Does Selenium Support Mobile Application Testing

Continuous deployment and development in the digital age happen to be the integral goal of different software development environments for companies offering Mobile testing services. Here, the code gets tested and developed continuously. 

Automation testing tools are recognized to be the solution to deploy the applications consistently. In this aspect, Selenium contributes to being a well-renowned test automation tool that offers a helping hand to the Selenium developers to encompass continuous testing into software development. Selenium provides support to a bunch of platforms, browsers, and operating systems.

But, the use of smartphones has introduced a plethora of platforms, devices into the market. In the past, the screens of the smartphone used to be small. 

Also, they did not have an easy to use design. However, with innovations in technology, mobile-based applications have become the latest trend. 

To accomplish this, the business organization should realign different software testing strategies to accommodate other mobile application solutions. 

The majority of the software testers are making the proper use of Selenium mobile software testing, than Appium for testing different automation solutions.

Now the question arises whether Selenium supports mobile app testing? The short answer would be that you will not be able to use Selenium to test the mobile application. 

However, a variety of frameworks are available on mobile testing, which are based on Selenium. It offers a helping hand in performing mobile automated testing. 

The Selenium framework, which is used to conduct mobile web testing are Appium and Selendroid.

What is Selendroid?

As evident from the name, Selendroid contributes to being the Selenium-based automation test framework known to drive the user interface of hybrid and native applications. 

There are scopes of using Selendroid on different real devices and emulators. It is possible to encompass the Selendroid into the Selenium Grid to perform parallel testing and scaling.

Apple and Android Automation mobile testing tools

There are primarily two ways in which it is possible to use Appium to test the application. For instance, you can try Android games and mobile applications with the Appium client-side tests' aid. 

It contributes to being the original idea of how test automation works. To make the testing successful, you should make sure to set different Selenium desired abilities.

Use of the Appium server-side tests are an ideal option to procure the desired capabilities. If you fail to run the localhost test, you require uploading the test package into the system testing. The system will take accomplished care, proper configuration, and management of different details to procure the prerequisite capabilities.

How does Selenium Testing work?

It is easy to work with Selenium. In the beginning, you need to look at the Selenium IDE. It is regarded as a Firefox plug, which is useful in playing back and recording different interactions of the user with the browser. 

You can make the right use of it for generating simple scripts. The scripts are exported for WebDriver. To upload the application into the system, you need to log in manually, after which you should make sure to choose the project and then upload the specific file. It is also necessary to upload the test package in a similar manner, as you would do with different test automation frameworks.

Different features function with the server-side Appium seamlessly. It is going to save an ample amount of configuration time. 

So, you will be capable of performing the tests at an earlier phase as they do not require carrying the hassles of playing with the prerequisite caps. 

If you want to perform the software tests, you need to choose the native Android project, Selenium iOS, Selenium Android for different project types.

Speaking of the client-side Appium, it is essential to configure it into the system. In the specific system, the test scripts need to go through where they will communicate with the Appium broker. 

Here, different configuration details are passed to the Appium server, after which it is sent to the device. The server-side Appium will do it parallelly with the chosen devices owing to which the entire process is executed at an early phase.

After Selenium 2.0 is launched, the Selenium Server boasts of the ready-made Selenium Grid functionality, which plays an integral role in the distribution and scaling of tests on different machines.

Reasons to opt for Appium Server Side Execution

A worth mentioning improvement in the implementation of server-side Appium is its capabilities of performing a variety of Appium tests on a variety of real devices. In the beginning, the software was meant to confer tighter relation for emulating more than one devices together. 

Now, you will have the chance to use it across a variety of devices. Appium stands second to none in offering a cross-platform approach for Apple and Android devices' automation testing. In addition to this, it provides the opportunity to execute different tests on different platforms at once.

In addition to this, you do not require configuring either of the devices on the specific desired capabilities. 

However, it is possible to configure it by dragging and dropping different desired devices in the device groups. It reduces the chances of errors and bugs, which came from devices' configuration into the script. It is possible to track every test run through the different real-time view.

To cut a long story short, it is impossible to use Selenium to conduct application testing. However, different frameworks can be used for performing mobile automated testing. 

Selendroid and Appium are recognized as the frameworks used for the testing of mobile applications. Selendroid works wonders for different types of Android applications for the Android version. 

This tool is also equipped with a bunch of features, such as backward compatibility, hot plugging, to name a few. Appiumm, on the other hand, is considered the open-source test automation framework that uses WebDriven JSON wire protocol for testing a variety of Android and Apple applications.

Conclusion

Indium Software is a Specialist QA & Software Testing Services provider. Our comprehensive suite of testing services covers Test Advisory, Functional and Non-Functional testing specializing in Automation, Digital, DevOps, Agile, Web, Mobility, IOT, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to name a few. 

Indium Software is helping clients globally transform their QA services function to achieve zero production defects, reduce QA cycle times up to 80% and lower overall QA costs up to 60% with its Next-Gen Testing Solutions, Modern Testing Approach, Skilled Teams and Global Delivery Model. We are also an ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 27001:2013 certified company.