   str = context.config.userdata["deviceType"]
   print("str " + str)
   if str == "['iOS']":
       flag = context.iOS_cal.iOS_verify_result()
       assert flag == True
   else:
       flag = context.android_cal.verify_result()
       assert flag == True

Step 4:

In this step, we are creating two-page files one for iOS and one for Android that contains all the locators and the action methods to perform the particular action on the web element. We are going to add all the locators at the class level only and will be using them in the respective methods.

iOS page file:

import time
from appium.webdriver.common.mobileby import MobileBy
from selenium.common import NoSuchElementException
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
from time import sleep

from Features.Pages.BasePage import Basepage

class iOS_Calculator_Page(Basepage):
   def __init__(self, context):
       Basepage.__init__(self, context.driver)
       self.context = context

       self.add_operator = "//XCUIElementTypeStaticText[@name='+']"
       self.result = "(//XCUIElementTypeStaticText)[1]"

   def iOS_tap_number1(self,number):
       time.sleep(2)
       tap_on = self.wait.until(
           EC.presence_of_element_located((MobileBy.XPATH, "//XCUIElementTypeButton[@name='"+number+"']")))
       tap_on.click()

   def iOS_tap_operator(self):
       time.sleep(2)
       tap_on = self.wait.until(
           EC.presence_of_element_located((MobileBy.XPATH, self.add_operator)))
       tap_on.click()

   def iOS_equals(self, operator):
       time.sleep(2)
       tap_on = self.wait.until(
           EC.presence_of_element_located((MobileBy.XPATH, "//XCUIElementTypeStaticText[@name='"+operator+"']")))
       tap_on.click()

   def iOS_verify_result(self):
       sleep(5)
       try:
           verify_element = self.wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located(
               (MobileBy.XPATH, self.result))).is_displayed()
       except NoSuchElementException:
           verify_element = False
       return verify_element

Android page file:

from appium.webdriver.common.mobileby import MobileBy
from selenium.common import NoSuchElementException
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC
import time

from Features.Pages.BasePage import Basepage

class android_Calculator_Page(Basepage):
   def __init__(self, context):
       Basepage.__init__(self, context.driver)
       self.context = context
       self.number1 = "(//android.widget.Button)[5]"
       self.add = "//android.widget.Button[@content-desc='plus']"
       self.number2 = "(//android.widget.Button)[9]"
       self.operator_equals = "(//android.widget.Button)[13]"
     self.verify = "(//android.widget.TextView)[2]"
   def tap_number1(self):
       time.sleep(2)
       tap_on = self.wait.until(
           EC.presence_of_element_located((MobileBy.XPATH, self.number1)))
       tap_on.click()

   def tap_operator(self):
       time.sleep(2)
       tap_on = self.wait.until(
           EC.presence_of_element_located((MobileBy.XPATH, self.add)))
       tap_on.click()

   def tap_number2(self):
       time.sleep(2)
       tap_on = self.wait.until(
           EC.presence_of_element_located((MobileBy.XPATH, self.number2)))
       tap_on.click()

   def equals(self):
       time.sleep(2)
       tap_on = self.wait.until(
           EC.presence_of_element_located((MobileBy.XPATH, self.operator_equals)))
       tap_on.click()

   def verify_result(self):
       try:
           verify_element = self.wait.until(EC.presence_of_element_located(
               (MobileBy.XPATH, self.verify))).is_displayed()
       except NoSuchElementException:
           verify_element = False
       return verify_element

Base Page File:

The next one is the base page file. We are creating a base page file to make an object of the driver so that we can easily use that for our page and environment file. On this page, we can create a method that gets used frequently in our code like the click() method or send_keys() method, etc.

from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
# In the base page we are creating an object of the driver.
# We are using this driver in the other pages and environment page.
class Basepage(object):
   def __init__(self, driver):
       self.driver = driver
       self.wait = WebDriverWait(self.driver, 60)
       self.implicit_wait = 25

Step 5:

Environment file (i.e. Hooks file).

This file contains hooks for before and after scenarios to start and close the browser. Also if you want you can add after-step hooks for capturing screenshots for reporting. We have added a method to capture screenshots after every step and will attach them to the allure report. We have added before feature hooks.

In the feature file, we have given tags(@iOS and @android) before the feature.

• def before_feature hook: This will check for which device type (iOS or Android) we are executing the code.
• def before_scenario hook: We are checking the execution mode and within that adding device type conditions for iOS and Android. 

