As mobile applications proliferate, automated mobile testing has become essential. Users want fast, responsive, and bug-free experiences on every device in this mobile-first era. Selenium, a popular open-source web automation framework when combined with tools like Appium, has expanded its use to include testing mobile applications.
Selenium mobile testing is likely to play a significant role in the development lifecycle. It allows testers to automate testing across a wide range of mobile platforms, browsers, and devices, ensuring high-quality releases at scale.
This article will offer a helpful explanation on using Selenium to become proficient in mobile testing. To maximize mobile application testing with Selenium, it will first give a general overview of Selenium mobile testing, including how to utilize Selenium for mobile testing.
Introduction to Selenium Mobile Testing
Selenium is the most popular open-source framework for automated testing of desktop and web applications. The reason behind its popularity is its accessibility, flexibility, adaptability, and enhanced test automation features, such as testing of different operating systems, web browsers, and languages.
Selenium is composed of three main components, which are- Selenium IDE, Selenium Web Driver, and Selenium Grid. Along with many other things, these three components enable users to automate, playback, record, and interact with various web browsers.
Selenium is specifically designed for automating web browsers, but when it comes to mobile app testing automation, flexibility and accuracy are the reasons why testers consider Selenium.
While it is true that many other superior tools are there for the task, Selenium is easy to set up for mobile app testing. However, Selenium cannot be directly used for mobile testing; only with the integration of Selenium-based frameworks like Selendroid and Appium, an open-source mobile testing framework, can this be done. It allows testers to write mobile tests in the same way they write Selenium tests.
Why use Selenium with Appium?
Appium and Selenium frameworks have something in common. Both use JSONWireProtocol to interact with iOS and Android apps. Appium provides a bridge between Selenium and mobile platforms to control native, hybrid, and mobile web applications. So, it can be used to automate both Android applications via the Android driver and iOS applications via the iOS driver. Combining Appium and Selenium brings powerful advantages, especially when aiming to test mobile applications effectively.
- Appium is built on Selenium WebDriver- Appium uses the Selenium WebDriver protocol. Selenium testers moving into mobile testing make the transition to Appium easier, since it has the same structure, same concepts like locators, commands, and sessions as Selenium.
- Cross-Platform Test Automation- Selenium with Appium allows to test native mobile apps, hybrid mobile apps, and mobile web apps. One framework that covers multiple platforms, Android, iOS, and mobile browsers.
- Write Once, Run Everywhere- Both use the same test logic for Android and iOS (with minor capability changes. One test suite can be used for both platforms. Appium also offers a unified API for interacting with and supporting various programming languages in Android and iOS platforms, including Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, and Ruby.
- Support for Real Devices, Emulators, and Simulators- Selenium and Appium can seamlessly run tests on Android Emulators, iOS Simulators, and real physical devices. They can also be integrated with Cloud device farms like LambdaTest.
- Seamless integration with other tools – For mobile testing, testers can integrate Appium with Selenium Grid to perform tests in parallel. Both the frameworks can also be integrated with test frameworks like TestNG, JUnit, and Mocha, reporting tools like Allure, and ExtentReports, as well as CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitHub, and
- Active Community and Open Source- Both frameworks are open source and have huge developer and QA communities, providing plenty of tutorials and documentation.
Advanced Selenium Features for Mobile Testing
Over the years, the software testing landscape has evolved with the innovation of new technologies. Selenium has made automation testing easier for developers and testers. It allows faster execution and minimizes manual errors and repetitions
Selenium is known for helping the testing team identify multiple bugs in the application. The future of selenium mobile app testing is bright because of its positive approaches and advanced features, which consist of an enhanced Selenium Grid. The traditional Selenium Grid version was complex to design and was rigid in scaling.
With the release of the new version, the Selenium grid was introduced with Docker support, enabling the developers and testers to spin the containers rather than setting up the complex virtual machines. Also, the advanced Selenium Grid is easy and smooth to manage since it doesn’t require any complex setup procedures.
Moreover, Selenium is free to use, with extended support. It allows writing scripts in multiple programming languages of the tester’s choice. It supports various browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and others. Overall, with so much popularity and with the capability to test web as well as mobile applications, Selenium mobile app testing seems to lead the future of testing to a bigger and broader platform.
Steps for using Selenium with Appium for mobile testing
- Installing Appium- Appium acts as a bridge between Selenium and mobile platforms, enabling automated testing of mobile applications. It is compatible with native, hybrid, and mobile web applications. Hence, the first step is to set up Appium on the machine or use a cloud-based service. Also make sure to install Appium Inspector for locating elements in the mobile app
- Setting Up Mobile Device- Configure or specify the device type, platform version, app location, and other parameters essential for testing. Tests are carried out by purchasing several mobile handsets used by the end users, accessing multiple operating systems like iOS, Android, iPad, and tablet devices.
- Installing Selenium WebDriver- Installation of Selenium WebDriver, a browser automation tool, is essential for controlling browser actions. It enables running the Selenium tests on different operating systems and browsers.
