What is Appium Inspector?

Setting Up Appium Inspector for iOS

1. Install Appium Server: Download and install Appium from the official website.
2. Install Appium Desktop: Appium Desktop includes the Inspector tool. Download it from the Appium Desktop GitHub repository.
3. Configure Xcode and iOS Device:
   • Ensure Xcode is installed and configured.
   • Connect your iOS device or set up an iOS simulator.
   • Enable Developer Mode on your iOS device.

Launching Appium Inspector

1. Start Appium Server: Open the Appium Desktop application and start the server.
2. Configure Desired Capabilities: Define the desired capabilities for your iOS application. These are key-value pairs that specify the configurations needed for your Appium session. Below is an example of desired capabilities for an iOS device:

   {
     "platformName": "iOS",
     "platformVersion": "14.4",
     "deviceName": "iPhone 12",
     "app": "/path/to/your/app.app",
     "automationName": "XCUITest"
   }

3. Start a Session: Click on the “Start Session” button in Appium Desktop after entering the desired capabilities. This will launch the Appium Inspector with your iOS app.

Using Appium Inspector to Find XCUIElements

1. Navigate the UI:
   • The Inspector window will display the current screen of your application.
   • You can interact with the app directly through the Inspector, similar to how you would on an actual device.
2. Inspect Elements:
   • Click on elements in the mirrored app screen to select them.
   • The right-hand panel will display the properties of the selected element, including its XCUIElementType, accessibility ID, label, value, and XPath.
3. Extracting Locators:
   • Accessibility ID: Use the name attribute (often the accessibility ID) for locating elements.
   • XPath: Appium Inspector generates an XPath for the selected element. Copy this XPath for use in your test scripts.
   • Class Chain: Appium supports iOS Class Chain queries, which are faster than XPath for locating elements.

Using RobotQA Live Testing for Inspection

What is Appium Inspector?

Setting Up Appium Inspector

1. Install Appium Server: Download and install the Appium server from the official website. You can also install it via npm using the command npm install -g appium.
2. Install Appium Desktop: Appium Desktop comes with the Inspector tool. Download and install it from the Appium Desktop GitHub repository.
3. Set Up Your Android Environment:
   • Ensure you have Android Studio installed.
   • Set up Android SDK and add it to your system’s PATH.
   • Enable Developer Options and USB Debugging on your Android device.

Launching Appium Inspector

1. Start Appium Server: Launch the Appium server from the Appium Desktop application.
2. Configure Desired Capabilities: Desired capabilities are a set of key-value pairs that specify the configurations required for the Appium session. Here’s an example configuration for an Android device:

{
  "platformName": "Android",
  "platformVersion": "11.0",
  "deviceName": "YourDeviceName",
  "app": "/path/to/your/app.apk",
  "automationName": "UiAutomator2"
}

• • Click on the Start Session button in the Appium Desktop application after setting the desired capabilities.
  • The Appium Inspector window will open, displaying the current screen of your application.

Using Appium Inspector to Find Elements

1. Navigating the UI:
   • The Inspector window will show a screenshot of your app’s current state.
   • You can interact with the app directly through the Inspector, just as you would on a real device.
2. Inspecting Elements:
   • Hover over elements on the screen to highlight them.
   • Click on an element to select it and view its properties in the right-hand panel.
   • The properties panel will display various attributes of the selected element, including resource ID, class name, text, content description, and XPath.
3. Extracting Locators:
   • Resource ID: Use the resource-id attribute for locating elements by ID.
   • XPath: Appium Inspector generates the XPath for the selected element. Copy this XPath to use it in your test scripts.
   • Class Name: The class attribute can be used to locate elements by their class name.
   • Content Description: Useful for elements where accessibility is enabled.
4. Recording Actions:
   • Appium Inspector also allows you to record your interactions with the app. Click on the Record button to start recording actions such as clicks, swipes, and text inputs.
   • The recorded actions can be converted into Appium code snippets, providing a head start in writing your test scripts.

Using RobotQA Live Testing Page to Inspect Elements