Here we are using  “context. config.userdata[]” This will read data from the behave.ini file

Added condition for iOS and Android

import json
from appium import webdriver
from allure_commons.types import AttachmentType
from allure_commons._allure import attach
from Features.Pages.BasePage import Basepage
from Features.Pages.android_Calculator_Page import android_Calculator_Page
from Features.Pages.iOS_Calculator_Page import iOS_Calculator_Page

data = json.load(open("Features/Resources/config.json"))

def before_feature(context, feature):
   tags = str(feature.tags)
   print("Tags " + tags)
   context.config.userdata["deviceType"] = tags
   print("Device Type :" + context.config.userdata["deviceType"])

def before_scenario(context, scenario):
   if context.config.userdata["executionMode"] == "Browserstack":
       if context.config.userdata["deviceType"] == "['iOS']":
           print(context.config.userdata["deviceType"])
           context.driver = webdriver.Remote(
               command_executor='https://' + context.config.userdata["userName"] + ':' + context.config.userdata[
                   "accessKey"] + '@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub',
               desired_capabilities={
                   "platformName": "iOS",
                   "build": context.config.userdata["iOS_browserstack_build"],
                   "deviceName": context.config.userdata["iOS_browserstack_device"],
                   "os_version": context.config.userdata["iOS_device_os_version"],
                   "app": context.config.userdata["iOS_browserstack_appUrl"],
               }
           )
       else:
           context.driver = webdriver.Remote(
               command_executor='https://' + context.config.userdata["userName"] + ':' + context.config.userdata[
                   "accessKey"] + '@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub',
               desired_capabilities={
                   "platformName": "android",
                   "build": context.config.userdata["android_browserstack_build"],
                   "deviceName": context.config.userdata["android_browserstack_device"],
                   "os_version": context.config.userdata["android_device_os_version"],
                   "app": context.config.userdata["android_browserstack_appUrl"],
               }
           )
   else:
       print("...")
   context.driver.switch_to.context('NATIVE_APP')
   baseobject = Basepage(context.driver)
   context.android_cal = android_Calculator_Page(baseobject)
   context.iOS_cal = iOS_Calculator_Page(baseobject)
   context.stepid = 1

def after_step(context, step):
   attach(context.driver.get_screenshot_as_png(), name=str(context.stepid), attachment_type=AttachmentType.PNG)
   context.stepid = context.stepid + 1
def after_scenario(context, scenario):
   context.driver.reset()
   context.driver.quit()

Step 6:

INI files are configuration files used by Windows to initialize program settings. The main role is to set values for parameters and configuration data required at startup or used by setup installers.

The configuration files should begin with the keyword [behave] and follow Windows INI style format.

Here we are giving BrowserStack Capabilities.

[behave]
color=False
show_snippets=True
show_skipped=True
dry_run=False
show_source=True
show_timings=True
stdout_capture=True
stderr_capture=True
log_capture=True
default_format=pretty
[behave.formatters]
allure=allure_behave.formatter:AllureFormatter
[behave.userdata]
executionMode=Browserstack
userName=harishekal_QYol9T
accessKey=RG6juTxk2Coom4p5JPSN
iOS_browserstack_appUrl=bs://f3b6763a19d710fc72fdc615db7119ea654e06da
iOS_browserstack_build=0.0.0
iOS_browserstack_device=iPhone 11
iOS_device_os_version=15.4
iOS_deviceType = iOS

android_browserstack_appUrl=bs://495dd3b36cae77a1ae2f4ce6f439456999e0bb45
android_browserstack_build=0.0.1
android_browserstack_device=Google Pixel 3
android_device_os_version=9.0
android_deviceType = Android

Copy user userName and accessKey of the user BrowserStack account. And iOS_broserstack_appUrl – Uploaded .ipa file through curl command. android_broserstack_appUrl – Uploaded .apk file through curl command.

Congratulations, finally we have created our own Python Selenium Behave BDD framework. 

Step 7:

As I mentioned earlier we will be using Allure for reporting the test result. For this use the below command in the terminal and it will generate the result folder for you.

• behave Features/Calculator.feature -f allure_behave.formatter: AllureFormatter -o Report_Json

To convert the JSON file into readable HTML format use the below command. 

• allure generate Report_Json -o Report_Html –clean

I have added this framework to the following Git Repository.

https://github.com/spurqlabs/PythonAppiumMobileFramework

Conclusion: 

Creating a robust mobile testing framework using Appium is very important as well as feels like a tedious task but with the right guidelines, everyone can create a testing framework. This framework helps improve the quality and efficiency of the testing process. I hope this blog will help everyone to create a robust mobile testing framework using Appium. Here, we choose a behave framework over other existing frameworks because of its better understanding, ease of adaptation, and ease to understand for end users.

Swapnil Kumbharkar

Swapnil is an SDET with 1+ years of hands-on experience in Manual, Automation, and API testing. The technologies I have worked on include Selenium, Playwright, Cucumber, Appium, Postman, SQL, GitHub, Java, and Python. Also, I love Blog writing and learning new technologies.