Top 3 Appium Mobile Testing Challenges – Appium Studio Introduction – Part 3

Part 3 – The main challenges of using Appium mobile testing.

We have been introducing our newest product Appium Studio which takes Appium mobile testing to the next level, in this blog series.

In our first post, we discussed the needs of mobile app testers in Enterprise environments. The second post covered why mobile app testers prefer to use Appium’s open source software.

No software is perfect of course, and while Appium has proven its value in the SMB sector, it still has some drawbacks that prevent it from becoming a player on the Enterprise stage. In fact, perfecting Appium mobile testing for the Enterprise stage is the whole reason why we created Appium Studio.

So let’s continue on our journey through Appium mobile testing by discussing some of its drawbacks.

1. Setting-up and Scaling-up – Appium, is only installed locally. That makes using it in a highly-secured Enterprise environment almost impossible. Testers must work with IT teams to get the correct machines, permissions, access and administrative rights. Appium is also hampered by its inability to work across different operating systems. Enterprises need to be able to test on every possible configuration of an app and OS. In order to do that, they need to test with a huge matrix of devices. Appium can only connect to one device at a time per machine. This makes scaling up to include more devices prohibitively difficult.
2. Test Development – Enterprise app testers require the capability to identify elements and control them within their applications. This means that applications need to work, and also need to interact correctly with the device itself. An application that uses a microphone, camera or NFC chip must have that connection tested. Appium testers in this position end up spending massive amounts of time finding workarounds which lead to major delays when application testing.
3. Test Management – As mobile testing projects scale, testers require accurate reporting software. Appium mobile testing is problematic because testers must spend a lot of time connecting Appium’s software to third-party reporting systems. Another necessity is having the ability to automate tests that will extend beyond one device, and operate on dozens, if not hundreds of devices. Testers that use Appium must set up a grid of devices and machines in order to execute their tests. As a result, application lifecycle management (ALM) can be extremely difficult.

As we have been explaining throughout this series we have addressed all of these challenges with our newest product. Appium Studio.

Our next post will delve deeper into the product and its benefits but for now here is a quick preview:

1. Scale Local Automation to an Enterprise Environment – Projects with limited devices and tests can be scaled to include hundreds of devices and thousands of tests with Appium Studio.
2. Add Remote Capabilities Critical for Offshore Teams – Enterprises set up and use their on-premise cloud so that any team in any location can connect and run any test they like.
3. Quick & Easy Set-up and Scripting – Enterprise users have the ability to set up their testing environments on a Windows machine and connect to any number of iOS and Android devices simultaneously.
4. Increased Functionality – The full automation capabilities includes testing on devices outside of the application (Home screen, phone settings, battery).
5. Performance Testing Capabilities – Enterprises can emulate any real-world network condition by defining geographical locations and servers.
6. Fully Customizable Reporting – Reporting gives testers clear, and actionable results.

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Jonny Steiner – Content Manager