Home > Blog > iOS Beta Testing Using TestFlight Features 2min iOS Beta Testing Using TestFlight Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> iOS Beta Testing Using TestFlight Introduction to iOS TestFlight TestFlight is an online service used to distribute and test beta iOS applications. Developers can use Test Flight to evade the Apple’s bitter binding procedure for testing new versions of their apps. It provides over-the-air installation, testing, tracking and managing of Beta apps. In simple words, TestFlight acts as a link between the developer, the tester, and the Apple Developer Center. How is it useful? Distribution of the app over-the- air to Testers Tracking and managing testing using TestFlight’s dashboard Receiving feedback from testers to improve the app To obtain reports about the device models, OS version used while testing the App Automatically records any crashes the testers encounter and sends it to the Developer This tutorial will walk you through integrating TestFlight into your own apps. What do you need to start? You have to have your certificates, app ID, and provisioning profiles in place before distributing your apps using Test Flight. Here’s the list of items you need: A Developer ID to login to your developer account. A Certificate for Distribution to export builds and distribute apps An App ID A Device UDID Ad Hoc Provisioning Profile to distribute your app on testers devices Sign your app with a valid ad hoc provisioning profile These items will help you obtain an .ipa file that can be distributed for testing in iOS devices with UDIDs mentioned in the provisioning profile of the app. Uploading your app for Beta Testing Open up your project in Xcode, make sure you have a correct Bundle Identifier and that you’ve chosen the correct Distribution Certificate: Choose Product\Archive from the top toolbar: Once Xcode finishes archiving your project, click the shiny blue Submit to App Store… button: Choose your development team Hit Submit Wait for your build to upload. Once done you will receive a “Submission Successful message” Inviting Testers
Home > Blog > Espresso with pCloudy.com Features 2min Espresso with pCloudy.com Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> Espresso with pCloudy.com Espresso with pCloudy Now, run your Espresso Scripts on hundreds of Mobile devices and build quality apps faster than ever. Several Mobile Automation Frameworks like Robotium, Calabash, Appium , KIF & uiautomator have been developed in recent years. Among a few popular ones, Espresso is one of them. You probably know, Espresso is a testing framework for Android apps. It is predominantly used by developers and testers for testing user interactions (UI) to ensure that users do not encounter crashes or unexpected results while using an app. There are several benefits of using Espresso, the primary ones are: It automatically synchronises test actions with the UI of the app being tested. Meaning? To improve the reliability of tests, it detects when the main thread is idle and runs the test commands at the appropriate time. This capability also relieves you from having to add any timing workarounds, such as a sleep period in your test code. Espresso has an API that is small, easy to learn and built on top of the Android instrumentation framework. It also supports testing activities outside the app like camera, browser and dialer etc which Appium does not support. However, when you have limited time and money it is a challenge to take full advantage of your Espresso scripts in improving the quality of your apps. Luckily, there are ways to overcome this. Conventionally, you would spend a huge amount of money to purchase several Android devices, and spend endless hours running your scripts independently on each device. Today, thankfully you don’t have to do this anymore, there is good news. With the help of a cloud-based testing platform like pCloudy.com, you can run your scripts on hundreds on real mobile devices in parallel. Yes, using pCloudy.com you can test your apps on any device of your choice and pay a just minimum price for the time you’ve used the device. You can not only save money, but you can also save your time by running your test scripts on multiple devices in parallel and get a detailed execution report. Here’s how you can use Espresso on pCloudy devices: Using Espresso on pCloudy.com
Home > Blog > Calabash With pCloudy.com Features 1min Calabash With pCloudy.com Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> Calabash With pCloudy.com Calabash Automation Testing Improve the quality of your iOS and Android apps by running your Calabash Test Scripts (Calabash Automation Testing) against real phones and tablets on pCloudy.com. Along with Appium, Robotium and Espresso, you can use Calabash as well on pCloudy.com. Calabash is a free open source framework for mobile automation testing. It is cross platform, supporting both iOS and Android. It consists of two libraries – calabash android and calabash iOS, which helps in writing tests in domain specific languages. Calabash consists of libraries that enable the test code to interact with apps. Each of these interactions consists of a number of end user actions like gestures, assertions or screenshots. The Tests can be written in simple, self-explanatory language that can be easily followed by even non-technical people. Further, to increase the efficiency of testing and to improve the quality of your iOS and Android Apps and you can automate your Calabash Test Scripts against a wide range of real mobile devices on pCloudy.com. Here’s how you can use Calabash on pCloudy devices: Using Calabash on pCloudy.com