- Writing Test Scripts- Testers can write automated tests in multiple programming languages through the Selenium mobile testing tool. Once Selenium WebDriver is successfully installed, testers can use it with Appium libraries and start writing the Selenium test scripts.
- Executing Tests- Once the test script is written, it can be run locally on emulators or different mobile devices for Selenium mobile app testing.
Best practices for mastering mobile testing with Selenium
To effectively use Selenium for mobile testing, it’s crucial to implement some practices, which include-
Develop a Robust Test Plan: Developing a test plan involves a number of scenarios, such as the installation of an application, user and login processes, page/screen navigation, device rotation from portrait to landscape, and so on. While creating a test plan focusing on user-critical flows and regression areas is also helpful.
Check device and platform compatibility- Applications must be tested on a variety of platforms due to the wide range of devices, screen sizes, operating system versions, and resolutions. This will help ensure a consistent user experience and the compatibility of mobile applications across a range of devices.
Check Responsive Design- Verify that the application’s functions and layout work well across a range of screen sizes and resolutions to guarantee a smooth user experience.
Prioritize Network and Performance Testing- Mobile applications often rely on network connectivity. So, testing the application’s speed, responsiveness, and stability under various conditions is vital. Poor performing apps can impact user retention, so testers must include tests to simulate slow or intermittent network conditions to see how the app performs under heavy usage and determine its breaking point.
Handle Mobile-Specific Challenges- With a variety of devices and operating system versions, as well as mobile-specific aspects like portrait and landscape modes, varying network speed, battery and memory usage, push notifications, etc., can complicate testing. Utilizing cloud-based device farms can help to instantly test on tablets, foldables, and phones of all sizes, and also offer automated network simulation during tests for comprehensive testing.
Use Page Object Model (POM)- Implement POM as it helps to create a maintainable and scalable test automation. It separates the test scripts from the page-specific code, making the tests easier to maintain and update.
Use Selenium grid effectively- Through the use of Selenium Grid,the testing team can run multiple tests on various operating systems and browser types at the same time, minimizing the time frame required to execute a test suite. Utilizing parallel testing ensures a consistent experience across the various browser versions and devices in the shortest time. Performing cross-browser testing is easy with the Selenium Grid, since a single test can be carried out on multiple machines and different combinations of browsers.
Incorporate Visual Testing- Selenium Grid can be integrated with various automated testing frameworks,including Appium for comprehensive mobile testing. Selenium mobile testing with Appium helps in visual validation and debugging errors through video recording, screenshots, text logs, console, and network logs. This ensures that the UI appears correctly across devices.
Manage Test Data- Achieving the robustness of any application requires designing and maintaining a well-organized set of robust test data. This will help streamline the testing process and avoid issues related to data consistency and availability.
Use Real Devices and Emulators Wisely- Testers can use real testing devices, emulators, or simulators to test the website and the mobile application’s function and behavior. Each provides advantages and challenges, and a combination of both can provide comprehensive test coverage.
The real mobile device testing is tough because of the mobile device fragmentation and the continuous release of Android and iOS versions. Therefore, the testing strategies have evolved to virtual devices, or emulators, whether testers are testing mobile apps manually or through automation. Emulators or simulators are great for development and early testing.
There are multiple benefits of using real devices and emulators; however, real devices are essential for validating actual performance and hardware-specific issues. Also, the outcomes generated by the real devices are accurate; that’s why the cost of testing is high. Through a cloud platform like LambdaTest, testers can perform comprehensive automated tests on real mobile devices or emulators/simulators for scalability, better test coverage, and accuracy.
LambdaTest is an AI testing tool that provides testers with a Selenium Mobile Testing Environment. It offers access to a cloud mobile testing infrastructure powered by a Selenium Grid of more than 3000+ environments and real mobile devices, along with virtual testing setups. Using this scalable setup, testers can run extensive mobile test automation scripts remotely, optimizing testing processes and accelerating release cycles.
To make sure the app is genuinely mobile-ready, the platform also enables testers to run automated mobile-friendly tests in real time. This ensures that the app is optimised for various screen sizes, device capabilities, and user situations. Additionally, testers can generate meaningful performance, page load speed, and SEO data by combining tools like Google Lighthouse with Lambda Hooks, a potent feature in LambdaTest. This ensures that apps fulfil important quality standards in addition to functionality.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it takes a combination of the appropriate tools, techniques, and best practices to master Selenium mobile testing. Combining the capabilities of Selenium and Appium gives testers the advantage of a strong, all-inclusive, and adaptable mobile application testing solution.
Additionally, for a successful mobile testing testers must set up the proper environment, create efficient tests, employ the appropriate strategies, and keep up with the most recent developments in tools and trends. These practices can ensure mobile applications perform optimally across various devices and operating systems, which is crucial for maintaining effective testing practices in this evolving mobile testing field.