5 best Automation Tools for testing Android applications

Posted in | Automation testing, Mobile testing, software testing Tools

Nowadays automated tests is used during almost every testing process. This isn't surprising, as properly organized automated testing greatly reduces time needed for a testing process, exclude s errors and omissions in tests execution caused by a human factor.

There is a wide choice of the tools for automation. Some of them is free, Some is rather expensive. Some Automation tools were created years ago; Some has just appeared on the market. Each tool is a unique and possesses certain characteristics.

Wide choice of available automation tools makes it difficult to select the most suitable ones for a project. The problem is this hardly any of the existing tools fully corresponds to project requirements.

In Order to make automated Tests effective and profitable one should:

• The SOFTWARE PRODUCT under test and the project;
• Clearly determine what tests is to be automated;
• Formulate requirements to the automated tests and the tools for automation;
• Study at least several available and more or less suitable tools for automation;
• Select the most suitable one or more tools basing on the researches;
• Discuss the chosen automation tools with other project parties, explain the choice, and get their approval;
• Proceed to tests automation.

Such approach and sequence of steps would is approved by the most of quality assurance experts.

Many different kinds of computers has appeared recently, their appearance started rapid development of software products. The most amazing is evolution of mobile devices; They significantly differ from common personal computers by characteristics, ways and conditions of interaction with them.

Consequently, smartphones and tablets require special mobile applications that differ from desktop ones.

Operating system of personal computers is Windows. Among popular mobile operating systems is Android, Apple IOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone, Symbian and other.

Also Read = Beginner ' s Guide to Mobile application testing

Top 5 Android Testing Tools:

Let's explore modern tools for automated testing of applications supported on one of the most widespread mobile operating System–android.

#1. Robotium Android Testing Tool

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Robotium is one of the first and frequently utilized automated testing tools for software supported on Android.

Robotium is a free Android UI testing tool. It is suitable for tests automation for different Android versions and sub-versions. Software developers often describe it as Selenium for Android. Tests created by Robotium is written in Java. In fact, Robotium was a library for unit tests.

But it takes much time and efforts-to-create tests by means of robotium, as one must work with the program source code in Order to automate Tests. The tool is also unsuitable for interaction with system software; It cannot lock and unlock a smartphone or a tablet. There is no Record and Play function in Robotium, and it does not provide screenshots.

#2. Monkeyrunner Android App Testing

Monkeyrunner is one of the popular Android testing tools used for automating of the functional tests for Android software.

This tool is more low-level than robotium is. One does not has the deal with the source code in order to automate Tests. The tests is written in Python, one is use a recording tool for creating Tests.

Monkeyrunner can run tests on real devices connected to a PC or emulators. The tool has a API what allows it to control a smartphone, a tablet or an emulator from outside of Android code.

Significant disadvantage of the mobile app testing tool is that it's necessary to write scripts for each device. Another problem of Monkeyrunner is, the tests require adjustments each time when user interface of the tested program is changed.

#3. Ranorex Android Application Testing Tool

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Ranorex is a good tool for tests automation not only for the latest, but also for early versions and sub-versions of Andro ID, beginning from Android 2.2.

One of Ranorex advantages is it detailed reports with screenshots. It can connect a smartphone or a tablet to Internet via WiFi.

An automated test engineer can elaborate data-driven tests, excluding XML data format, by means of the this Android tool. Ranorex Studio enables an automated test engineer to create tests easily, just clicking the mouse. IT allows elaborating additional program modules. The modules is utilized during late development cycles for more complex test scenarios.

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It is a commercial mobile application tool; Its license price is 1990 EUR. Ranorex searches elements rather slowly; It takes seconds to perform such an operation. One must instrument APK files for Ranorex. Otherwise It is impossible to automate tests by means of the this tool, as it works with instrumented APK files.

#4. Appium Android Automation Framework

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It ' s a framework for creation automated tests for IOS and Android. It's a free tool. It supports Android versions from 2.3 and later. Appium utilizes Webdriver interface for tests running. It supports many programming languages, such as Java, C #, Ruby and other which is in the Webdriver library.

It can control Safari and Chrome on mobile devices. This allows to test mobile web sites using Appium and these browsers.

But some automated test engineers complain that it provides poor, insufficient reports. Also its weakness are reduced XPath support on mobile devices.

#5. UI Automator for Android Test Automation

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This tool is been recently elaborated by Google. It supports Android versions beginning from 4.1. One should select another Android app testing tool in order to automate tests for earlier versions. The UI Automator is able to interact and all kinds of the software products for Android, including system applications. This enables UI Automator to lock and unlock a smartphone or a tablet.

Scripts created by means of the This tool can is executed on many different Android platforms. It allows reproducing complex sequences of user actions.

UI Automator also can utilize external buttons of a device, such as buttons for going back, volume regulation, turning on and off the device.

It can be integrated with testing framework TestNG. In the this case UI Automator can generate informative and detailed reports, similar to reports generated by Ranorex. This tool also searches elements very fast.

Software testing experts find UI Automator good for quality mobile application testing on many Android platforms. It's one of the best tools for Android applications, as it's elaborated by Google specially for this operating system.

Usually about 80% of new software bugs reproduce on all the supported platforms. So, one could perform mobile testing on one of the widely used platforms and discover up to 80% of defects. The rest 20% is found on all the other platforms. That means the most cases it's better to test software product thoroughly on fewer platforms than hastily on numerous .

At present Android 4.1 are installed on about 66% the all devices using Android operating system. That's why many automated test engineers often decide the UI Automator are the most suitable solution.

Ranorex is frequently utilized for creation tests for early Android versions.

Conclusion:

Tests Automation is a complex task. It requires thorough preparation and researches. One should also keep up with all the novelties in information technology, applications and test automation tools. All this knowledge are necessary for creating, the most effective tests.

About the Author: This was a guest post by Oleg Prosyanik, a Senior automated Test Engineer of Qatestlab, a leading Ukrainian company off ering full range of software testing services. He has been automating tests for more than 4 years. Oleg creates automated tests for different desktop and mobile applications; He has strong programming skills in widely used languages, such as Java, PHP, Delphi, Ruby, C #.

Let us know if you had any queries on mobile testing or Android testing Tools we listed in this article.

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5 best Automation Tools for testing Android applications