Selendroid for Testing Android Applications
Selendroid is a test automation framework for Android native and hybrid applications and of course the Android based mobile web. Quality assurance practices make or break projects. It is then necessary that a steadfast suite of testing tools be made available to the Android apps developer community. Selendroid proves to be the first in the race when it comes to testing for Android based apps. Selendroid can be used on emulators, real devices and can be integrated as a node into the Selenium Grid for both scaling and parallel testing. It is the only mobile web driver which supports both native and hybrid apps on Android. Selendroid relies on the Android instrumentation framework and can be used to test only one app at a time. The tests are written using the Selenium Webdriver client API, which allows for full integration with existing Selenium frameworks.
If Selenium is a suite of tools for all platforms, Selendroid is dedicated Selenium for Android. It is a test automation framework for Android apps and the Android mobile web. It is quite versatile and can be used to test both Android native and hybrid applications. It is integrated as a node into the Selenium grid which is actually put to use for scaling and parallel testing with equal fervor. Selendroid uses the Android instrumentation framework for testing apps independently. The tests themselves use the Selenium Webdriver client API which integrates with the well established Selenium frameworks.
The Selendroid architecture consists of four major components which form the backbone of this framework
The Selendroid Client uses the Java client library
The Selendroid Server executes on the Android Device and is the chief component for automated testing for Android based apps
AndroidDriver App is a built in android driver web view app for mobile web testing
Selendroid-Standalone is the manager for android devices. It manages both the Selendroid server and the application under scrutiny
Notable Features of Selendroid
Selendroid supports a fully compatible JSON Wire Protocol
No modifications are required to be made to any application under test in order to automate it
The mobile web testing in undertaken using the webview app Android driver which is built in
Automated testing of both native and hybrid apps is done under one roof
Simplification of test case development happens with the built in Inspector
Advanced gestures are also supported by Selendroid Advanced User Interactions API
Interaction with multiple Android devices like emulators and actual devices is conducted simultaneously and automatically for the existing emulators
It supports hot plugging in of hardware devices
Parallel testing is also supported by the Selenium grid and full integration as a node happens into the same grid for scaling
Selendroid interacts with multiple android devices at the same time
It is extensible and can be extended at runtime as well
Android devices create a rage in the world because of numerous options in terms of devices and budgets. It goes without saying that it is the call of the day that a dependable Android test framework would be looked forward to by developers and QA companies equally.
