What is Robot Framework?

Robot Framework is a generic keyword-driven test automation framework for acceptance level testing and acceptance test-driven development (ATDD). It has an easy-to-use tabular syntax for creating test cases and its testing capabilities can be extended by test libraries implemented either with Python or Java. Users can also create new keywords from existing ones using the same simple syntax that is used for creating test cases.

Pre-Requisites (Ubuntu)

1. Install python (sudo apt-get install python)

2. Download and Install Py-Charms

3. Install Python pip(sudo apt-get install python-pip)

4. Install Appium-Python Client(pip install Appium-Python-Client)

5. Install robot framework

• pip install robotframework
• pip install robotframework-appiumlibrary

6. Download the sample project and import it in PyCharm

How to run Robot-Framework on pCloudy Devices in Parallel?

1. Open Controller.py and enter your MailId and ApiKey and Run

2. Choose the devices where you want to execute your script

3. You will get the Robot Framework generated report and logs after execution

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Appium Desktop

Appium Desktop is a point-and-click interface for using Appium and inspecting your app’s structure. With this new feature you will be able to run Inspector sessions on pCloudy. You just have to login in to your registered account, set up the desired capabilities for your test appropriately, and you’ll be able to drive your app remotely using Appium Desktop.

Let’s understand this in detail:

Overview

Appium Desktop is a new open source GUI application for Windows, Mac, and Linux which gives you the power of the Appium automation server in a more organized manner with a flexible UI. From an Appium Beginner’s perspective – if you want to write test scripts with Appium, you would need 2 things.

First, you would need to start the Appium Server. And second, you would also need a mechanism using which you can identify the controls (buttons, text boxes etc) in the mobile app which you want to automate.

So Appium Desktop is a combination of two essential components of Appium:

• Appium Server: Server instance for enabling testing (and test automation) of apps.
• Appium Inspector: For inspecting and getting all the details of UI elements of your apps.

Advantages of Appium Desktop

• The Appium Desktop tool enables users to work with Appium on their desktops and use Inspector for yet better analysis of their apps.
• Allows using desired capabilities and presets configuration for convenient use.
• Provides the ability to switch between web-view and native app view from inspector.
• Provides an action recorder and the code generator.

How to install Appium Desktop

Refer the link given below to know how and from where to install Appium Desktop.

http://www.automationtestinghub.com/appium-desktop/

Pre-requisites to use the tools effectively

• Appium Desktop installed on your machine
• APK or IPA file
• pCloudy Account

Let’s see the steps in detail

1.Open Appium Desktop in your system and click on Start Inspector Session as shown in below screenshot.

2. Click on Select Cloud Providers.

2.1 Click on the pCloudy logo and then click on done.

2.2 You will be directed to the desired capabilities page of pCloudy in Appium Desktop.

2.3 Enter the below mentioned field details

• pCloudy Host
• pCloudy User Name
• pCloudy API Key

2.4 Once field details are inserted, set the Desired Capabilities.

These are used to inform Appium Server that what kind of platform and application you want to automate. Click here to know about Desired Capabilities.

Note:

By default, Booking duration is 10 minutes. If you wish to change the device duration, you have to change the number of minutes in the desired capabilities. For example, if you to keep the duration for 15 minutes, you have to set desired capabilities as ” pCloudy_DurationInMinutes”, 15 “

3. Click on Start Session once you have entered the field details and set the Desired Capabilities.

4. Once session has started, login to your registered pCloudy account .

After login go to Reports section and then go to My Active Session. Click this icon present under Action. You will be directed to LIVE VIEW page.

Note:

Device will be connected as per the set Desired Capabilities. Once your app gets launched on the device you will able to see Appium Desktop view.

5.Click on Select Element to start inspection .

Example: In the below screenshot “Refuse” has been selected.

6.Once you select the element you will be able to see interactions .

Note:

• There are three interaction given in Appium Desktop contributors. These are “Tap”, “Send keys” and “Clear” as shown in the screenshot.

7. According to the selected interaction action will be performed on the device page.

As shown in the screenshot Tap has been selected.

8.Click on this X icon to End the session.

Note:

As soon as you end the session device will get released from Live view.

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iOS 12 is Available on pCloudy

While Apple fans are eagerly waiting for the new iPhones to be released, pCloudy committed to provide you with the newest, the fastest brings iOS 12 for you to test your apps.

iOS 12 is focused on improving the performance of iOS devices as a whole. Since this big feature announcement can’t be shown through screenshots, instead you need to experience it first-hand to find what’s new. Unlike previous iOS updates, iOS 12 focuses on performance especially on speeding up older devices.

