Importance of App Activity in Mobile App Testing
It is time to dive deeper into why App Activity is important in Appium. Here are some of the points of importance of App Activity in Appium:
1. Acts As The Entry Point
For Appium to test the app effectively, it needs to know where to start. Not providing the App Activity would be similar to driving to a destination without knowing where to start. The App Activity tells Appium where to start when interacting with the Android app.
2. Focus On One Screen
During testing, it may not be necessary to go through all of the screens but focus on only one of them. Remember that each Activity in Android represents a screen and thus to focus on one screen, the activity needs to be specified. This allows Appium to know which screen it needs to be focusing on.
3. Promotes Focused Testing
Similar to the previous point, Appium needs to know exactly which screen it is testing. Think of the App Activity as a unique identifier for each screen (Activity). By providing an App Activity, Appium will be aware of the exact screen it needs to test and test it accordingly.
4. Encourages Streamlined Navigation
When an App Activity is not specified, Navigation can become challenging as Appium is likely to start executing in a random or default screen. This may cause inconsistencies in the Navigation structure of your test and thus provide inaccurate results. Specifying an App Activity is useful in allowing Appium to execute more linearly and thus provide accurate test results.
5. Allows for Context Switching
By nature, Native Android apps largely involve Context in their lifecycle. This is because they need to be aware of the current context and handle them correctly, for example when switching between a Native context and a Web context. An App Activity helps Appium work better by providing it with context, that is allowing it to handle different scenarios (contexts) accordingly.
6. Optimizes the Performance
For larger Android apps, an App Activity optimizes the test process for performance by specifying the destination screen. This greatly improves the test speeds as there is no time spent navigating through unnecessary screens when the App Activity is not specified. This may be negligible in smaller Android apps but is still recommended for best practice.
7. It Caters for Dynamic Elements
Some of the Android apps have Dynamic Elements that depend on the screen (Activity) being navigated on. For example, an E-Commerce app is likely to have its Shopping Cart behave differently depending on the screen in which the user is located. Given that Appium conducts UI Tests, it is important to capture the starting point of the test to reflect the real-world behavior of the dynamic elements and achieve accurate test results.
Understanding App Activity in Appium | How it Works, Importance, Best Practices
Appium is integral to UI Automation within different domains in Tech: Mobile, Web, and even Desktop. The platform aims to streamline Software Testing through the following goals as outlined by its creators:
- Make platform-specific automation capabilities available under a cross-platform, standard API.
- Allow easy access to this API from any programming language.
- Provide tools to enable convenient community development of Appium extensions.
Appium is a suitable choice for Mobile Developers who want to benefit from the automation of UI Testing due to its ease of use and versatility. This article seeks to define what App Activity is in the context of Appium and Android.