Manage WebDriverAgent by yourself
Appium for iOS uses WebDriverAgent as the automation backend. This backend is based on Apple's XCTest framework and shares all the known problem that are present in XCTest. For some of them we have workarounds, but there are some that are hardly possible to workaround, for example https://github.com/facebookarchive/WebDriverAgent/issues/507. The approach described in this article enables you to have full control over how WDA is built, managed, and run on the device. This way you may fine-tune your automated tests in CI environment and make them more stable in long-running perspective.
Important points: * The steps below are not necessary if default Appium capabilities are used. The server will do everything for you, however you won't have so much control over WDA. * It is mandatory to have SSH or physical access to the machine to which the device under test is connected.
WDA Setup
WebDriverAgent source is automatically downloaded as part of XCUITest driver package.
appium driver install xcuitest installes the module in $APPIUM_HOME/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent.
APPIUM_HOME is ~/.appium by default.
Real device requires some more work to be done. Follow real device configuration documentation to setup code signing.
In order to make sure that WDA source is configured properly:
- Open
$APPIUM_HOME/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent/WebDriverAgent.xcodeprojin Xcode - Select WebDriverAgentRunner project
- Select your real phone/Simulator you'd like to run automated tests on as build target
- Select Product->Test from the main menu
Xcode should successfully build the project and install it on the real device/Simulator, so you'll see the icon of WebDriverAgentRunner application on the springboard.
WDA Startup
WebDriverAgent application acts as a REST server, which proxies external API requests to native XCTest calls for your application under test. The server address will be localhost if you run your tests on Simulator or the actual phone IP address in case of real device. Appium uses appium-ios-device to route network requests to a real device from localhost via USB, which means one can use this tool to unify WDA network address for Simulator and for real device.
You can use appium-ios-device to connect to
a remote device requiring the module from your JavaScript code as same as Appium.
Alternatively, you can also use iproxy, go-ios or tidevice to handle WebDriverAgent process outside Appium by installing and launching the WebDriverAgent package. For instance, iproxy could be installed using npm: npm install -g iproxy.
This helper class written in Java illustrates the main implementation details wit iproxy:
public class WDAServer {
private static final Logger log = ZLogger.getLog(WDAServer.class.getSimpleName());
private static final int MAX_REAL_DEVICE_RESTART_RETRIES = 1;
private static final Timedelta REAL_DEVICE_RUNNING_TIMEOUT = Timedelta.ofMinutes(4);
private static final Timedelta RESTART_TIMEOUT = Timedelta.ofMinutes(1);
// These settings are needed to properly sign WDA for real device tests
// See https://github.com/appium/appium-xcuitest-driver for more details
private static final File KEYCHAIN = new File(String.format("%s/%s",
System.getProperty("user.home"), "/Library/Keychains/MyKeychain.keychain"));
private static final String KEYCHAIN_PASSWORD = "******";
private static final File IPROXY_EXECUTABLE = new File("/usr/local/bin/iproxy");
private static final File XCODEBUILD_EXECUTABLE = new File("/usr/bin/xcodebuild");
private static final File WDA_PROJECT =
new File("~/.appium/node_modules/appium-xcuitest-driver/node_modules/appium-webdriveragent" +
"/WebDriverAgent.xcodeproj");
private static final String WDA_SCHEME = "WebDriverAgentRunner";
private static final String WDA_CONFIGURATION = "Debug";
private static final File XCODEBUILD_LOG = new File("/usr/local/var/log/appium/build.log");
