Leveraging Appium Parallel Execution for Faster Mobile Test Runs
The use of mobile phones has expanded enormously. From calling to buying groceries, for any service, all you can do on your mobile phone. However, the vast availability of applications requires different types of mobile testing. Appium is one of the most preferred tools for mobile applications.
Appium is open-source, multi-language, and multi-OS support. You can also perform Appium cloud automation testing to make automation testing more efficient and reliable. To make your Appium testing highly efficient and deliver the best possible result, running your automation tests in parallel is recommended. In this article, you will see the introduction to Appium and what mobile app testing is. Then, you will see how to leverage Appium parallel test execution for faster test runs.
Introduction to Appium
Appium is an open-source tool that is used for mobile automation testing. Appium can be used to test both Android and iOS applications. You can also use this tool for Windows platform applications.
Using Appium, the developers and QA team can perform software testing for various applications. You can test native apps, hybrid apps, and web applications. It supports testing the react native apps out of the box and runs the test cases using the WebDriver interface. There is considerable support for language in this automation testing tool, Appium. The various programming languages it supports are Java, JavaScript, Python, Ruby, etc. Using Appium allows you to run parallel testing on local infrastructure and the cloud.
Using cloud-based Appium testing adds a great advantage to the software testing team. Cloud-based Appium testing improves the testing scalability. Also, cloud-based automation testing increases testing efficiency and decreases testing costs. Because you only need to pay for the resources you use on the cloud. Also, as soon as your work is finished, you can revoke the resource so that no extra cost will be applied.
You can maximize the potential of the Appium framework by integrating it with cloud testing platforms such as LambdaTest. LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestrating and executing platform that allows users to perform manual and automated tests across various environments, covering over 3000 configurations, including browsers and real mobile devices.
A notable feature of LambdaTest is its ability to scale testing operations effortlessly. Whether manual testing in real-time or automated tests spanning various environments, LambdaTest provides the necessary infrastructure and resources to meet testing demands at any scale.
It facilitates real-time testing, enabling users to interact manually with applications and websites. This functionality is invaluable for tasks such as exploratory testing, debugging, and ensuring consistent user interface behavior across diverse environments.
Appium Architecture
Below is the architecture that will help you understand how Appium works.
Appium Client
This component of Appium consists of language-specific libraries or SDKs. These SDKs help the developers create test automation test scripts using the Appium. In multiple programming languages, these client libraries provide various methods for tasks such as locating elements, interacting with UI components, executing gestures, validating expected behaviors, etc.
Appium Server
It works as a bridge in the framework, making mobile application automation possible in the Appium server. The Appium server creates a link between the mobile application and the test script, regardless of whether the application runs in an emulator or on an actual device. Initially, the test script sends commands to the server, which converts them into automation actions specific to the various targeted mobile device types using REST API. Using Selenium WebDriver’s robust functionalities, the Appium server establishes communication with the mobile application and executes tasks such as element identification, user interface interaction, gesture emulation, behavior validation, etc.
End Device
When you are talking about the End device, it refers to the various emulators and simulators or an actual device connected to the server where the automated tests get executed. These devices play a vital role as they help validate the testing parameters, such as the performance and functionalities of the software application.
What is Parallel Testing?
Parallel testing is a software testing approach in which you run multiple automation tests in parallel. By saying parallel, you run multiple tests simultaneously on various resources. Different tests run on other threads, and the results are combined. Let us take an example to understand how parallel testing works. There is an e-commerce application above; it took 1000 seconds to run all tests on Android and 1000 seconds to run on iOS. So, we need 2000 seconds to run the tests on Android and iOS devices. Now, there are numerous devices for both Android and iOS. As you add the number of devices, the execution time will increase for running tests. You can run all the tests using the parallel testing concept and save 1000 seconds.
Advantage of Appium Parallel Execution for Mobile Tests
Let us see the various benefits of Appium in executing parallel tests for mobile apps.
- Faster Test Execution: Parallel testing helps you execute your Appium tests in less time and increases overall testing time and efficiency. For example, you have 20 tests that will take around two minutes. So, the total time will be 40 minutes for testing, as each test will run separately. However, if you implement parallel testing, each test will be executed in separate resources, and the time will be reduced many times.
