Appium is an open-source mobile application development tool that is designed to give users complete control of their application development process. It enables them to optimize the development process when the need calls for it and create the applications that they want in the most efficient manner they can.
Appium’s top benefits include:
- Ease of deployment: Appium is relatively simple for users to set up. Developers can download Appium and launch it in only a few clicks.
- Easily track results of tests: Appium automatically writes reports when developers run application tests. These reports can give users insights into every aspect of the tests at hand. They can include detailed test results, screenshots of the test, and videos showing the test while it was in progress. Developers have easy access to these reports.
-
Gain deep insights into your application: Through detailed reports, users can easily gain insight into the way that their application is running and how it might be improved, using informed decisions.
-
Free of cost: Appium is free and can be easily downloaded. No additional installation is needed to support Appium. It is developed and supported by Sauce Labs and has great community support.
-
Flexible: Appium supports most of the programming languages, like Java, Python, PHP, and C#. This makes it easy for users to select the programming language of their choice. There is no need to modify or recompile the app you’re testing to support Appium.
-
Easy to understand: Appium is compatible with Selenium WebDriver, and all of the Selenium features are available in Appium. If you are well-versed with Selenium concepts, Appium is easy to use and understand.
-
Cross-platform support: An Appium test can run in iOS as well as Android without any code change. You can run multiple tests on multiple platforms at a time. The same test is compatible to run on any device or OS version.
-
Record and playback: Like other automation tools available, Appium provides a record and playback tool. Inspectors can be used to accelerate testing efforts through record and playback functionality in Appium. It records the behavior of the native app by inspecting the DOM (Document Object Model).
-
Integration with CI tools: Appium can be integrated with most of the CI tools to enable automated triggering of tests during release cycles.
- Increased testing efficiency: Appium is an open-source library. You can use Appium in your platform for optimizing mobile testing. The Appium library allows you to automate all major platforms. Appium can automate mobile app-based test automation and mobile handset experience based telecom scenarios.
Appium also has a great set of features. Here are some that stand out to me as a user:
- The interface for mobile automation is helpful for scripting and execution.
-
It is scalable and there are many testers who would like to automate. In terms of scripting, scalability is excellent.
- It has a very large support community and available documentation. The community is very helpful. If you run into an issue, you can easily resolve it with the community documentation, where similar issues are being discussed.
- Appium Inspector helps to easily identify elements. The element inspector of the web browser can be used to locate the elements of a web application. While there is no element inspector available when it comes to mobile applications, we can utilize the Appium inspector to find the elements in the mobile application.
- The programming language is Java, which is easy to consolidate. It also supports Python. It is very easy to work with, distribute, and consolidate on a rapid basis.
- Appium has become an industry standard, especially in the open-source world, as it is similar to Selenium.
- The solution is stable.
- The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not overly complex or difficult.
- In terms of deployment, it has good documentation and an SDT or developer would be able to do it. There is no need for outside consultants or integrators.
-
ROI is enhanced due to ease of scalability.
- Using the same API, Appium will allow you to write tests for mobile platforms.
- You can use any kind of test framework or language to write and run tests.
- Appium supports JSON wire protocol.
- Appium does not require recompilation of app.
- Appium supports automation tests on physical devices and also on simulators or emulators.
- Appium doesn’t have any dependency on mobile devices.
- If you want smart reporting and intelligent dashboards, you can link it.
- Thanks to automation, it reduces manual testing efforts.
- The configuration and interface of Appium is valuable. Appium has easy interaction with mobile.
Appium does have a few drawbacks:
For starters, its stability has room for improvement. During execution, the Appium Studio experiences some intermittent disconnection.
In addition, you can't use Appium for mobile testing in virtual machines. You need to have a physical machine. If Appium could manage this problem, and if it had more facilities for configuration, it would be a spectacular solution.