appium-device-farm

appium-device-farm

This is an Appium plugin designed to manage and create driver session on connected android devices and iOS Simulators.

Why Appium Device Farm?

• Automatically detects connected Android, iOS Simulators and Real devices before session creation and maintains it in device pool.
• Dynamically allocates a free device from device pool while creating driver session.
• Updates the device pool with a new device during test execution.
• Allocates random ports for parallel execution.
• Remote execution
• Async lockup for device changes.

Device UI

• Navigate to localhost:4723/device-farm once the appium server is started.

User can block/unblock devices from Dashboard manually. These devices will not be picked up for automation.

Once automation picks the device user cannot manually unblock, it's responsible for the automation script.

Prerequisite

Appium version 2.0.0-beta.43

Installation - Server

Install the plugin using Appium's plugin CLI, either as a named plugin or via NPM:

appium plugin install --source=npm appium-device-farm
appium plugin install --source=npm appium-dashboard

IOS Tracking

• To track ios device events like device plugged and unplugged we use go-ios module.
• We have to options to install go-ios module:
  • Option1 --> If you want device-farm to help you download go-ios module. Run command appium plugin run device-farm install-go-ios
  • Option2 --> You can install the go-ios module with npm install -g go-ios
• We need to set the environment variable.
  • After installing with Option2 --> GO_IOS="/usr/local/lib/node_modules/go-ios/dist/{ SELECT YOUR OS }/ios"

Installation - Client

No special action is needed to make things work on the client side.

Activation

The plugin will not be active unless turned on when invoking the Appium server. See "Argument options" below

appium server -ka 800 --use-plugins=device-farm,appium-dashboard  -pa /wd/hub --plugin-device-farm-platform=android

You can also pass all the arguments in a config file. Refer here

appium server -ka 800 --use-plugins=device-farm --config ./server-config.json -pa /wd/hub

Cloud Execution

Plugin currently supports pCloudy and BrowserStack

BrowserStack

CLOUD_USERNAME="username" CLOUD_KEY="apiKey" appium server -ka 800 --use-plugins=device-farm --config ./serverConfig/bs-config.json -pa /wd/hub

Refer on BroswerStack config here

pCloudy

CLOUD_USERNAME="useremail" CLOUD_KEY="apiKey" appium server -ka 800 --use-plugins=device-farm --config ./serverConfig/pcloudy-config.json -pa /wd/hub

Refer on pCloudy config here

SauceLabs

CLOUD_KEY="apiKey" CLOUD_USERNAME="useremail" appium server -ka 800 --use-plugins=device-farm --config ./serverConfig/sauce-config.json -pa /wd/hub

Refer on sauce config here

LambdaTest

CLOUD_KEY="apiKey" CLOUD_USERNAME="useremail" appium server -ka 800 --use-plugins=device-farm --config ./serverConfig/lt-config.json -pa /wd/hub

Make sure all appiumVersion: 2.0 in your capabilities. Refer on LambdaTest config here

Argument options

These arguments are set when you launch the Appium server, with this plugin installed.

Argument	Required	Description	Default	Options
plugin-device-farm-platform	Yes	Platform to run tests against for parallel execution	None	both,ios,android
--plugin-device-farm-ios-device-type	No	Types of ios devices to include	both	both,simulated,real, For example: If you want to run only against iOS simulator then specify --plugin-device-farm-ios-device-type=simulated
--plugin-device-farm-android-device-type	No	Types of android devices to include	both	both,simulated,real, For example: If you want to run only against android emulator then specify --plugin-device-farm-android-device-type=simulated
plugin-device-farm-skip-chrome-download	No	Downloads require chromedriver for web testing	true	false Setting to false will download required chromedriver for web testing on chrome
plugin-device-farm-hub	No	HUB IP address and port the node should register	None	hub: "http://hubhost:hubport", If you want to run tests distributed across remote and local machine
plugin-device-farm-max-sessions	No	Limit how many sessions can be active at a time. This is useful when you need limit sessions based on host machine resource availability.	None	<number> e.g. 8
plugin-device-farm-derived-data-path	No	DriveDataPath of WDA to speed iOS test run.	None	{'simulator': 'PathtoDrivedDataPath', 'device': 'PathtoDrivedDataPath'}
plugin-device-farm-adb-remote	No	ADB Remote host and port as array	None	["remoteMachine1IP:adbPort", "remoteMachine2IP:adbPort"]