- Resource Efficiency: Parallel testing helps to make the best resource utilization in Appium mobile testing. As we know, each test needs some specific memory space and leaves some ideal resources to execute. With the help of Appium parallel testing, you can run multiple tests simultaneously according to your resource capability. This is one of the essential benefits if you’re paying for access to test infrastructure by the minute and need to optimize resource efficiency to save money.
- Faster Feedback: Performing Appium mobile tests in parallel also helps to get quicker feedback from the feedback team. As we know, in parallel testing, each separate test runs in threads on different resources. As soon as the test gets executed, it immediately sends the feedback to the testing team. And the team can rectify any kind of changes or errors at an early stage in less time. So, fast feedback helps the team to fix the issue early and remove the bottlenecks.
How to Leverage Appium Parallel Execution for Faster Mobile Test Runs
As we know, UI-driven functional tests take longer, even if you use all the best practices and professional tips. So, the best solution to this issue is to use Appium tests in parallel for faster mobile testing, in which you can run many tests simultaneously using different resources. There are four ways you can run numerous Appium sessions at a time. But here, you will see two ways to leverage Appium parallel execution for faster mobile test runs.
Parallel Execution- Client Side
There are many options that a QA team and developers can choose from for parallel test execution using Appium. But regardless of this factor, one major part must be tackled with precision and accuracy. It is the client side. You can not say you are executing parallel testing because you have multiple Appium servers on the cloud. You also need a way for your test runner or framework to kick off the tests in parallel. The feature to run testing scripts in multiple sessions or threads at a time is not a part of the Appium tool.
As Java is the most preferred language, the easiest and preferred way to perform this is to do with Maven. You can also use the Surefire plugin along with Maven. You need to update the “pom.xml” file with the configuration given below:
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
<configuration>
<parallel>methods</parallel>
<threadCount>4</threadCount>
</configuration>
</plugin>
You can see how to implement parallel testing based on methods or classes in the above configurations. You can also specify the thread numbers that you want for test execution. But remember that the number of threads you create must match the number of Appium sessions you can manage and handle.
Parallel Execution- Server Side
Generally, the testing team and developers approach client-side parallel testing with Appium. But you can also do this from the server side. The Appium server was not set up to handle multiple simultaneous sessions. So, starting with Appium servers and listening to different ports is recommended. You can refer to the below example:
appium -p 10000 # server 1
appium -p 10001 # server 2
After that, each test thread must adjust the Appium server’s URL to include the appropriate port. Given below is an example:
@Test
public void testOnServer1() throws MalformedURLException {
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability(“platformName”, “iOS”);
capabilities.setCapability(“platformVersion”, “11.4”);
capabilities.setCapability(“deviceName”, “iPhone 8”);
capabilities.setCapability(“app”, APP);
IOSDriver driver = new IOSDriver<>(new URL(“http://localhost:10000/wd/hub”), capabilities);
actualTest(driver);
public void testOnServer2() throws MalformedURLException {
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.setCapability(“platformName”, “iOS”);
capabilities.setCapability(“platformVersion”, “11.4”);
capabilities.setCapability(“deviceName”, “iPhone 8”);
capabilities.setCapability(“app”, APP);
IOSDriver driver = new IOSDriver<>(new URL(“http://localhost:10001/wd/hub”), capabilities);
actualTest(driver);
This is not the standard test suite design. It is ideal since we need to specify ports differently concerning which thread we are running, which requires developing separate test classes or something similar. But after some development and updates to Appium, we can now quickly launch many sessions on a single Appium server that is up and running!
Rather than launching numerous servers on separate ports, we may rely on one server operating on the default or any port we choose. This helps perform Appium parallel mobile app testing and gets better and faster results.
Conclusion
In this article, you will see that Appium is a viral mobile app testing tool. It is open-source and has many advanced features for performing automation testing. Appium automation testing can be done using the client and server sides. You can use various best practices and strategies that will help you leverage Appium parallel execution for faster mobile test runs.