Home > Blog > Test Your Apps on Real Devices Using Cool Plugins Features 3min Test Your Apps on Real Devices Using Cool Plugins Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> Test Your Apps on Real Devices Using Cool Plugins Test Apps on Real Devices Using Eclipse or Android Studio to code your app? Now with just a few simple mouse clicks test apps directly and in parallel on multiple real mobile devices. Eclipse and Android Studio are two popular IDEs for mobile app development. The reason behind their popularity is, these are open source tools and have a great community of developers whom you can turn to for any support. Anyway, if you are one of those mobile app developers using these popular IDEs then there’s good news for you! What if you could extend the capability of your IDEs to improve the quality of your apps? What if you could test your app on hundreds of mobile devices right from your IDE? What if you could with the help of simple plugins take your mobile app development process to a whole new level? Well, you can – with a simple yet salient solution from pCloudy.com. With a cloud based device lab, pCloudy is contributing to the cause of redefining mobile app testing by providing remarkably useful platform and plugins to test your apps on real mobile devices. As mentioned in our previous articles, it is not enough if mobile apps are tested on Emulators alone. We need to ensure that the apps are tested on Real Devices as well. It is also important to test your mobile apps on different devices based on a carefully analysed device matrix to hit maximum downloads. To continuously develop, integrate and release mobile apps in your DevOps environment such solutions are crucial. Here’s how can our plugins benefit you Description: Our Plugins act as a wizard that allows you to: extend the ability of Eclipse to use real devices over a cloud platform select and install an app from a Cloud Drive or from local select multiple real devices from a cloud (Public, Private, On-premise) to test your app run test scripts in parallel on multiple devices perform Automation or Manual Testing How does it work? If you have already created Test Scripts ready for Test execution, then all you need to do is to select some real devices over the cloud platform and run the execution to test your app. To help you out with this, the Plugin generates a pseudo-code that can simply be copied into your existing test scripts using Android Studio or Eclipse. With simple changes in the test script, the app will get installed and test execution is performed on the selected mobile devices. In the end, a detailed automation report will also be generated through our platform. With these plugins app developers and testers can: choose from hundreds of mobile devices to test your App effortlessly test their apps directly on real mobile devices can view or perform an activity on mobile screen from directly within on your IDE perform automation runs in parallel on multiple mobile devices Download and install the plugin: pCloudy Plugin for Eclipse IDE pCloudy Plugin for Android Studio
Home > Blog > App Testing Made Seamless with pBot Features 3min App Testing Made Seamless with pBot Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> App Testing Made Seamless with pBot pBot The future of app testing in IoT lies in integrating app interaction with external hardware triggers. While devices such as phones, tablets and wearables may already seem ubiquitous, a networked array of entrenched systems and sensors commonly called the Internet of Things, could eventually race past all of them in its worldwide reach and number of applications and services. Connectivity through the IoT is reliant on many different wireless standards. For example, to do anything at all, an IoT-enabled device might have to interface with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, amongst others channels. For software makers, these potential issues with connectivity and infrastructure will inevitably shape the design of their applications. Speaking of wireless connectivity technologies, NFC applications can now be tested with pCloudy’s new testing solution- pBot. Before explaining pBot, let’s talk about what Near Field Communication is all about. NFC is a set of short-range wireless connectivity technologies that are perfect for transmitting small amounts of data with minimal setup time and power consumption. NFC applications include contactless transactions, data exchange and simplified setup of more complex technologies. NFC-enabled devices typically support three operating modes which are Reader/Writer, Peer to Peer and Card Emulation. This fuels contactless payments, exchange of business cards or digital pictures. As the number of available NFC-enabled mobile phones and tablets increases, the market will see a growth in applications such as mobile payments, ticketing, smart posters, as well as access control, data sharing and additional services. https://www.pcloudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/NFC-Testing-with-pCloudy-pBot.mp4 pCloudy’s pBot has made NFC testing flawless with its advanced functionalities. For instance, NFC tagged visiting card. The card data i.e., the contact information is being read by an app on mobile device. Here, pCloudy mobile app interface integrates robotic actions which triggers the robot to perform NFC action. Smart Payment Terminal Testing with pCloudy pBot With pBot, smart payments are now made realistic through testing payment terminal for EMV certification. For instance, when a credit card swipe device needs to be tested with real credit cards, the pCloudy mobile app interface integrates robotic actions which triggers the robot to action on payment terminal. Thus, app testing with pCloudy’s pBot is now made futuristic with distinctive robotic functions. App testing should include IoT specific test strategies, support SDLC under context, and have access to on-demand test teams with requisite specializations. Success depends on the ability to influence a dedicated infrastructure, cloud capabilities and a wide array of test tools. As enterprises leverage smart systems that ‘sense’ the environment and execute programmed actions, IoT driven testing is crucial to strengthen IT initiatives with security, intelligence and flexibility. https://www.pcloudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Smart-Payment-Terminal-Testing-with-pCloudy-pBot.mp4