Let’s find out the important and some hidden features in this update:

Device compatibility: This has been a highly compatible release update for iPhones till date. If your iOS works on iOS 11, iOS 12 will work on those phones. This means that all iPhones from iPhone 5S onward will be compatible with iOS 12.

Smoother and faster

As mentioned earlier, the prominent feature of iOS 12 isn’t something that has to be explained beyond screenshots. Infact it’s something that offers you to experience on your own. Instead of stuffing too many new features into iOS 12 and adding to some of the already irritating bugs we all experience, Apple is using iOS 12 to focus on bettering the overall performance of its iOS device lineup across the board. Apps should open faster, scrolling should be smoother and crashes should be fewer.

Detailed battery info

To find out what’s draining the battery on any mobile device is something we all want to learn more about. In iOS 12, you just need to open the Settings app, select Battery and you will have detailed information that you might need. New charts, breakdowns and graphs show you exactly what was using your battery and, perhaps most importantly, when it was used.

Alternate appearance in FaceID

There have been many issues reported in the past for the iPhones that support Face ID. Users have had trouble getting authenticated by Face ID while wearing a hat, sunglasses etc. that could change your overall appearance, will get the ability to register a second appearance. The new setting is found in Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Alternate appearance.

Indeed, this same feature can be used to register a second face to Face ID to give access of your phone to a second person. Just ensure that if you want to remove the second appearance (or face) you will need to reset Face ID.

Automatic OS updates

A new feature in iOS 12 will automatically install iOS updates on your device without requiring you to manually approve it. You can enable automatic updates in Settings > General > Software Updates > Automatic updates. With this feature enabled, whenever an update is released your iPhone will automatically update while you are away from your phone for long.

There are multiple other updates and additions in this iOS 12 which you can leverage and assure the quality of your app by testing it on the latest version of iOS now available on pCloudy.

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pCloudy’s Commitment

For Apple lovers, Apple’s annual hardware showcase is more like celebrating Christmas in September. Apple employees work hard in the Cupertino workshop throughout the year to be ready for this day, when CEO Tim Cook takes the stage and offers the world a brand new iPhone. Infact 3 new iPhones.

Following last year’s iPhoneX, Apple announced iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR. There was also a session showcasing its most powerful wearable till now – Apple Watch Series 4.

Don’t worry if you have missed the event. We have all covered it all for you. Read on our blog to find out all about Apple’s big event.

We will cover about the iPhones announced later in the blog. Here we will have a look at the other product line updates apart from major mobile product announcements and how well those products are doing and more. Here is the highlight:

• Cook talked about all the original Apple TV programs that’s been announced so far. In addition to that, Apple just signed deals for two movies: The star wolves and elephants.
• Apple is about to ship its 2 billionth iOS device.
• The iPhone XS uses recycled tin and bio-based plastics (and more), part of Apple’s clean and renewable energy push.
• Updates to the HomePod to makes it more useful.
• Price drops on the existing iPhones, with the iPhone 7 starting at $449.
• You’ll be able to update to iOS 12 on Sept. 17 and MacOS Mojave on Sept. 24. (Is your device upgradeable to iOS 12? Find out more here

 

Now let’s have a look at the iPhones announced in detail.

 

iPhone XS and XS Max

 



 

Announcement of iPhone XS and XS Max come as a relief to iPhone fans who have been busy speculating and eagerly waiting for months for this big announcement. No more wait buddies! Here is a sneak peek at the 2 iPhones announced:

 

• The iPhone XS Max is bigger than the Note 9, and both XS Max and the iPhone XS get a makeover inside and out.
• The new Core ML engine for game speed was highlighted in the mobile version of Elder Scrolls: Blades and Galaga.
• They incorporate the industry’s first 7nm CPU, the new A12 Bionic.
• New cameras supplemented with AI-enhanced capabilities such as Smart HDR and facial feature detection (“facial landmarking”).
• They boast better battery life.
• Both support dual SIMs with an eSIM and a physical nanoSIM.
• iPhone XS starts at $999, the iPhone XS Max starts at $1,099. Both are shipping on Sept. 21.

 

iPhone XR

 



 

• Since it is difficult for everyone to afford iPhone flagships, so Apple announced iPhone XR. It has an LCD-based, 6.1-inch “Liquid Retina” display.
• It’s bigger but less expensive than the iPhone X.
• It too incorporates the A12 Bionic chip, the same wide-angle camera as the XS models, and the same AI-driven camera features.

