What is Xamarin UI Test?

Xamarin UI Test is an automation framework based on Calabash, C# and NUnit. This can be used to automate mobile applications like iOS/Android.

Why?

For an engineer who is comfortable with C#, this is the best framework that can be used to automate the mobile apps developed on hybrid/native apps.

How?

You can go through this link to know more about Xamarin UI Test.

Tips & Tricks!

1. What if your app contains multiple pages!  You can definitely use a page object pattern framework which comes along with the nuget Package. You can find the sample here.
2. Thread.Sleep! Undoubtedly Polling is bad. Xamarin UI Test gives us many methods to stop polling. Here is a sample where the app waits until the button is enabled:

 app.WaitFor(() => app.Query(e => e.Class("UIButton").Index(1)).First().Enabled, "Waiting for Element", timeout: TimeSpan.FromMinutes(3.0)); 
 

      3. Code without Assertions ?? Never! You can use the same assertions that you use for Nunit. Like Assert, StringAssert,FileAssert, CollectionAssert.

app.Query (x => x.Class ("UIPickerView").Invoke ("selectRow", date.Month - 1 , "inComponent", 0, "animated", true));

      5. How to add test case category ?? Yes, you can! Why would someone add a test category? It not only helps in identifying the test case no. but also when you have a CI pipeline, you can categorize the test methods to run specific tests.

[Category("Test Category Name")]

     6. How to start writing the test? Always open the repl mode and use app.flash to identify the element. After you play with the repl mode, Just type "copy" and paste it in your test method. Remove the unwanted code. "Tree" keyword is used to identify the structure of elements in the UI. And the repl mode is really interactive and supports intellisense.

1. Unable to contact test backend running in app. A common cause is that the app is not properly linked - You need to check the Xamarin.TestCloud.Agent (to be latest based on the Xcode) or Xamarin.Calabash component is missing from the appdelegate.cs.
2. I upgraded all the packages but my test is not running ! You should use NUnit Version below 3.0.0, ideally to use 2.6.4 unless there is any update. Sometimes Xamarin UI Tests doesn't work well with iOS upgrades. So wait for sometime until the Xcode/Xamarin support is provided.
3. I am not able to deploy the device agent. Check the version of Xamarin.TestCloud.Agent, Xamarin.UITest. If there was an iOS update, the Xcode needs to be updated (if not available use the preview version).
4. System.Net.Http.HttpRequestException - Sometimes you get this error in repl mode. Try reconnecting the device and run the repl again.
5.  Not able to view the tests. This is a common issue which we observe in visual studio for mac. You can rebuild the solution, Quit Visual Studio (Command+Q) and then re-open to view the tests.

1. Postman - Create a json Project. (alternatively you can download from my Git here)
2. VSTS Account

1. Goto Builds in Visual Studio online profile
2. Create a new build with a empty definition
3. Add npm Task

1. Download agent from one of the agent queues in your visual studio account.
2. Configure your agent as mentioned below
3. In the config command, enter your visual studio server details and enter your authentication code.

1. Goto builds in your visual studio account.
2. Create a empty build definition
3. Add a Command Line Task
4. Point the tool to the testrunner.bat location in your local
5. Pass the testrunner arguments that you copied when you ran the test runner from SoapUI

1. Download the You can my sample app from https://github.com/ganesh-alalasundaram/PlugnPlay/tree/master/CognitiveApi_Sample
2. Open the Solution

1. to use mobile center in command line, type "mobile-center login" and use your credentials which you used to login to mobile center.
2. "Unable to find the nunit.framework.dll in the assembly directory" - you may have to right-click on the nunit.framework reference and choose Local Copy for it to be included in the output directory.
3. Invalid assembly path - always put a '\' in your path if you donot have.
4. Latest Nunit framework is not supported.  You need to downgrade the version to 2.6.4

1. Its sometimes tricky to troubleshoot device related issues like upgrading or installing the drivers
2. Emulators are being heavy weight applications and face issues in running in low configured machines
3. Process of creating an appx/ipa/apk and then deploying in the device to verify the changes takes much longer time

1. Download visual studio preview version 2017.  If you are a individual developer, you can use Community Edition which is free of cost and if you are a small enterprise go for Professional or a big enterprise go ahead with Enterprise version. Ensure you have selected "xamarin remoted simulator" option below during installation

1. Create a sample cross platform project

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
 <ContentPage xmlns="https://xamarin.com/schemas/2014/forms"
 xmlns:x="https://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2009/xaml"
 xmlns:local="clr-namespace:Sample_App"
 x:Class="Sample_App.MainPage">

<StackLayout>
 <Slider VerticalOptions="CenterAndExpand"
 ValueChanged="OnSliderValueChanged" />

<Label x:Name="valueLabel" Text="My First Sample Application" Font="Large" HorizontalOptions="Center" VerticalOptions="CenterAndExpand" />

<Button Text="Click Here"
 HorizontalOptions="Center"
 VerticalOptions="CenterAndExpand"
 Clicked="OnButtonClicked" />
 </StackLayout>
 </ContentPage>

          

deployed to multiple devices which run on windows 10 devices like phone/surface/PC etc. In this topic we would go through the UWP

Tools to be used:

1. Visual Studio

2. Winappdriver - Download from https://github.com/Microsoft/WinAppDriver/releases

3. Appium framework from Nuget manager

Procedure:

1. Create a new unit test project.

2. Add the appium framework from nuget manager.

3. Install the UWP app(*.appx) in the device

4. Create test method to perform UI test.

Steps:

1. Creating a new unit test project in visual studio. Launch visual studio and goto file->new->project.

Select Windows->Test->Unit Test Project.