Home > Blog > Calabash Automation Execution Automation 2min Calabash Automation Execution Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> Calabash Automation Execution Calabash Automation Execution for Mobile Apps pCloudy provides automation execution environment to run your Calabash test script of android and iOS and hybrid applications as well. Here are steps to run Calabash test script over android device: Login over www.pcloudy.com with your registered Email ID & Password Go to the Automator Page Select Android or iOS OS version & Manufacturer Select and add desired device Choose Calabash (to run Calabash test scripts) Select Application .apk/.ipa file (the App to be tested) Select Test Script zip file (the Test Script developed for testing) Enter Single Device execution Time (Time required for the entire script to be executed on single device) Enter Name of your Test Cycle (this name will represent your Test Cycle) Click on Schedule Test Cycle Click on Schedule to confirm schedule of test automation. Here, you can see your selected application, test script, device(s) etc. You get a pop up message of test automation schedule confirmation. Click on OK to proceed. Go to your mailbox and open pCloudy Automation Alert mail. Click on the given link “Click to view Report”. Here, you can see result of your Calabash Automation Execution. This directory contains all important information of execution result.
Home > Blog > Mobile App Testing Trends of 2016 Mobile Testing 3min Mobile App Testing Trends of 2016 Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> Mobile App Testing Trends of 2016 Trends of 2016 2015 saw a great revolution in the mobile app testing industry with many new breakthroughs being achieved. The year witnessed an emphasis on modern mobile applications being compatible with various devices. However, modern mobile apps also need to deliver personalized and flawless user experience. This year there will be a huge advancement in the mobile application testing space with latest versions of mobile operating systems and rapid technological transformations. We list the top seven mobile app testing trends for this year. Rise of cloud based App certification platforms Mobile Device Clouds have become an integral part of Mobile App Dev cycle for many organizations. These services help developers and testers by providing access to a wide range of smartphones and tablets. This trends will pick up further this year with many new players entering this space. These services are becoming available at a very affordable price for customers. We see a new trend where these device cloud platforms will transition to full fledged certification platforms. Customers can get their Apps tested on multiple devices on parameters like behavior, performance, security etc. in completely automated way. All this using single click. Agile and continuous delivery Mobile Apps are becoming backbone of business for many organizations. In fact, trend of App only businesses are increasing rapidly. In such situations traditional models of development are a complete misfit. Delivery cycles are shorter and you can’t wait long to fix a customer feedback. Agile Dev cycles, continuous delivery and deployments are becoming key to success of any Mobile App strategy. We see an increase in this trend this year as well. Role of Test Automation Continuing on earlier point, Agile Dev cycles, continuous delivery and deployments are the new necessities for success of Mobile Apps. The only way to succeed with above approach is to automate as much as possible. We see a rise in trend where organizations are effectively defining their tests pyramids. As the pyramids suggests maximum automation should happen at Unit tests level followed by API level tests. Scope of monkey and UI tests are driven by stability of App UI. Growth of Open Source We have seen rise of open source tools in last couple of years. Test Automation tools like Selenium and Appium are giving commercials tools a run for their Money. As the maturity and community support for open source tools are increasing, more and more organizations are adopting open source tools.Improved Focus on Security The requirement for comprehensive security and penetration testing is set to increase exponentially in 2016. People store sensitive data on their mobile phones like bank details, credit card details and other personal data which can be easily used for carrying out financial thefts. Thus, testers need to focus on renewed security by implementing comprehensive security. Internet of Things With convergence of cloud and IOT, we see a rise in consumer IOT Applications. These applications require testing solution that go beyond traditional methodologies and integrate Software validation with smart hardware triggers and touch of Human Experience. Recently, lot of interesting developments like Google launching project Brillo – which is based on Android – Gives us hope that industry will move towards standardization and this will provide a big boost to development of IOT validation systems.
