Effectively Using UI Automation

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EFFECTIVELY USING UIAUTOMATION
Alexander Repty

WHY AUTOMATE?

“[…] the three great virtues of a
programmer: laziness, impatience, and
hubris.”

Larry Wall, Programming Perl,1991

WHAT ARE AUTOMATED TESTS?

• Drive UI without any human interference



• A little like unit tests for GUI




• Log progress (passes & fails)




• Log progress (passes & fails)

• Find out quickly when something breaks

WHAT ELSE CAN UI AUTOMATION DO?


• Automate annoying tasks



• Demo your product




• Quickly perform tasks multiple times




• Quickly perform tasks multiple times

• Screenshots and screencasts

WHY USE UIAUTOMATION OVER
OTHER FRAMEWORKS?

OTHER FRAMEWORKS?

• Instantly available for everyone

OTHER FRAMEWORKS?


• Easy to set up and use

OTHER FRAMEWORKS?


• Easy to set up and use

• Improves application accessibility

UIAUTOMATION EXAMPLE

• Not accessible yet



• Never used UIAutomation on it



• Never used UIAutomation on it

• Let’s see how quickly we can make it work

GENERATED CODE

• Hard to read

GENERATED CODE

• Hard to read

• Harder to edit

GENERATED CODE

• Hard to read

• Harder to edit

• Impossible to maintain on a large scale

GENERATED CODE

• Hard to read

• Harder to edit

• Impossible to maintain on a large scale

• Solution: Use Accessibility APIs!

IMPLEMENTING ACCESSIBILITY

• Enable accessibility



• Assign an accessibility label




• Optional: add an accessibility hint




• Optional: add an accessibility hint

• Optional: assign accessibility traits


Before:
[…].textFields()[0].tap();


Before:
[…].textFields()[0].tap();

After:
[…].textFields()["Item Title"].tap();


Before:
[…].tapWithOptions({tapOffset:{x:0.25, y:0.33}});


Before:
[…].tapWithOptions({tapOffset:{x:0.25, y:0.33}});

After:
[…].buttons()["Fruit"].tap();


What did I do?
! self.isAccessibilityElement = YES;


What did I do?
! self.accessibilityLabel = item.title;


What did I do?
! self.accessibilityLabel = item.title;
! self.accessibilityTraits =
(UIAccessibilityTraitButton);

(SLIGHTLY) BETTER CODE

UISegmentedControl accessibility sucks.


• Check your view hierarchy (use logElementTree())



• Find weaknesses and accessibility ﬂaws in your code



• Find weaknesses and accessibility ﬂaws in your code

• Write tests that last

IMPROVE ACCESSIBILITY

• Excellent article by Matt Gemmell

http://mattgemmell.com/2010/12/19/accessibility-for-iphone-and-ipad-apps/




• Even Apple links to it




• Even Apple links to it

• Essential for proper automation; two birds with one stone

TESTING YOUR UI

• UIALogger (logMessage, logStart, logPass, logFail)

TESTING YOUR UI


• No built-in support for assertions (TuneUp JS)

TESTING YOUR UI


• No built-in support for assertions (TuneUp JS)

• Works with continuous integration systems (using Instruments CLI
command)

RUNNING MULTIPLE TESTS

• Run three separate tests



• Add & delete Spaghetti




• Go to yesterday, add and delete a Steak




• Go to yesterday, add and delete a Steak

• Add an item, tweet it and delete it

MORE THINGS YOU CAN DO

• Handle unexpected & expected alerts



• Multitasking (deactivate app for any given duration)




• Orientation changes





• Set location





• Set location

• Gestures


• Take screen shots



• Automate screen shots for the App Store




• Even in multiple languages!





• Easily reproducible screen casts (with perfect timing)





• Easily reproducible screen casts (with perfect timing)

• Document your test runs

WHAT’S NOT SO GOOD ABOUT
UIAUTOMATION?

UIAUTOMATION?

• No way to set up or reset state (may have to exit on fail)

UIAUTOMATION?


• Only runs via Instruments

UIAUTOMATION?



• Might need arcane shell scrips to integrate into CI tools

UIAUTOMATION?




• No built-in method for mock objects

UIAUTOMATION?




• No built-in method for mock objects

• Very young, still maturing

WHAT ELSE IS THERE?

Product Good Bad Ugly
Languages
Squish Commercial Eclipse
Platforms

KIF Objective-C Private API Setup

Natural
Calabash Setup Client/Server
Language

SUMMARY

• Automated testing is awesome

SUMMARY


• Better with accessibility support

SUMMARY



• Build cases to test your application’s features

SUMMARY



• Build cases to test your application’s features

• Automate repetitive tasks

SUMMARY

Spend less time testing,
more time doing
important stuff

FURTHER READING
• Jonathan Penn

• http://cocoamanifest.net/

• “jonathanpenn” on Twitter and Github

• Alex Vollmer

• http://alexvollmer.com

• “alexvollmer” on Twitter and Github

FURTHER READING
• Shaun Ervine - Automated Acceptance Tests with UIAutomation, Jasmine &
Jenkins

• http://shaune.com.au/automated-ui-testing-for-ios-apps-uiautomation-
jasmine-jenkins/

FURTHER READING
Jenkins

jasmine-jenkins/

• Philipp Haussleiter - Using UIAutomation for Multilanguage iOS Applications

http://www.innoq.com/blog/phaus/2011/01/using_uiautomation_for_multila.html

FURTHER READING
Jenkins

jasmine-jenkins/

• Philipp Haussleiter - Using UIAutomation for Multilanguage iOS Applications

http://www.innoq.com/blog/phaus/2011/01/using_uiautomation_for_multila.html

• Apple

• UI Automation Reference Library & WWDC Session Videos

THANK YOU!

I’d love to hear from you.
alexander.repty@mac.com
@arepty

PHOTO CREDITS

• “Lazy Dog” by Hector Garcia (http://www.flickr.com/photos/torek/2467519466/)

• “There Isn’t An App For That” by Martha Soukup (http://www.flickr.com/photos/
soukup/5157648804/)

• “Titanic” by Javier Carcamo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/javic/7081573725/)

• “Tesla Motors Assembly Line” by Steve Jurvetson (http://www.flickr.com/photos/
jurvetson/6858583426/)

# obj cgn 12”
cial tag: “Obj CGN
Ofﬁ ac/iPad”:
ne/M
i-Fi “iPho
W

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Effectively Using UI Automation

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