Appium Mobile

Mobile test automation with Appium for iOS and Android.

1. Architecture

Appium Test Suite
├── tests/
│   ├── conftest.py         # Driver fixtures
│   ├── test_login.py
│   ├── test_checkout.py
│   └── pages/
│       ├── base_page.py
│       ├── login_page.py
│       └── home_page.py
├── capabilities/
│   ├── android.json        # Device configs
│   └── ios.json
└── pytest.ini

2. Driver Setup

# conftest.py
import pytest
from appium import webdriver
from appium.options.android import UiAutomator2Options
from appium.options.ios import XCUITestOptions

@pytest.fixture
def android_driver():
    options = UiAutomator2Options()
    options.platform_name = "Android"
    options.device_name = "Pixel_7_API_34"
    options.app = "./app/build/app-debug.apk"
    options.automation_name = "UiAutomator2"
    options.no_reset = False

    driver = webdriver.Remote("http://localhost:4723", options=options)
    yield driver
    driver.quit()

@pytest.fixture
def ios_driver():
    options = XCUITestOptions()
    options.platform_name = "iOS"
    options.device_name = "iPhone 15"
    options.platform_version = "17.0"
    options.app = "./app/build/ios-simulator.app"
    options.automation_name = "XCUITest"

    driver = webdriver.Remote("http://localhost:4723", options=options)
    yield driver
    driver.quit()

3. Page Object Model

# pages/login_page.py
from appium.webdriver.common.appiumby import AppiumBy
from selenium.webdriver.support.ui import WebDriverWait
from selenium.webdriver.support import expected_conditions as EC

class LoginPage:
    def __init__(self, driver):
        self.driver = driver
        self.wait = WebDriverWait(driver, 10)

    def find_username(self):
        return self.driver.find_element(AppiumBy.ACCESSIBILITY_ID, "username")

    def find_password(self):
        return self.driver.find_element(AppiumBy.ACCESSIBILITY_ID, "password")

    def find_login_button(self):
        return self.driver.find_element(AppiumBy.ID, "com.example.app:id/login")

    def login(self, user, password):
        self.find_username().send_keys(user)
        self.find_password().send_keys(password)
        self.find_login_button().click()

    def is_logged_in(self):
        return self.wait.until(
            EC.presence_of_element_located(
                (AppiumBy.ACCESSIBILITY_ID, "welcome")
            )
        )

4. Locators

5. Gestures & Interactions

from appium.webdriver.common.touch_action import TouchAction
from selenium.webdriver.common.actions.action_builder import ActionBuilder
from selenium.webdriver.common.actions.pointer_input import PointerInput

# Tap
TouchAction(driver).tap(x=100, y=200).perform()

# Swipe / Scroll
def swipe(driver, start, end):
    action = TouchAction(driver)
    action.press(x=start[0], y=start[1])
    action.wait(ms=500)
    action.move_to(x=end[0], y=end[1])
    action.release().perform()

# W3C Actions (modern)
actions = ActionBuilder(driver)
pointer = PointerInput("touch", "finger")
actions.pointer_action.move_to_location(100, 500)
actions.pointer_action.pointer_down()
actions.pointer_action.move_to_location(100, 200)
actions.pointer_action.pointer_up()
actions.perform()

# Wait for element
element = WebDriverWait(driver, 10).until(
    EC.presence_of_element_located(
        (AppiumBy.ACCESSIBILITY_ID, "loading-complete")
    )
)

6. Device Farms

BrowserStack

options = UiAutomator2Options()
options.platform_name = "Android"
options.device_name = "Samsung Galaxy S23"
options.app = "bs://<app-id>"

# bs-local for local testing
from browserstack.local import Local
local = Local()
local.start({"key": BROWSERSTACK_KEY})

driver = webdriver.Remote(
    f"https://{USER}:{KEY}@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub",
    options=options
)

Sauce Labs

# Replace with your Sauce Labs credentials
# Endpoint format: ondemand.saucelabs.com/wd/hub
driver = webdriver.Remote(
    "https://ondemand.example.com/wd/hub",
    options=options
)

7. Parallel Execution

# pytest-xdist with device-specific ports
pytest -n 2 --dist loadgroup \
  --capabilities '{"udid": "emulator-5554"}' \
  --capabilities '{"udid": "emulator-5556"}'

8. CI/CD

# .github/workflows/mobile-tests.yml
name: Mobile Tests
on: [push]
jobs:
  android:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: reactivecircus/android-emulator-runner@v2
        with:
          api-level: 34
          script: |
            adb install app/build/app-debug.apk
            pytest tests/ --driver=android

9. Anti-Patterns

10. Related Resources

• Skills: android-native, playwright-e2e
• Prompts: generate-mobile-test-strategy