 

Six finishes, four capacities, starts at $749. Preorders start from Oct. 19 and shipping from Oct. 26.
This implies that time has come to bid goodbye to iPhones SE, 6S and 6S Plus. In other words, bid farewell to iPhones with headphone jacks.

 

Here’s a look at the new iPhone prices compared at different locations.

 



 

Apple Watch Series 4


 

Thanks to its new zero-bezel design and having replaced the button with haptic touch regions, the new series of the Apple Watch increases its face size to 40mm and 44mm.

 

• Comes with a bigger display and a smaller bezel, which offers 30 percent more screen space to display fitness stats, sport scores, and calendar information.
• It has a better microphone and a speaker that Apple says is twice as loud as last year’s model, to make it easier to take phone calls, use the Walkie Talkie functionality, or bark commands at Siri.
• A new dual core 64-bit processor, designed in-house, gives this one twice the performance speed, and a few new sensors make it possible for it to better track your health.
• The Apple Watch now sends notifications when your heart rate is too low, or if your heart rhythm is irregular—helping to detect and diagnose problems early on. It can also tell if you’ve taken a hard fall, which will trigger an option to make an emergency call (literally Apple’s version of “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!).
• Most importantly, a new sensor in the Series 4 makes it possible to measure ECG, something that’s never been possible before in a consumer device. The FDA even gave it a seal of approval.
• The watch starts at $399 for GPS, $499 for cellular. If that sounds like a serious chunk of change, some good news: The Series 3 gets a drop to $279.

 

Conclusion: As pCloudy has always been committed to provide you with the newest, the fastest, this time again we commit to provide you access to these new iPhones at the earliest. Keep a watch at this space for our new Phones announcement.

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New Devices Added Recently

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We are committed to keep you ahead of others: pCloudy is one of the fastest to release support of Android 9 Pie devices on cloud

pCloudy is happy to announce that we have released our support for Android 9 Pie on our cloud. pCloudy customers can use the Android devices with Android 9 Pie for testing their applications manually or through automation.

We request all our users to start testing their apps on Android 9 Pie and share their suggestions and feedback for improvement.

Happy Testing!!!

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pCloudy 5.1

At each step of our journey, we aim to make your app testing robust and simpler. That’s why your feedback and requests are so important for us. We tried to incorporate them into a release structure again that makes pCloudy work better and faster for you.

So here, we bring to you the fresh set of release updates that have been addressed and deployed in pCloudy 5.1.

• Simpler Appium Integration Architecture: Here comes the bonanza for our Appium users! We have released a newer and simpler Appium integration architecture to simplify your Appium test execution on Android and iOS devices with pCloudy. The newer architecture make developers’ life simpler with lesser changes in the code. The older architecture demanded using APIs and also changes in your code that required some level of expertise. We addressed this issue and have come up with a simpler architecture where you need to mention some desired capabilities instead of calling APIs or doing changes in the code to run the Appium scripts. And wonder what! it just takes few minutes to integrate your existing Appium scripts with pcloudy. Check yourself here.

 

pCloudy Appium Capabilities

DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();

capabilities.setCapability(“pCloudy_Username”, “Enter your email Id”);

capabilities.setCapability(“pCloudy_ApiKey”, “Enter your API Key”);

capabilities.setCapability(“pCloudy_ApplicationName”, “pCloudyAppiumDemo.apk”);

capabilities.setCapability(“pCloudy_DurationInMinutes”, 5);

capabilities.setCapability(“pCloudy_DeviceFullName”, “Samsung_GalaxyTabA_Android_7.1.1”);

driver = new AndroidDriver(new URL(“https://device.pcloudy.com/appiumcloud/wd/hub”), capabilities);

• Cross-browser testing made simpler: There are many widely used web browsers, but not all browsers, and versions of those browsers, work the same. A website may not look or function identically on each one, which can lead to lost revenue for an enterprise. We addressed the issue of choosing from the fixed set of browsers previously available.

  Heeding to the growing demands of our users, we have introduced the Launch and Upload browser feature for our Android users which will give him the freedom to choose the version of the browser that he wants to use. This is going to save their testing time and efforts to a great extent and also give better results for their cross browser test. To know more about it Click Here.

• Faster Upload of Apps: We received multiple requests to speed up the process of Upload and synchronization of App/Data into the cloud. With some changes in the process, we have now succeeded to reduce the app upload and synchronization time by 42%.

  As you know, during app synchronization, the platform automatically synchronizes your data with all the 4 data centers of pCloudy. Earlier, the process was done in a series where synchronization once completed in one data center will then start in the 2nd one and so on which took a few minutes to complete. We have now changed this to a parallel process, which makes your testing 2x faster.