Above cli arguments can also be set from config.json file Refer here

Capabilities

Capability Name	Description
appium:iPhoneOnly	Allocate only iPhone simulators for execution when to true. Default value is false.
appium:iPadOnly	Allocate only iPad simulators for execution when to true. Default value is false.
appium:deviceAvailabilityTimeout	When create session requests are more than available connected devices, plugin waits for a certain interval for device availability before it timeout. Default value is 180000 milliseconds.
appium:deviceRetryInterval	When create session requests are more than available connected devices, plugin polls for device availability in certain intervals. Default value is 10000 milliseconds.
appium:udids	Comma separated list of device udid's to execute tests only on specific devices appium:udids: device1UDID,device2UDID
appium:platformName	Requests asession for the provided platform name. Valid options are iOS, tvOS, or Android, ex: 'appium:platformName': tvOS
appium:platformVersion	This capability is used to filter devices/simulators based on SDK. Only devices/simulators that are an exact match with the platformVerson would be considered for test run. appium:platformVersion is optional argument. ex: 'appium:platformVersion': 16.1.1
appium:minSDK	This capability is used to filter devices/simulators based on SDK. Devices/Simulators with SDK greater then or equal to minSDK would only be considered for test run. appium:minSDK is optional argument. ex: 'appium:minSDK': 15
appium:maxSDK	This capability is used to filter devices/simulators based on SDK. Devices/Simulators with SDK less then or equal to maxSDK would only be considered for test run. appium:maxSDK is optional argument. ex: 'appium:maxSDK': 15

Custom chrome binary url

set the new URL to CHROMEDRIVER_CDNURL environment variable:

CHROMEDRIVER_CDNURL=http://npm.taobao.org/mirrors/chromedriver appium server -ka 800 --use-plugins=device-farm --config ./server-config.json -pa /wd/hub

Notes

1. If there is no activity on a session for more then 100 seconds, device allocated to respective session would be unblocked and made available for new session requests.

Remote Execution

Check our Remote Execution Wiki for more details.

Example

Server logs will be as below:

