Appium has long had the ability to temporarily close the current app under exam and bring it back (the process of backgrounding an app), since testing the power of an app to recover from being closed is crucial to app developers. When the XCUITest model was released and we built the XCUITest driver for Appium, we discover that erst the app under test was backgrounded we could still launch other apps and automate them. This include the built-in iOS apps like Messages, and the Settings app!

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Initially, I guess that this was unintentional and that the capability would be removed, but it has stuck around for a duet days and some Appium features now depend on it.

While new to iOS, Android has long permit testers to automate apps outside of the app under test.

If you remark from the, we use themobile: installCertificatecommand to instal a impost SSL security. When give this command, Appium open up the Settings app and navigates through menus, to install the certificate. This is achieved through the like automation Appium apply to your app, and you can well do the same.

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All it takes it launching an app using its bundleId, while your exam is lead:

// open Settings appdriver.activateApp (`` com.apple.Preferences '');

This will launch the Settings app, and you can now inspect and automate as normal. To go rearward to the app under test, launch it the same way:

driver.activateApp (`` your.bundle.id '');

If you don & # x27; t cognize your app & # x27; s bundleId there are numerous ways to get it. Appium needs it to in the first place, so I just took a look at the Appium log for one of my exam sessions and it included this line in the initial session apparatus:

[debug] [iOS] Getting bundle ID from app '/var/folders/mj/pgmgyh_95rsbs10yl46b73zc0000gn/T/2019319-8020-1rqx9az.mn5jj/TheApp.app ': 'io.cloudgrey.the-app '

On Android, the process is the same, but you use the appPackage or appActivity alternatively of the bundleId.

That & # x27; s it. I still don & # x27; t ask this to work forever on iOS but might as well use it while we have it. Your mileage may change, depending on the app. The Settings app is manufacture very merely, but more complex apps may exhibit unknown doings when undertake to automatise outside the app under test.

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The Settings apps feature been the most utilitarian for us to automatize, anything a exploiter can change about their phone, we can change too.

Another app you could automate would be the Messages app, with the bundleIdcom.apple.MobileSMS. You could use this for some slippery tests imply communication via SMS outside of your app, but if all you want to do is get a verification text, it may be best to use one of the many services which provide temporary headphone numbers you can admittance programatically.

I found this listof the bundleIds of iOS edition 12 system apps,this listof Android system apps. Additionally, we outlined how to bump the parcel names of all apps on your Android twist in (this early article about).

Here & # x27; s a quick example demonstrating the launching of system apps on iOS:

signification io.appium.java_client.AppiumDriver; import io.appium.java_client.ios.IOSDriver; import org.junit.After; import org.junit.Test; import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement; import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities; import java.net.MalformedURLException; import java.net.URL; public class Edition066_Automating_iOS_System_Apps {private String IOS_APP = `` https: //github.com/cloudgrey-io/the-app/releases/download/v1.9.0/TheApp-v1.9.0.app.zip ''; private AppiumDriver driver; @ After public void Quit () {driver.quit ();} @ Test public vacancy launchSystemApp () throws MalformedURLException, InterruptedException {DesiredCapabilities caps = new DesiredCapabilities (); caps.setCapability (`` platformName '', `` iOS ''); caps.setCapability (`` platformVersion '', `` 12.2 ''); caps.setCapability (`` deviceName '', `` iPhone Xs ''); caps.setCapability (`` automationName '', `` XCUITest ''); caps.setCapability (`` app '', IOS_APP); driver = new IOSDriver (new URL (`` http: //0.0.0.0:4723/wd/hub ''), cap); WebElement picker = driver.findElementByAccessibilityId (`` Picker Demo ''); picker.click (); // open iMessage driver.activateApp (`` com.apple.MobileSMS ''); // do things with SMS here Thread.sleep (3000); // open Settings app driver.activateApp (`` com.apple.Preferences ''); // regular automation command to change device settings hither // go back to our app driver.activateApp (`` io.cloudgrey.the-app ''); Thread.sleep (3000);}}

That & # x27; s all for this week. The illustration can be found with all our example codificationon Github.

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