“Appium is an open source, cross-platform test automation tool for native, hybrid

and mobile web apps, tested on simulators (iOS, FirefoxOS), emulators (Android),
and real devices (iOS, Android, FirefoxOS).”

 APPIUM is a freely distributed open source mobile application UI testing

framework.

 Appium allows native, hybrid and web application testing and supports
automation test on physical devices as well as on emulator or simulator both.

 It offers cross-platform application testing i.e. single API works for both Android
and iOS platform test scripts.

 It has NO dependency on Mobile device OS. Because, APPIUM has framework or

wrapper that translate Selenium Webdriver commands into UIAutomation (iOS)
or UIAutomator (Android) commands depending on the device type not any OS
type
.
 Appium supports all languages that have Selenium client libraries like- Java,
Objective-C, JavaScript with node.js, PHP, Ruby, Python, C# etc.

Supported Platforms
• IOS
• Android
• FirefoxOS
 Why Appium?
Appium was designed to meet mobile automation needs according to a philosophy
outlined by the following four tenets:
 You shouldn't have to recompile your app or modify it in any way in order to
automate it.
 You shouldn't be locked into a specific language or framework to write and run your
tests.
 A mobile automation framework shouldn't reinvent the wheel when it comes to
automation APIs.
 A mobile automation framework should be open source, in spirit and practice as
well as in name.

Prerequisite to use APPIUM

 ANDROID SDK -
 JDK (Java Development Kit)
 TestNG
 Eclipse
 Selenium Server JAR
 Webdriver Language Binding Library
 APPIUM For Windows
 APK App Info On Google Play
 Node.js (Not Required - Whenever Appium server is installed, it by default comes
with "Node.exe" & NPM. It's included in Current version of Appium.)
IOS Requirements
• Mac OS X 10.7 or higher, 10.9.2 recommended
• XCode >= 4.6.3, 5.1.1 recommended
• Apple Developer Tools (iPhone simulator SDK, command line tools)
• Ensure you read our documentation on setting yourself up for iOS testing!

Android Requirements

• Android SDK API >= 17 (Additional features require 18/19)

• Appium supports Android on OS X, Linux and Windows.
Make sure you follow the directions for setting up your environment properly for
testing on different OS:
o linux
o osx
o windows

FirefoxOS Requirements
• Firefox OS Simulator

Selendroid vs Appium

Selendroid and Appium are very similar:

 both use Selenium WebDriver

 both could be used for native, hybrid and mobile web apps
 both could run tests on emulator or real devices
 both are suitable for Cloud Based Testing
How It Works
 Appium drives various native automation frameworks and provides an API based on
Selenium's WebDriver JSON wire protocol.

 Appium drives Apple's UIAutomation library for iOS support, which is based on Dan
Cuellar's work on iOS Auto.

 Android support uses the UiAutomator framework for newer platforms and
Selendroid for older Android platforms.

 FirefoxOS support leverages Marionette, an automation driver that is compatible

with WebDriver and is used to automate Gecko-based platforms.

Conclusion:
Usually testers have to learn several programming languages to evaluate the efficiency
of a particular mobile app over various platforms. However Appium enables the experts
for testing mobile apps with Selenium WebDriver. Therefore, they've choice to write
tests by using various programming languages that works with the WebDriver such as
perl, Python, PHP, Java, Objective-C, C#, Ruby, & JavaScript with Node.js. Additionally,
they may choose any kind of testing framework to improve the speed as well as the
ability of the testing work. Several organizations depend upon open source testing
automation tools such as Appium for automation both the native & hybrid mobile apps.
Currently, Appium is supporting many platforms such as iOS, Android & FirefoxOS.
Therefore, the developers could easily automate both the native & hybrid apps by
focusing on various platforms. Additionally, Appium also is considered as very flexible
in the mobile app automation.