Nowadays, mobile applications play a major role in our daily life. Keeping in mind the demand for efficient and flawless mobile applications, it’s become a need to follow the robust testing process. There are various types of application testing processes available in the market and automation testing is the most preferred testing process in today’s context. It is a testing process that uses automated tools to run test scripts on software applications.

It is also able to compare the original test results with the projected result by flagging the bugs and errors based on inputs, user interactions as well as system environment. The main aim of this testing process is to streamline the test process by increasing the test coverage with a fast-forward software development lifecycle. In this article today, we will discuss how to perform automation testing with iOS apps by using Appium on the cloud.

What is Appium?

Appium is an open-source test automation framework that allows you to automate the testing process of native, hybrid, and web applications on different platforms. It works by establishing the connection between the test automation code and the emulator to simulate user interactions. Here are some key features of Appium, you should remember –

• It is a cross-platform compatible structure where you can write the test script only one time to run it multiple times on different devices and OS.
• Supports various coding languages.
• Appium can automate its testing process for various applications, it doesn’t matter if the application is native, hybrid, or web-based.
• It also uses the WebDriver protocol to interact with mobile devices.
• You don’t need to modify your code to perform the testing process.
• Appium is an open-source platform, which is free to use.

Benefits Of Cloud Automation

In the context of modern-day application development, cloud automation is used to automate the development process, tools, and controls of various aspects of cloud computing environments. It empowers organizations to streamline operations by optimizing the cost through improving the overall quality of the services. Here are some key benefits of cloud automation mentioned below –

Scalability: Cloud automation allows you to scale your resources. It works in an up or down manner as per the demand. It is useful for applications or services that experience varying levels of traffic. With the automation system, you can provision and de-provision resources as per your need.

Flexibility: Cloud automation schema comes with the flexibility to create, manage, and customize infrastructure. Based on the specific requirements the services will change.

Cost-Effectiveness: Cloud automation helps to optimize resource utilization, by which you can save the total cost of development. By following this; you only pay for the resources to reduce resource wastage.

Faster Deployment: The automation testing process accelerates the deployment process. It eliminates manual tasks and reduces human errors. The process is efficient for quicker releases and updates, which is important in fast-paced development environments.

Consistency and Reliability: Automated testing processes are less prone to errors. It is capable of generating more reliable outcomes.

High Availability and Redundancy: It enables the whole development setup to be redundant and deploy the failover mechanisms more easily.

Resource Optimization: You can nearly monitor resource usage and optimize allocation based on real-time data. It maintains the proper utilization of the resources which leads to better performance and cost savings.

Disaster Recovery and Backup: The solutions related to backup and disaster recovery ensure that your data is consistently backed up in the event of a failure. This process reduces the possibility of data loss.

Global Accessibility: Cloud automation enables you to distribute resources and services across multiple geographical regions. It ensures that your applications are easily accessible to global users with minimum latency.

Environmental Impact: Efficient resource utilization and dynamic scaling are the main backbone of cloud automation.  These processes contribute to a reduced environmental impact by minimizing excess energy consumption which leads to energy waste.

Safeguarding App Data in Cloud

Safeguarding the application data in a cloud environment involves a comprehensive set of steps to assure the security of the application and data privacy. Here are the detailed steps –

Data Classification:

You need to identify the types of data related to your application. It handles and classifies those on the basis of their sensitivity levels. Also, you need to maintain an inventory of those data assets with their locations.

Encryption:

You can use the Transport Layer Security to encrypt the application data. This process needs to be done in the process of data transferring between your application and the cloud services.

Access Controls and Authentication:

You need to implement a strong authentication schema such as multi-factor authentication to maintain the user access. You can also utilize the Identity and Access Management system to manage user roles.

Network Security:

You should set up various firewalls and network security groups to control incoming and outgoing traffic. It will be more efficient to use Virtual Private Cloud configurations to isolate and secure application resources.

Vulnerability Management:

You should scan the developed application to check the vulnerabilities in your applications.  It implements a process also for applying security patches and updates.

Audit Logging and Monitoring:

For critical events and activities, you need to enable a logging system.  It will help you to detect and investigate potential security breaches present in the application.

Data Backup and Recovery:

It is important to establish a strong backup system to ensure data recovery processes are caused by accidental deletion, data corruption, or any cyberattacks.

Incident Response Plan:

You should develop a well-defined response plan to summarize the steps to prevent any security breaches or data leaks.

Security Training and Awareness:

You should conduct training sessions for your development and operations teams on secure coding to practice cloud security. It will also promote a culture of security awareness among all employees to prevent social engineering attacks.

Third-Party Services and Dependencies:

It is needed to carefully evaluate and cut down the dependencies on others for security practices and vulnerabilities. You need to conduct regular reviews and update the third-party libraries and components to address security vulnerabilities.

How to Automate iOS Applications using Appium

iOS application automation with Appium involves with a couple of stages that ensure an organized and smooth testing process as mentioned below –

Setup The Environment:

• Install Node.js and Node Package Manager.
• Install Appium globally using npm: npm install -g Appium.
• Install Appium client library: npm install wd.
• Install Xcode and Xcode Command Line Tools for iOS development.

Installing Dependencies:

• Configure iOS simulators for testing on different device configurations.
• Download and install the Appium Desktop application for GUI-based interactions.

Test Scripts Creation:

• Write test scripts by utilizing various programming languages.
• Utilize the Appium API to automate interactions with the app’s UI elements.
• Perform actions like tapping buttons, inputting text, and verifying elements.

There are three different processes to test the iOS applications with Appium –

Running Tests Locally on iOS Simulator: The iOS Simulator is a valuable tool for testing applications. This process runs without any physical devices. Appium enables the process of testing on the iOS Simulator by establishing a connection between the testing script and the simulator.

Running Testing Procedures on Real iOS Devices: It is essential to conduct test procedures on actual iOS devices to ensure comprehensive testing. The Appium platform simplifies this process by facilitating the communication process between the developed testing scripts and the physical iOS devices.

Now, we will discuss the parallel test execution for iOS devices through automation with Appium on Cloud. Here are the steps –

Cloud Service Selection: You need to choose a cloud testing service first, which supports iOS devices with Appium. There are so many services like LambdaTest, AWS Device Farm, etc.

Setup The Account: Sign up for an account on the chosen cloud testing platform. You need to configure your account settings with the desired preferences.

Configure The Appium: Set up your Appium project for cloud execution. You need to update the capabilities with the cloud-specific information.

Enhancement of The Test Script: You have to optimize your test scripts for parallel execution on LambdaTest. Make sure that the developed scripts are thread-safe and independent.

Distribution The Whole Testing Process: Divide your whole test suite into subsets. They will help you to execute the process parallelly. It also enhances the efficiency of the development and maximizes the utilization of the devices.

Parallel Tests: You need to trigger the parallel test execution through the cloud platform’s interface.  The cloud service will distribute the whole test suite across multiple devices to run them concurrently.

Monitoring and Reporting: You should monitor the progress of parallel test execution on LambdaTest by accessing the real-time logs, screenshots, and video recordings provided by the specific cloud platform. Also, gather all the test execution outcomes to analyze them as per the bugs and errors.

Advantages to Automate iOS Applications using Appium

There are so many benefits you can have by automating iOS applications using Appium. Appium’s flexibility, cross-platform support, and integration capabilities with its valuable tools made it the most preferred iOS application automation tool in the modern era.

• Being a cross-platform-capable platform, Appium can use only one API for both Android and iOS.
• It is an open-source platform that has a strong support of a community of contributors.
• Appium supports a variety of coding languages which allows you to write efficient coding scripts.
• Appium supports real iOS devices and simulators to cover a wide range of test scenarios.
• It uses the WebDriver protocols with a standard interface for web browser automation,
• It is flexible for choosing automation tools and frameworks.
• Appium can be a cloud-based testing process that can be beneficial for testing the developed application across a wide range.

Future Trends and Challenges

However, the field of technology is always evolving and there are so many new trends that will come with new challenges in iOS automation testing on Cloud by using Appium.

Future Trends:

• In the future, the cloud service providers can offer more advanced integration processes for Appium to make the setup easier and more flawless. It will allow the users to perform the automated iOS application scaling efficiently.
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence can be merged with Appium to enrich the test script creation and maintenance process. It can boost the analyzing process with new-age application UI and more advanced functionality.
• Cloud service providers may offer specialized and dedicated iOS real-device test processes to perform more comprehensive procedures.
• The advancement can provide low-code automation testing which will empower the non-tech team members to be a part of the testing process with minimal coding knowledge.
• It will increase the security of the application which will reduce the data leakage and application vulnerabilities.

Future Challenges:

• Continuous iOS updates can be a challenge in the future. For every update, Appium needs to adapt to the changes in OS, APIs, and UI elements.
• Dynamic elements can make the test script less stable which can cause less reliability in the future.
• The performance testing process on the cloud, going to be more complex which will increase the cost also.
• Testing iOS applications on remote cloud servers can be a cause of fewer security measures with privacy concerns.

Conclusion

Automating iOS applications using Appium on Cloud has become a powerful approach to test the application efficiency and ensure the quality of the application. With the evolving and refining automation strategies you can build more efficient cloud infrastructures, business strategies, and automation tools to capitalize the future opportunities. In the future artificial intelligence can be coupled with Appium to perform iOS application automation on Cloud in a simple way.