Appium Inspector and Locating Elements for Mobile Automation


3. Appium Inspector and Locating Elements

Appium Inspector is a powerful tool that allows you to inspect and locate elements within a mobile application. In this tutorial, we will explore the Appium Inspector and learn how to locate elements using various strategies.

3.1. Appium Inspector:

i. Appium Inspector is a graphical user interface tool that provides a visual representation of the application's user interface hierarchy.

ii. It allows you to inspect and interact with individual elements within the app, making it easier to identify and locate elements for automation.


3.2. Launching Appium Inspector:

i. To launch the Appium Inspector, you need to start the Appium Server and ensure the desired capabilities are correctly configured.

ii. Once the server is running, you can open the Appium Inspector either through the Appium Desktop application or by accessing the Inspector URL provided by the server.


3.3. Inspecting Elements:

i. In the Appium Inspector, you will see a representation of the application's user interface, displaying the hierarchy of elements.

ii. You can interact with the application directly in the Inspector by tapping on elements, scrolling, or performing other actions.

iii. As you interact with the app, the Inspector highlights the corresponding element in the hierarchy, making it easier to identify and locate elements.


3.4. Locating Elements:

To automate interactions with elements, you need to locate them using appropriate strategies. Appium supports various element location strategies, including:

  • ID: Locating elements using their unique IDs assigned by the application.
  • Name: Locating elements using their displayed names.
  • XPath: Locating elements using XPath expressions.
  • CSS Selector: Locating elements using CSS selectors.
  • Class Name: Locating elements using their class names.
  • Accessibility ID: Locating elements using accessibility IDs assigned to elements.

  1. Find Element by ID

To find an element by its ID, you can use the findElementById() method of the driver object. For example:

java
MobileElement element = driver.findElementById("com.example.app:id/button");

This will find an element with ID "button" and assign it to the "element" object.

  1. Find Element by Name

To find an element by its name, you can use the findElementByName() method of the driver object. For example:

java
MobileElement element = driver.findElementByName("Button");

This will find an element with the name "Button" and assign it to the "element" object.

  1. Find Element by Class Name

To find an element by its class name, you can use the findElementByClassName() method of the driver object. For example:

java
MobileElement element = driver.findElementByClassName("android.widget.Button");

This will find an element with the class name "android.widget.Button" and assign it to the "element" object.

  1. Find Element by Accessibility ID

To find an element by its accessibility ID, you can use the findElementByAccessibilityId() method of the driver object. For example:

java
MobileElement element = driver.findElementByAccessibilityId("Button");

This will find an element with the accessibility ID "Button" and assign it to the "element" object.

  1. Find Element by XPath

To find an element by its XPath, you can use the findElementByXPath() method of the driver object. For example:

java
MobileElement element = driver.findElementByXPath("//android.widget.Button[@text='Login']");

This will find an element with the text "Login" and assign it to the "element" object.

  1. Find Element by Custom Attribute

You can also find elements by their custom attributes using the findElementBy() method of the driver object. This method takes a MobileBy object as an argument, which is created using the MobileBy class. For example:

java
MobileElement element = driver.findElement(MobileBy.custom("attribute", "value"));

This will find an element with a custom attribute "attribute" and a value of "value", and assign it to the "element" object.


3.5. Tools to Inspect Elements for Appium


To inspect elements on a mobile application for Appium, you can use several tools that provide a visual representation of the application's user interface and the elements on it. Here are some popular tools for inspecting elements on mobile applications:

3.5.1. Appium Desktop

Appium Desktop is a free and open-source tool that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for Appium. It allows you to start and stop the Appium server, inspect elements on the mobile application, and create and execute test scripts. Appium Desktop provides a visual tree view of the application's user interface, allowing you to select and inspect elements and view their properties.

i. How to Use Appium Dekstop for inspecting elements?

Appium Desktop is a tool that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for Appium, making it easier to develop and test mobile applications. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to use Appium Desktop:

  1. Download and install Appium Desktop

You can download Appium Desktop from the official website: https://github.com/appium/appium-desktop/releases. Once you have downloaded the installation file, run it and follow the installation wizard to install Appium Desktop on your computer.

  1. Start the Appium server

Launch Appium Desktop and click on the "Start Server" button. This will start the Appium server on your computer and display the logs in the console window.

  1. Create a new session

Click on the "New Session" button to create a new session. This will open the "Desired Capabilities" window, where you can specify the settings for the session.

  1. Specify the desired capabilities

In the "Desired Capabilities" window, you can specify the settings for the session. These settings include the platform name, device name, app package and activity (for Android), app path (for iOS), and other options.

For example, to test an Android application, you can specify the following desired capabilities:

json
{ "platformName": "Android", "deviceName": "Android Emulator", "appPackage": "com.example.myapp", "appActivity": ".MainActivity" }
  1. Connect to the device

To connect to the device, you need to specify the IP address and port number of the Appium server. This can be done by clicking on the "Start Inspector Session" button.

  1. Inspect the elements

Once you are connected to the device, Appium Desktop will display a visual representation of the application's user interface. You can select individual elements by clicking on them, and Appium Desktop will display their properties.

  1. Run test scripts

Once you have inspected the elements, you can use Appium Desktop to create and run test scripts. You can write the test scripts in any programming language supported by Appium (such as Java, Python, or JavaScript), and Appium Desktop will execute them on the connected device.


3.5.2. UI Automator Viewer

UI Automator Viewer is a tool provided by the Android SDK that allows you to inspect the elements of an Android application. It provides a hierarchical view of the application's user interface and allows you to select and inspect individual elements. UI Automator Viewer can be launched from the command line or from Android Studio.

3.5.3. Xcode's Accessibility Inspector

Xcode's Accessibility Inspector is a tool provided by Apple's Xcode IDE that allows you to inspect the elements of an iOS application. It provides a hierarchical view of the application's user interface and allows you to select and inspect individual elements. The Accessibility Inspector can be launched from Xcode's "Developer Tools" menu.

3.5.4. Selendroid Inspector

Selendroid Inspector is a tool provided by the Selendroid project that allows you to inspect the elements of an Android application. It provides a graphical user interface that displays the elements of the application and allows you to select and inspect individual elements. Selendroid Inspector can be launched from the command line or from the Selendroid server.

Overall, these tools provide a visual representation of the mobile application's user interface and allow you to inspect and interact with the elements on it. They are essential for developing and testing mobile applications with Appium.


Author
Vaneesh Behl
Passionately writing and working in Tech Space for more than a decade.

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