private static final File IPROXY_LOG = new File("/usr/local/var/log/appium/iproxy.log");
private static final int PORT = 8100;
public static final String SERVER_URL = String.format("http://127.0.0.1:%d", PORT);
private static final String[] IPROXY_CMDLINE = new String[]{
IPROXY_EXECUTABLE.getAbsolutePath(),
Integer.toString(PORT),
Integer.toString(PORT),
String.format("> %s 2>&1 &", IPROXY_LOG.getAbsolutePath())
};
private static WDAServer instance = null;
private final boolean isRealDevice;
private final String deviceId;
private final String platformVersion;
private int failedRestartRetriesCount = 0;
private WDAServer() {
try {
this.isRealDevice = !getIsSimulatorFromConfig(getClass());
final String udid;
if (isRealDevice) {
udid = IOSRealDeviceHelpers.getUDID();
} else {
udid = IOSSimulatorHelpers.getId();
}
this.deviceId = udid;
this.platformVersion = getPlatformVersionFromConfig(getClass());
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
ensureToolsExistence();
ensureParentDirExistence();
}
public synchronized static WDAServer getInstance() {
if (instance == null) {
instance = new WDAServer();
}
return instance;
}
private boolean waitUntilIsRunning(Timedelta timeout) throws Exception {
final URL status = new URL(SERVER_URL + "/status");
try {
if (timeout.asSeconds() > 5) {
log.debug(String.format("Waiting max %s until WDA server starts responding...", timeout));
}
new UrlChecker().waitUntilAvailable(timeout.asMillis(), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS, status);
return true;
} catch (UrlChecker.TimeoutException e) {
return false;
}
}
private static void ensureParentDirExistence() {
if (!XCODEBUILD_LOG.getParentFile().exists()) {
if (!XCODEBUILD_LOG.getParentFile().mkdirs()) {
throw new IllegalStateException(String.format(
"The script has failed to create '%s' folder for Appium logs. " +
"Please make sure your account has correct access permissions on the parent folder(s)",
XCODEBUILD_LOG.getParentFile().getAbsolutePath()));
}
}
}
private void ensureToolsExistence() {
if (isRealDevice && !IPROXY_EXECUTABLE.exists()) {
throw new IllegalStateException(String.format("%s tool is expected to be installed (`npm install -g iproxy`)",
IPROXY_EXECUTABLE.getAbsolutePath()));
}
if (!XCODEBUILD_EXECUTABLE.exists()) {
throw new IllegalStateException(String.format("xcodebuild tool is not detected on the current system at %s",
XCODEBUILD_EXECUTABLE.getAbsolutePath()));
}
if (!WDA_PROJECT.exists()) {
throw new IllegalStateException(String.format("WDA project is expected to exist at %s",
WDA_PROJECT.getAbsolutePath()));
}
}
private List<String> generateXcodebuildCmdline() {
final List<String> result = new ArrayList<>();
result.add(XCODEBUILD_EXECUTABLE.getAbsolutePath());
result.add("clean build-for-testing test-without-building");
result.add(String.format("-project %s", WDA_PROJECT.getAbsolutePath()));
result.add(String.format("-scheme %s", WDA_SCHEME));
result.add(String.format("-destination id=%s", deviceId));
result.add(String.format("-configuration %s", WDA_CONFIGURATION));
result.add(String.format("IPHONEOS_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=%s", platformVersion));
result.add(String.format("> %s 2>&1 &", XCODEBUILD_LOG.getAbsolutePath()));
return result;
}
private static List<String> generateKeychainUnlockCmdlines() throws Exception {
final List<String> result = new ArrayList<>();
result.add(String.format("/usr/bin/security -v list-keychains -s %s", KEYCHAIN.getAbsolutePath()));
result.add(String.format("/usr/bin/security -v unlock-keychain -p %s %s",
KEYCHAIN_PASSWORD, KEYCHAIN.getAbsolutePath()));
result.add(String.format("/usr/bin/security set-keychain-settings -t 3600 %s", KEYCHAIN.getAbsolutePath()));
return result;
}
public synchronized void restart() throws Exception {
if (isRealDevice && failedRestartRetriesCount >= MAX_REAL_DEVICE_RESTART_RETRIES) {
throw new IllegalStateException(String.format(
"WDA server cannot start on the connected device with udid %s after %s retries. " +