• TouchID for iOS devices no more a blocker: Apple introduced the ability to perform authentication via TouchID to enable secure and effortless access to the device. But it turns out to be a hindrance for mobility teams while testing their iOS apps on devices over cloud. To ease out the process of authenticating TouchID manually every time, you can now bypass the TouchID verification in your apps using our utility. The bypass TouchID feature will be available for iOS devices version 10.0.0 or above. To know more about it Click Here.

Note: This feature will for now be available only for iOS and won’t support Face ID.

• Integration with Slack: Since many of our customers are moving towards Slack, there was a huge demand to integrate Slack with pCloudy to enable their broadly distributed teams collaborate well. We noticed this change and hence we integrated Slack with pCloudy. It will now be easier for you to share bug related data and artifacts like Logs, screenshots etc through our Slack integration. To know more about it Click Here.

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Cordova

Cordova is an open source mobile app development framework which helps build cross-platform mobile applications that are highly scalable and agile. The use of common scripting languages such as CSS, HTML and JavaScript assists in developing a simple and organized Cordova framework, which makes it a popular framework among app developers.

Advantages

Let’s have a look at some of the advantages of creating apps on Cordova :

• It is a hybrid script framework which uses standard web API’s for all well known operating platforms.
• The Cordova application developers only need to know web development using HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript.Cordova takes over the rest of the work to be done.
• Using Cordova, a developer can create applications for operating systems like iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. The Cordova developer need not be an expert of either of the above mentioned operating system.
• Cordova has edge over the others simply due to the coverage of the framework.

The Cordova project consists of three main things—a command line tool, access to hardware features, and the ability to support future features.

Need for Cordova plugin in pCloudy

pCloudy being a unified mobile app testing platform is used both by developers and testers. pCloudy offers DeviceTunnel feature for developers to connect to a real device on cloud and use the device as if it’s connected to their local USB. Currently the DeviceTunnel is possible through Android Studio/Eclipse and XCode plugins. Although developers could create builds perfectly using any of the IDEs on the platform, Cordova developers looked for a seamless way of creating apps on a command line tool.

As mentioned earlier, Cordova is a popular open source app development framework among developers and there was a need of command line DeviceTunnel Interface to pCloudy so that developers could build their Android or iOS apps and put it to test on a real device on pCloudy. Now, pCloudy real devices on cloud can be accessed by running few commands on the command line interface.

Let’s see how this works with Cordova.

Note: pCloudy command Line DeviceTunnel Interface is only available for Android devices on Public cloud. It is available for both Android and iOS on private and on-premise cloud.

Pre-requisites

• JDK 8 and above.
• android-sdk latest version.

Jar download path

http://pcloudy-content-distribution.s3.amazonaws.com/index.html?prefix=Android%20Device%20Tunnel/

This will be a one-time activity and need not be repeated again.

Steps to Run the Jar

Step 1: Run the DeviceTunnel jar by passing the cloud url, user name and api key

Example: java –jar pCloudy_DeviceTunnel.jar https://device.pcloudy.com test@pcloudy.com skdflj4tlko46lsa

Note: Mention the device tunnel jar path where you store the downloaded pCloudyDeviceTunnel.jar

Example: Here, the jar is saved in desktop so the path would be like

java –jar /Desktop/pCloudy_DeviceTunnel.jar https://device.pcloudy.com test@pcloudy.com skdflj4tlko46lsa

Step 2: It will display a list of available devices in that cloud. Select any one device by mentioning the device number and press enter.

Step 3: Enter the duration (in minutes) for which you want to book the device, then press enter.

Step 4: Selected device gets connected to your system.

Step 5: Open another terminal and check if the device is connected or not

If the device list shows as unauthorized then copy the url displayed by the jar and paste it in the browser.

Step 6: Click on ok option on the device and check device list again in terminal.

Now device is connected to your system. You can use this device like a local device.

Now use the connected device in Cordova app Debugging. Build the cordova app for android.

Step 7: Cordova build process

Step 8: After the successful build, check if the app gets installed on pcloudy device which you had connected to your system.

Cordova app is installed on pcloudy device.

Step 9: You can debug this through chrome debugger.

Note: If you want to exit from the device tunnel jar, please type ‘EXIT/exit’.

Conclusion

No matter if you are a developer or a tester, just sign up on pCloudy to make the most of your app testing.

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iOS 11.3 and 11.4 Available on pCloudy

 
We are committed to keep you ahead of others: pCloudy is one of the fastest to release support of iOS 11.3 and 11.4 beta devices on cloud.

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Galaxy S9 and LG V30 are Available

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