Session Creation

[device-manager] Master Device List [{"busy":false,"state":"device","udid":"emulator-5554"},{"busy":false,"state":"device","udid":"emulator-5556"}]
[debug] [HTTP] Request idempotency key: 40f0c680-ba67-47a9-b763-95121afd2aff
[HTTP] --> POST /wd/hub/session
[HTTP] {"desiredCapabilities":{"app":"/Users/sekars/workspace/AppiumSample/VodQA.apk","automationName":"UIAutomator2","platformName":"Android","deviceName":"Android Emulator","newCommandTimeout":700000},"capabilities":{"firstMatch":[{"appium:app":"/Users/sekars/workspace/AppiumSample/VodQA.apk","appium:automationName":"UIAutomator2","appium:deviceName":"Android Emulator","appium:newCommandTimeout":700000,"platformName":"android"}]}}
[debug] [W3C] Calling AppiumDriver.createSession() with args: [{"app":"/Users/sekars/workspace/AppiumSample/VodQA.apk","automationName":"UIAutomator2","platformName":"Android","deviceName":"Android Emulator","newCommandTimeout":700000},null,{"firstMatch":[{"appium:app":"/Users/sekars/workspace/AppiumSample/VodQA.apk","appium:automationName":"UIAutomator2","appium:deviceName":"Android Emulator","appium:newCommandTimeout":700000,"platformName":"android"}]}]
[Appium] Plugins which can handle cmd 'createSession': device-manager (sessionless)
[Appium] Plugin device-manager (sessionless) is now handling cmd 'createSession'
[device-manager] Device UDID emulator-5554 is blocked for execution.
[Appium] Attempting to find matching driver for automationName 'UIAutomator2' and platformName 'android'
[Appium] The 'uiautomator2' driver was installed and matched caps.
[Appium] Will require it at /Users/sekars/.appium/appium-uiautomator2-driver/node_modules/appium-uiautomator2-driver
[Appium] Appium v2.0.0-beta.12 creating new AndroidUiautomator2Driver (v1.64.0) session
[Appium] Checking BaseDriver versions for Appium and AndroidUiautomator2Driver
[Appium] Appium's BaseDriver version is 8.0.0-beta.6
[Appium] Could not determine AndroidUiautomator2Driver's BaseDriver version
[debug] [BaseDriver] W3C capabilities and MJSONWP desired capabilities were provided
[debug] [BaseDriver] Creating session with W3C capabilities: {
[debug] [BaseDriver]   "alwaysMatch": {
[debug] [BaseDriver]     "platformName": "android",
[debug] [BaseDriver]     "appium:app": "/Users/sekars/workspace/AppiumSample/VodQA.apk",
[debug] [BaseDriver]     "appium:automationName": "UIAutomator2",
[debug] [BaseDriver]     "appium:deviceName": "emulator-5554",
[debug] [BaseDriver]     "appium:newCommandTimeout": 700000,
[debug] [BaseDriver]     "appium:udid": "emulator-5554",
[debug] [BaseDriver]     "appium:systemPort": 64717
[debug] [BaseDriver]   },
[debug] [BaseDriver]   "firstMatch": [
[debug] [BaseDriver]     {}
[debug] [BaseDriver]   ]
[debug] [BaseDriver] }
[BaseDriver] Session created with session id: a18dbb34-b6b7-4269-b55d-d25854da2c69

Session Deletion

[device-manager] Unblocking device UDID: emulator-5554
[device-manager] Deleting Session and device UDID emulator-5554 is unblocked
[Appium] Executing default handling behavior for command 'deleteSession'
[debug] [BaseDriver] Event 'quitSessionRequested' logged at 1616393765527 (11:46:05 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time))
[Appium] Removing session a18dbb34-b6b7-4269-b55d-d25854da2c69 from our master session list
[debug] [UiAutomator2] Deleting UiAutomator2 session
[debug] [UiAutomator2] Deleting UiAutomator2 server session
[debug] [WD Proxy] Matched '/' to command name 'deleteSession'
[debug] [WD Proxy] Proxying [DELETE /] to [DELETE http://127.0.0.1:64717/wd/hub/session/6312cab7-d11a-4bf5-92cf-39c4f85a4a8f] with no body
[debug] [WD Proxy] Got response with status 200: {"sessionId":"6312cab7-d11a-4bf5-92cf-39c4f85a4a8f","value":null}
[debug] [ADB] Running '/Users/sekars/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb -P 5037 -s emulator-5554 shell am force-stop com.vodqareactnative'
[debug] [BaseDriver] Event 'quitSessionFinished' logged at 1616393765610 (11:46:05 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time))
[debug] [W3C (20e35290)] Received response: null
[debug] [W3C (20e35290)] But deleting session, so not returning
[debug] [W3C (20e35290)] Responding to client with driver.deleteSession() result: null
[HTTP] <-- DELETE /wd/hub/session/20e35290-43b2-431e-8a78-aefca4d092fb 200 491 ms - 14

Device polling for every 10 seconds

[ADB] Using 'adb' from '/Users/sekars/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb'
[debug] [ADB] Running '/Users/sekars/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools/adb -P 5037 start-server'
[debug] [ADB] Getting connected devices
[debug] [ADB] Connected devices: [{"udid":"emulator-5554","state":"device"},{"udid":"emulator-5556","state":"device"}]
[device-manager] Master Device List [{"busy":false,"state":"device","udid":"emulator-5554"},{"busy":false,"state":"device","udid":"emulator-5556"}]

Big thanks to the following organizations for their support to the project with their open source licenses: