Appium server v1.2.3 released

jlipps · Sep '14

Hi everyone, thanks to all your help in this bugfix release! Check it out:

https://github.com/appium/appium/releases/tag/v1.2.3162

Next up will be Appium 1.3.0-beta with support for iOS8.

Meanwhile, here's the changelog for 1.2.3

General

add a settings api (used currently only for Android xpath compression)
add configurable loglevels for different transports
allow appium to be run under sudo if the sudo user owns the appium files

iOS

fix crash while recovering from instruments failure
add ability to launch app by 'bundleId' cap alone (no 'app' cap)
misc groundwork for iOS8
fix bug that prevented scrolling collectionViews
more crash recovery bugfixes
use 'click' atom in webviews, 'tap' sent two clicks
fix bug where we'd try to kill a null logging proc and crash
enable performance logs for webviews
allow automation of native frame in safari (actually works on 7.1!)
fix uiautomation predicate search bug
fix 'spawn ENOENT' bug caused by a missing deviceconsole binary
fix autoAcceptAlert bug
fix certain findElement crashes
fix hideKeyboard bugs

Android

fix issue with unzipping apk
add ability to launch arbitrary apps/activities mid-session
add lock() method to lock screen
add unlock() method to unlock screen
fix bug where app would be classified incorrectly as not installed
add settings api member for setting layout hierarchy compression
fix crash when touch actions attempted on webviews
undo setText changes and simply handle hint text fields better

Selendroid

fix --selendroid-quick reset.sh option
fix unicode keyboard issues
fix bug in getting window_handles
fix bug that would prevent launching an app with spaces in its apk path

---Jonathan

Alex_Chen · Sep '14

Auto update is still 1.2.2, should I wait?

Hassan_Radi · Sep '14

I updated to 1.2.3, but it fails to start with file paths that contain spaces :S

Hassan_Radi · Sep '14

Never mind, it turned out to be a problem with the dot.exe application itself.

New release is working just great for now

Niky · Sep '14

Should we expect complete iOS 8 support in 1.3 or the 1.2.3 has any little support for iOS 8 we can play around ???

jlipps · Sep '14

iOS8 support will land in 1.3, nothing to see in 1.2.3

sangeethasriniv · Sep '14

Tried running with xcode 6, complains about the tracetemplate path

WebDriverException: Message: u'A new session could not be created. (Original error: Could not find Automation.tracetemplate in /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle/Contents/Resources/Automation.tracetemplate)

Keerthana_Vijayan · Sep '14

Fix the Instruments path. They changed the .bundle folder to .xrplugin

ln -sf /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.xrplugin/ /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Applications/Instruments.app/Contents/PlugIns/AutomationInstrument.bundle

Match the directory structure of Xcode 5

mkdir /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/
mkdir /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/

Fix the simulator app name. They changed it from iPhone Simulator to iOS Simulator (about time)

ln -sf /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS\ Simulator.app /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone\ Simulator.app

Fix the binary name. They changed it from iPhone Simulator to iOS Simulator (about time)

ln -sf /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS\ Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iOS\ Simulator /Applications/Xcode6-Beta2.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS\ Simulator.app/Contents/MacOS/iPhone\ Simulator

Daniel_Jonsson · Sep '14

Hi,

Am i the only one that still has problem with the hang at:
info: [debug] Starting iOS device log capture via deviceconsole

When testing on a real device, even after upgrading to 1.2.3?

James_Farrier · Sep '14

Does this mean that the old xpath issue with non compressed layout hierarchy is fixed? Would be fantastic if it was.

janahan · Sep '14

Is there an OSX build of 1.2.3? All I see in the downloads section is a dmg for 1.2.2.
Thanks.

rstagner · Sep '14

Can someone in the know, please explain what this means? The answer just might resolve some issues we are having with XPath.

vicusbass · Sep '14

Should the MAC version be updated already? Mine is still pointing to 1.2.2

jonahss · Sep '14

In reply to @James_Farrier and @rstagner

Yes this should fix xpath issues!

github.com 5

appium/appium/blob/master/docs/en/advanced-concepts/settings.md

## Settings

Settings are a new concept introduced by appium. They are currently not a part of the Mobile JSON Wire Protocol, or the Webdriver spec.

Settings are a way to specify the behavior of the appium server.

Settings are:
 - Mutable, they can be changed during a session
 - Only relevant during the session they are applied. They are reset for each new session.
 - Control the way the appium server behaves during test automation. They do not apply to controlling the app or device under test.

An example of a setting would be `ignoreUnimportantViews` for Android. Android can be set to ignore elements in the View Hierarchy which it deems irrelevant. Setting this can cause tests to run faster. A user who *wants* to access the ignored elements however, would want to disable `ignoreUnimportantViews`, and reenable it afterwards.

Another example of a use-case for settings would be telling appium to ignore elements which are not visible.

Settings are implemented via the following API endpoints:

**POST** /session/:sessionId/appium/settings

>Expects a JSON hash of settings, where keys correspond to setting names, and values to the value of the setting.