Home > Blog > How Compatible is Your App on Various Devices? We Help You Find Out! Features 2min How Compatible is Your App on Various Devices? We Help You Find Out! Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> How Compatible is Your App on Various Devices? We Help You Find Out! Compatibility Of Your App We have recently done a series of tests to help you find the compatibility of your app on various Android devices It’s not an obvious matter of fact that there would be a particular device that suits your app. Especially, when there are end number of mobile manufacturers are foraying into the Indian market lately. However, careful selection of devices can ensure wide coverage. ‘’Mobile phone manufacturing in the country may reach 500 million units in coming two years’’ The success of your app depends on the compatibility of your app on various devices and platforms. Before you launch your App in the market, it’s extremely important to ensure that Apps runs on a wide range of devices your customers will possibly be using. Considering the number and variety of devices available in the market, it’s not possible to test the App on all the devices. However, careful selection of devices can ensure wide coverage. In this context, we have done a through research to help you select the right device for testing. We have analyzed a wide range of data from the public domain, industry reports and our platform generated data to create this report for you. Below are some key findings, Top Android versions in Indian Market Jellybean (versions 4.1 to 4.3) is the most widely used Android versions (~50%) among Indian Smartphone users. A close second is kitKat(4.4) (~42%). Looking at the growth trend, soon it would acquire the no. 1 spot.3rd is Ice cream Sandwich (4.0) (~ 4%) 2.Market share of Manufacturers in Indian Market No one can beat the popularity of Samsung when it comes to Android phones, followed by the Indian manufacturers Micromax because of their low-cost phones. There are other companies like Intex and Lava who competes against each other in the same space. With most of the Chinese giants joining the race, this is going to be interesting 3.Top Android devices in Indian market (usage wise) We have been tracking device usage data on our platform since last year. Moreover, based on the feedbacks from various customers, we are able to give you the following data.
Home > Blog > The Smartest Way to Choose the Right Testing Platform for Your App ! Mobile Testing 4min The Smartest Way to Choose the Right Testing Platform for Your App ! Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> The Smartest Way to Choose the Right Testing Platform for Your App ! Choose the Right Testing Platform As a mobile app maker, how sure are you about the success of your app? A small failure to recognize bugs can cost you thousands of dollars! A small mistake can turn you into a big failure among the users. Now, the question is, how to choose the best platform for testing. Every mobile application is created differently from the other and the right platform to test can be the most important reason for your app’s success. Choosing the right platform among the various competing ones require a set of clear evaluation. The nature of the targeted audience for your app. This will define the device matrix you should be targeting for your App Testing. Does that platform provide right device matrix for your testing needs? Cloud based vs in-house setup – Does you testing process allow Apps to be allowed on outside cloud? Does your App have functionalities which work with in a secured network? Type of Testing required for your App – Whether your current testing is manual or automated? Does your App require non-functional Testing? Reliability and Scalability of the platform- Can it scale with your needs? Can the platform integrate with your existing tools and frameworks? Return on Investment Criterion Description Device Fragmentation Can the platform handle you need of devices? Availability How critical for you instant availability of devices. Is you testing planned? Automation How much of testing is done using Automated scripts? Does the platform support the Automation tool that you are using or planning to use. Type of Testing What all functional features that you need to test? Does your App require non-functional Testing? Extensibility ( integration with in-house frameworks) Can the platform integrate with your in-house frameworks ( Automation, Test Management , Bug Management etc..) DevOps Can the platform support DevOps? Can it integrate with your build systems/dev IDEs or continuous integration systems. Security Can you upload your app on an external cloud? Does you App require interaction with your internal server? Usage level and Cost What is the usage pattern of your test and developing team