Appium 2

Appium Versions

TestingBot currently supports these Appium versions:

If you specify "appiumVersion": "latest", TestingBot will automatically use the latest Appium version. You can also use latest-1, latest-2, ... to test on the next most recent versions of Appium.

Appium 1 Legacy version

TestingBot currently supports Appium 1 with its latest version: 1.22.2.

Appium 2 example on TestingBot

Appium 1 and 2 are both supported on TestingBot, on all our physical devices and virtual devices: iOS simulators and Android emulators.

These Appium 2 drivers are installed on TestingBot:

• appium-uiautomator2-driver
• appium-xcuitest-driver
• appium-geckodriver
• appium-safari-driver
• Flutter

These Appium 2 plugins are pre-installed and can be activated by specifying a tb:appiumPlugins capability (by default empty):

{
    'tb:appiumPlugins': ['images', 'execute-driver', 'universal-xml']
}

• Images Plugin
• Execute Driver Plugin
• Universal XML Plugin

By default, TestingBot will use Appium 1 for all mobile tests. You can change this by specifying an Appium Version.

The example below will connect to the TestingBot device grid and will use Appium 2 to run a mobile automation test.

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();

capabilities.setCapability("platformName", "iOS");
capabilities.setCapability("appium:platformVersion", "18.0");
capabilities.setCapability("appium:deviceName", "iPhone 16");
capabilities.setCapability("appium:automationName", "XCUITest");

HashMap<String, Object> tbOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
tbOptions.put("appiumVersion", "2.5.1");
capabilities.setCapability("tb:options", tbOptions);
        

const capabilities = {
  platformName: 'iOS',
  'appium:platformVersion': '18.0',
  'appium:deviceName': 'iPhone 16',
  'appium:automationName': 'XCUITest',
  'tb:options': {
    appiumVersion: '2.5.1'
  }
}

capabilities = {
  "platformName" : "iOS",
  "appium:platformVersion" : "18.0",
  "appium:deviceName" : "iPhone 16",
  'appium:automationName': 'UiAutomator2',
  "tb:options" : {
    "appiumVersion" : "2.5.1"
  }
}

capabilities = {
  "platformName" => "iOS",
  "appium:platformVersion" => "18.0",
  "appium:deviceName" => "iPhone 16",
  'appium:automationName'=> 'XCUItest',
  "tb:options" => {
      "appiumVersion" => "2.5.1"
  }
}

AppiumOptions capabilities = new AppiumOptions();

capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("platformName", "iOS");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("appium:platformVersion", "18.0");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("appium:deviceName", "iPhone 16");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("appium:automationName", "XCUITest");

HashMap<String, Object> tbOptions = new Dictionary<string, object>();
tbOptions.Add("appiumVersion", "2.5.1");
capabilities.AddAdditionalCapability("tb:options", tbOptions);

Appium 2 Changes

If you've been using Appium 1 and want to try out Appium 2, then please be aware of the possible breaking changes listed below.

Protocol Changes

Appium 2 only allows the W3C WebDriver Protocol. Even though Appium 1 has supported this protocol since recent years, it also supported JSONWP (JSON Wire Protocol) and MJSONWP (Mobile Json Wire Protocol).

This means that if you are using an older Appium client or binding, you might have trouble communcating with Appium 2.

Instead of using desiredCapabilities, you now need to use capabilities with either alwaysMatch or firstMatch properties.

Capabilities

Appium only accepts a couple of standard W3C capabilities, including:

• browserName
• browserVersion
• platformName

All other capabilities, such as app or deviceName need to be vendor-prefixed. A vendor prefix means you prefix each key with a string followed by a colon. In Appium's case, this would be appium:

An example of some of the capabilities you can use with Appium 2:

• appium:app
• appium:deviceName
• appium:noReset

automationName is required

With Appium 2, you now need to specify an automationName. Before, with Appium 1 this was filled in automatically if you did not specify it.

For iOS testing, you should use appium:automationName with XCUITest. For Android, you should set the appium:automationName capability to UiAutomator2.

TestingBot specific capabilities

You can specify all TestingBot specific capabilities with the tb:options capability.

See below for an example where we will be using both Appium 2 and custom TestingBot capabilities.

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();

capabilities.setCapability("platformName", "ios");
capabilities.setCapability("appium:platformVersion", "18.0");
capabilities.setCapability("appium:deviceName", "iPhone 16");
capabilities.setCapability("appium:automationName", "XCUITest");

HashMap<String, Object> tbOptions = new HashMap<String, Object>();
tbOptions.put("appiumVersion", "2.5.1");
capabilities.setCapability("tb:options", tbOptions);