Add references through nuget manager. Right Click on the solution and click on Manage Nuget Packages. Search for Appium and install it.

After installation, all the references will be added to the project.

Add the below code to the *.cs file. Compile and run the test using the test explorer. Ensure the winappdriver.exe is running

namespace News_Appium
 {
 [TestClass]
 public class NewsTest
 {
 protected const string WindowsApplicationDriverUrl = "https://127.0.0.1:4723";
 protected static WindowsDriver<WindowsElement> NewsApp;
 protected static WindowsDriver<WindowsElement> DesktopSession;

[ClassInitialize]
 public static void Setup(TestContext context)
 {
 DesiredCapabilities appCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
 appCapabilities.SetCapability("app", "Microsoft.BingNews_8wekyb3d8bbwe!AppexNews");
 NewsApp = new WindowsDriver<WindowsElement>(new Uri(WindowsApplicationDriverUrl), appCapabilities);
 Assert.IsNotNull(NewsApp);
 DesiredCapabilities desktopCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
 desktopCapabilities.SetCapability("app", "Root");
 DesktopSession = new WindowsDriver<WindowsElement>(new Uri(WindowsApplicationDriverUrl), desktopCapabilities);
 Assert.IsNotNull(DesktopSession);
 }

[ClassCleanup]
 public static void TearDown()
 {
 NewsApp.Quit();
 }

[TestMethod]
 public void TopNav()
 {
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("My News").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("My Sources").Click();
 string text = NewsApp.FindElementByName("Your News. Your Sources.").Text.ToString();
 Assert.AreEqual("Your News. Your Sources.", text);
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Top Stories").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("US").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("World").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Good News").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Politics").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Opinion").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Crime").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Technology").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Entertainment").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Money").Click();
 NewsApp.FindElementByName("Sports").Click();
 AppiumWebElement searchbox = NewsApp.FindElementByName("Search");
 searchbox.Clear();
 searchbox.SendKeys("Microsoft\r\n");
 string txtBlock = NewsApp.FindElementByClassName("TextBlock").Text;
 Assert.AreEqual(txtBlock, "Microsoft");
 }
 }
 }

Compile the code and run the test using the test explorer The above code will use the News App Pre-installed in the windows 10

Challenges:

1. https://github.com/TestStack/White. Solution name is WpfTestApplication
2. download Snoop 2.8.0 from https://snoopwpf.codeplex.com/ this is used for spying objects in UI
3. Visual Studio
4. Nuget Package - TestStack.White

TestStack.White.UIItems.Button btnbuttonintoolbar = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.Button>(SearchCriteria.ByText("Button in toolbar"));
btnbuttonintoolbar.Click();

TestStack.White.UIItems.TabItems.TabPage tabInput = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.TabItems.TabPage>(SearchCriteria.ByText("Input Controls"));
tabInput.Click();

ListBox lnumber = mainWindow.Get<ListBox>("ListBoxWithVScrollBar");
lnumber.Select(0);

ComboBox cSelect = mainWindow.Get<ComboBox>("AComboBox");
cSelect.Select(0);

TestStack.White.UIItems.CheckBox chkSecond = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.CheckBox>(SearchCriteria.ByText("A checkbox"));
chkSecond.Click();

TestStack.White.UIItems.TextBox txtBox = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.TextBox>(SearchCriteria.ByAutomationId("TextBox"));
txtBox.Text="Hi This is a Text Box";

TestStack.White.UIItems.RadioButton rdoBtn1 = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.RadioButton>(SearchCriteria.ByAutomationId("RadioButton1"));
rdoBtn1.Click();

TestStack.White.UIItems.Hyperlink hlink = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.Hyperlink>(SearchCriteria.ByText("Link Text"));
hlink.Click();

TestStack.White.UIItems.Slider sldrOne = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.Slider>(SearchCriteria.ByAutomationId("Slider"));
sldrOne.LargeIncrementButton.Click();
sldrOne.LargeDecrementButton.Click();

TestStack.White.UIItems.TreeItems.TreeNode nodeOne = mainWindow.Get<White.UIItems.TreeItems.TreeNode>(SearchCriteria.ByText("Root"));
nodeOne.Select();
nodeOne.Expand();