and what is your budget? pCloudy provides the necessary tools for convenient, effective and immediate mobile app testing. Our device is based on cloud and it enables continuous development and testing on real devices. Our unique debugging feature recognizes potential errors that will significantly reduce costs and time. Our platform provides single-click access to end numbers of real Android and Ios devices. To experience the best with your app, we have developed three different types of cloud environments for you. Public Cloud With pCloudy’s publicly accessed cloud, you can perform tests directly from your browser. You won’t get confused to choose between manual or automated because both are available in our public cloud environment. We allow our users to test on a comprehensive list of real IOS and Android devices. You can also test your app over various network conditions like 2G, 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi. You can either configure your own browser or choose from our wide range of pre-installed browsers. Private Cloud This option is similar to our public cloud environment, except it comes with additional benefits of personalized security and dedicated access. Here, we would provide you a host of devices in our enterprise grade data center and you can choose your own device. If you have a geographically distributed team, then they will have secured devices over a browser. We make sure that your data is safe on our platform, as we allow only authorized team members to access. On-premise cloud In this option, we provide you with the necessary hardware and give you the freedom to set up your own secure device lab. You will have complete control of your own on-premise lab. In addition to have exactly the same features of our public cloud, on-premise model contains supplementary benefits. On-premise cloud gives you the freedom of plug-in with your existing set of devices and provides you access to a geographically distributed team. Manual and automated- both the testing techniques can be used and with a simple plug-in, you can access it from any rack. Also, there is no limit for the number of devices which can be linked! At the end of the day, the developer has to choose the best platform for his app. But choosing the right one saves so much of hassles.
Home > Blog > Why it is Important to Test Your Mobile App on Different Devices? Mobile Testing 2min Why it is Important to Test Your Mobile App on Different Devices? Avinash Tiwari Home> Blog> Why it is Important to Test Your Mobile App on Different Devices? Test Your Mobile App on Different Devices The Technology involved in mobile devices is changing rapidly. Mobile phones have literally personalized the choices in our lives, experts forecast that the future devices will be the remote controls of our lives. The services or functions are run by apps in specified platforms. And each platform has its own set of parameters to run an app. Mobile phone or device manufacturers are going through a breathtaking pace of change over the years and keeps on innovating new ways of doing things! Why Apps fail? Above data clearly show that handling Device fragmentation is one of the biggest challenges for App developers. Android has more fragmentation issue compared to iOS. Because the number of mobile vendors, is comparatively higher. However, even iOS faces certain amount of fragmentation issue. As there are different software versions and devices. And different devices run different iOS versions. Mobile browsers can be challenging too! There are end numbers of browsers like Safari, Opera, Goggle Chrome and Dolphin. And each one of them has different versions for different platforms! “So, what’s the right choice? Buying every device available in the market?” Not necessarily, right device matrix is the key to success. You can choose one of the two approaches to arrive at your device matrix Device diversity Approach Decide the device matrix based on key parameters like OS versions, screen size/resolution, manufacturer/device family (Android), operator, CPU, and input method Objective is to maximize the variety of devices Market segment + Device popularity approach Choose devices with the highest market share Objective is to maximize market coverage Once you have the right device matrix, Device Cloud is the best option to get quick access to your device matrix. https://www.pcloudy.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/How-to-access-a-real-android-device-at-pCloudy.com_.mp4 As a tester, you must consider the ever increasing number of physical devices. The most important implementations should be automation, quality assurance, security and device compatibility. Also, ensure that the software scripts cover the core functionality of the application, so that it can run across all the platforms.