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xpath compression in android now defaults to false , so all views are included in xpath searches. It can slow things down a bit, so advanced users can set ignoreUnimportantViews to true for most tests, and switch it to false for tests which require xpath to get elements which Android marks as non-important.

rstagner · Sep '14

@jonahss

Thanks for the reply. When you refer to xpath compression, I think I know what you mean, but could you provide an example of that so that I'm clear about it's purpose?

jonahss · Sep '14

Ok, I'll give it a try.
Android UiAutomator has a method called setCompressedLayoutHierarchy:

/**
     * Enables or disables layout hierarchy compression.
     *
     * If compression is enabled, the layout hierarchy derived from the Acessibility
     * framework will only contain nodes that are important for uiautomator
     * testing. Any unnecessary surrounding layout nodes that make viewing
     * and searching the hierarchy inefficient are removed.
     *
     * @param compressed true to enable compression; else, false to disable
     * @since API Level 18
     */
    public void setCompressedLayoutHeirarchy(boolean compressed) {
        getAutomatorBridge().setCompressedLayoutHierarchy(compressed);
    }

So.... when that is set, every single UiAutomator command runs on a subset of all the views that are actually present. That makes lookups and traversals of the layout hierarchy faster, since there's less elements to check on every operation.

I opened up the Android ApiDemos app and called getSource(). Then I set ignoreUnimportantElements to true and ran it again.

gist.github.com 8

https://gist.github.com/Jonahss/6f367b7d5746555ee618

AndroidApiDemosLayoutHierarchy

Android ApiDemos layout hierarchy

Uncompressed layout hierarchy:

<hierarchy rotation="0">
  <android.widget.FrameLayout index="0" text="" resource-id="" class="android.widget.FrameLayout" package="io.appium.android.apis" content-desc="" checkable="false" checked="false" clickable="false" enabled="true" focusable="false" focused="false" scrollable="false" long-clickable="false" password="false" selected="false" bounds="[0,0][480,800]" instance="0">
    <android.view.View index="0" text="" resource-id="android:id/action_bar_overlay_layout" class="android.view.View" package="io.appium.android.apis" content-desc="" checkable="false" checked="false" clickable="false" enabled="true" focusable="false" focused="false" scrollable="false" long-clickable="false" password="false" selected="false" bounds="[0,0][480,800]" instance="0">
      <android.widget.FrameLayout index="0" text="" resource-id="android:id/action_bar_container" class="android.widget.FrameLayout" package="io.appium.android.apis" content-desc="" checkable="false" checked="false" clickable="false" enabled="true" focusable="false" focused="false" scrollable="false" long-clickable="false" password="false" selected="false" bounds="[0,38][480,110]" instance="1">
        <android.view.View index="0" text="" resource-id="android:id/action_bar" class="android.view.View" package="io.appium.android.apis" content-desc="" checkable="false" checked="false" clickable="false" enabled="true" focusable="false" focused="false" scrollable="false" long-clickable="false" password="false" selected="false" bounds="[0,38][480,110]" instance="1">
          <android.widget.LinearLayout index="0" text="" resource-id="" class="android.widget.LinearLayout" package="io.appium.android.apis" content-desc="" checkable="false" checked="false" clickable="true" enabled="false" focusable="false" focused="false" scrollable="false" long-clickable="false" password="false" selected="false" bounds="[13,38][220,110]" instance="0">

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See how less is returned when the layout is compressed? A bunch of nested FrameLayout and LinearLayout views were removed since they don't seem to actually contain anything important.

Things will run faster, but if you wanted to query the hierarchy for one of the "dropped" views, appium wouldn't see it, or xpath might grab the wrong element instead. That's why it's disabled by default. I would try enabling it and see what fails.

rstagner · Sep '14

Thanks.

This helps in my understanding. It appears that this is only supported for Android devices at API level 18 and up. So, that is certainly an important consideration if you need to test an app that supports API levels 15 - 19 (our use case).

Sarah_Alhawi · Oct '14

Hi Daniel,

I was just wondering whether you managed to fix this issue? I have just upgraded and still having this problem...

Regards,

Sarah

jonahss · Oct '14

Oh indeed! I forgot that the option isn't even relevant in API levels <18. Good news for you is that it's always off by default now In times past, there were a couple versions of appium where it we set that option.

Appium server v1.2.3 released

General

iOS

Android

Selendroid

created

last reply

replies

views

users

likes

links

Fix the Instruments path. They changed the .bundle folder to .xrplugin

Match the directory structure of Xcode 5

Fix the simulator app name. They changed it from iPhone Simulator to iOS Simulator (about time)

Fix the binary name. They changed it from iPhone Simulator to iOS Simulator (about time)

Appium server v1.2.3 released

General

iOS

Android

Selendroid

created

last reply

replies

views

users

likes

links

Fix the Instruments path. They changed the .bundle folder to .xrplugin

Match the directory structure of Xcode 5

Fix the simulator app name. They changed it from iPhone Simulator to iOS Simulator (about time)

Fix the binary name. They changed it from iPhone Simulator to iOS Simulator (about time)

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