Getting Started with Appium for Android Java on Windows in 10 Minutes

This is the first article from the new series dedicated to the mobile testing using Appium test automation framework. Here, I am going to show you how to configure your machine to test Android applications- prerequisite installations and setup of emulators. After that, you will find how to start your application on the emulator and perform actions on it.

What Is Appium?

Appium is an open source test automation framework for use with native, hybrid and mobile web apps. It drives iOS, Android, and Windows apps using the WebDriver protocol. It is the “standard” for mobile test automation.

Machine Setup

1. Install Java Development Kit (JDK) version 7 or above

(version 8 recommended in order for UI Automation Viewer to work)

2. Set JAVA_HOME environmental variable to where Java JDK is installed

Open in explorer – Control Panel\System and Security\System then click Advanced system settings. Click Environmental Variables.

3. Add Java JDK bin folder to the end of Path environmental variable

4. Install the Android Studio to install the Android SDK at its default location if it is not already installed: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk – follow the following guide 

5. Create a virtual device with the Android Virtual Device Manager

6. Install Node.js

7. Install Appium from the command line (skip if you install Appium Desktop)

npm install -g appium

8. Install Appium Desktop (optional)

Find Android App Info

Install APK to Virtual Device

ADB, Android Debug Bridge, is a command-line utility included with Google’s Android SDK. ADB can control your device over USB from a computer, copy files back and forth, install and uninstall apps, run shell commands, and more.

First, start the ADB shell using the command – adb shell.

Before automating your app, you may need to expect it and find some info about it. So, you need to install it on your virtual device. To do so, open the command line and execute the following command.

adb install pathToYourApk/yourTestApp.apk

To find the app package and current activity. Open your application on the virtual device and navigate to the desired view. Then open adb shell and use the following command.

dumpsys window windows | grep -E ‘mCurrentFocus|mFocusedApp’

Start Android App in Emulator

You need to make sure that the Appium server is started and listening on port 4723. 

private static AndroidDriver < AndroidElement > driver;
@BeforeClass
public void classInit() throws URISyntaxException, MalformedURLException {
  URL testAppUrl = getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("ApiDemos.apk");
  File testAppFile = Paths.get(Objects.requireNonNull(testAppUrl).toURI()).toFile();
  String testAppPath = testAppFile.getAbsolutePath();
  var desiredCaps = new DesiredCapabilities();
  desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.DEVICE_NAME, "android25-test");
  desiredCaps.setCapability(AndroidMobileCapabilityType.APP_PACKAGE, "com.example.android.apis");
  desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.PLATFORM_NAME, "Android");
  desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.PLATFORM_VERSION, "7.1");
  desiredCaps.setCapability(AndroidMobileCapabilityType.APP_ACTIVITY, ".view.Controls1");
  desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.APP, testAppPath);
  driver = new AndroidDriver < AndroidElement > (new URL("http://127.0.0.1:4723/wd/hub"), desiredCaps);
  driver.closeApp();
}
@BeforeMethod
public void testInit() {
  if (driver != null) {
    driver.launchApp();
    driver.startActivity(new Activity("com.example.android.apis", ".view.Controls1"));
  }
}
@AfterMethod
public void testCleanup() {
    if (driver != null) {
      driver.closeApp();
   }
}

After the driver is initialised we closed if the app is open. Then before each test, we launch the app and open the desired activity.

Start Appium Service

Instead of starting Appium server manually, we can start it from code.

appiumLocalService = new AppiumServiceBuilder().usingAnyFreePort().build();
appiumLocalService.start();

Get Path to Test App

The apk file is copied from the Resources folder to the compiled binaries. This is how we get the path.

URL testAppUrl = getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("ApiDemos.apk");
File testAppFile = Paths.get(Objects.requireNonNull(testAppUrl).toURI()).toFile();
String testAppPath = testAppFile.getAbsolutePath();

Initialize Desired Capabilities

URL testAppUrl = getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("ApiDemos.apk");
File testAppFile = Paths.get(Objects.requireNonNull(testAppUrl).toURI()).toFile();
String testAppPath = testAppFile.getAbsolutePath();
var desiredCaps = new DesiredCapabilities();
desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.DEVICE_NAME, "android25-test");
desiredCaps.setCapability(AndroidMobileCapabilityType.APP_PACKAGE, "com.example.android.apis");
desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.PLATFORM_NAME, "Android");
desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.PLATFORM_VERSION, "7.1");
desiredCaps.setCapability(AndroidMobileCapabilityType.APP_ACTIVITY, ".view.Controls1");
desiredCaps.setCapability(MobileCapabilityType.APP, testAppPath);

Find Android Locators

Using the Android SDK UI Automator Viewer, you can find the elements you are looking for. You can find it in the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk\tools\bin. Launch the following file – uiautomatorviewer.bat. Then click on the Device Screenshot and an image of the test app will appear.

Find Android Locators with Appium Desktop

Appium provides you with a neat tool that allows you to find the elements you’re looking for. With Appium Desktop you can find any item and its locators by either clicking the element on the screenshot image or locating it in the source tree.

After launching Appium Desktop and starting a session, you can locate any element in the source. 

• By ID

    AndroidElement button = driver.findElementById("com.example.android.apis:id/button");
    ```
    
-   #### By Class
    
```java
    AndroidElement checkBox = driver.findElementByClassName("android.widget.CheckBox");
    ```
    
-   #### By XPath
    
```java
    AndroidElement secondButton = driver.findElementByXPath("//*[@resource-id='com.example.android.apis:id/button']");
    ```
    
-   #### By AndroidUIAutomator
    
```java
    AndroidElement thirdButton = driver.findElementByAndroidUIAutomator("new UiSelector().textContains(\"BUTTO\");");
    ```
    

### Locate Elements inside Parent

```java
@Test
public void locatingElementsInsideAnotherElementTest() {
  var mainElement = driver.findElementById("android:id/content");
  var button = mainElement.findElementById("com.example.android.apis:id/button");
  button.click();
  var checkBox = mainElement.findElementByClassName("android.widget.CheckBox");
  checkBox.click();
  var secondButton = mainElement.findElementByXPath("//*[@resource-id='com.example.android.apis:id/button']");
  secondButton.click();
  var thirdButton = mainElement.findElementByAndroidUIAutomator("new UiSelector().textContains(\"BUTTO\");");
  thirdButton.click();
}

Gesture Actions in Appium

Swipe

@Test
public void swipeTest() {
  driver.startActivity(new Activity("com.example.android.apis", ".graphics.FingerPaint"));
  TouchAction touchAction = new TouchAction(driver);
  AndroidElement element = driver.findElementById("android:id/content");
  Point point = element.getLocation();
  Dimension size = element.getSize();
  touchAction.press(PointOption.point(point.getX() + 5, point.getY() + 5))
    .waitAction(WaitOptions.waitOptions(Duration.ofMillis(200)))
    .moveTo(PointOption.point(point.getX() + size.getWidth() - 5, point.getY() + size.getHeight() - 5))
    .release()
    .perform();
}