"Reboot the device manually and try again", deviceId, MAX_REAL_DEVICE_RESTART_RETRIES));
}
final String hostname = InetAddress.getLocalHost().getHostName();
log.info(String.format("Trying to (re)start WDA server on %s:%s...", hostname, PORT));
UnixProcessHelpers.killProcessesGracefully(IPROXY_EXECUTABLE.getName(), XCODEBUILD_EXECUTABLE.getName());
final File scriptFile = File.createTempFile("script", ".sh");
try {
final List<String> scriptContent = new ArrayList<>();
scriptContent.add("#!/bin/bash");
if (isRealDevice && isRunningInJenkinsNetwork()) {
scriptContent.add(String.join("\n", generateKeychainUnlockCmdlines()));
}
if (isRealDevice) {
scriptContent.add(String.join(" ", IPROXY_CMDLINE));
}
final String wdaBuildCmdline = String.join(" ", generateXcodebuildCmdline());
log.debug(String.format("Building WDA with command line:\n%s\n", wdaBuildCmdline));
scriptContent.add(wdaBuildCmdline);
try (Writer output = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(scriptFile))) {
output.write(String.join("\n", scriptContent));
}
new ProcessBuilder("/bin/chmod", "u+x", scriptFile.getCanonicalPath())
.redirectErrorStream(true).start().waitFor(5, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
final ProcessBuilder pb = new ProcessBuilder("/bin/bash", scriptFile.getCanonicalPath());
final Map<String, String> env = pb.environment();
// This is needed for Jenkins
env.put("BUILD_ID", "dontKillMe");
// This line is important. If USE_PORT environment variable is not set then WDA
// takes port number zero by default and won't accept any incoming requests
env.put("USE_PORT", Integer.toString(PORT));
log.info(String.format("Waiting max %s for WDA to be (re)started on %s:%s...", RESTART_TIMEOUT.toString(),
hostname, PORT));
final Timedelta started = Timedelta.now();
pb.redirectErrorStream(true).start().waitFor(RESTART_TIMEOUT.asMillis(), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
if (!waitUntilIsRunning(RESTART_TIMEOUT)) {
++failedRestartRetriesCount;
throw new IllegalStateException(
String.format("WDA server has failed to start after %s timeout on server '%s'.\n"
+ "Please make sure that iDevice is properly connected and you can build "
+ "WDA manually from XCode.\n"
+ "Xcodebuild logs:\n\n%s\n\n\niproxy logs:\n\n%s\n\n\n",
RESTART_TIMEOUT, hostname,
getLog(XCODEBUILD_LOG).orElse("EMPTY"), getLog(IPROXY_LOG).orElse("EMPTY"))
);
}
log.info(String.format("WDA server has been successfully (re)started after %s " +
"and now is listening on %s:%s", Timedelta.now().diff(started).toString(), hostname, PORT));
} finally {
scriptFile.delete();
}
}
public boolean isRunning() throws Exception {
if (!isProcessRunning(XCODEBUILD_EXECUTABLE.getName())
|| (isRealDevice && !isProcessRunning(IPROXY_EXECUTABLE.getName()))) {
return false;
}
return waitUntilIsRunning(isRealDevice ? REAL_DEVICE_RUNNING_TIMEOUT : Timedelta.ofSeconds(3));
}
public Optional<String> getLog(File logFile) {
if (logFile.exists()) {
try {
return Optional.of(new String(Files.readAllBytes(logFile.toPath()), Charset.forName("UTF-8")));
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
return Optional.empty();
}
}
One should call this piece of code before to start Appium iOS driver, for example, in setUp method:
It is important to set webDriverAgentUrl capability for Appium driver to let it know that our WDA driver is ready for use:
Important Notes
- The process does not have direct access to keychain if it is executed by Jenkins agent, so we need to prepare keychain before compiling WDA for real device, otherwise codesigning will fail
- We kill xcodebuild and iproxy processes before restart to make sure compilation succeeds even if these are frozen
- We prepare a separate bash script and detach iproxy/xcodebuild processes, so they can continue running in background even after the actual code execution is finished. This is extremely important if multiple tests/suites are executed on the same machine/node in automation lab, which requires minimum human interaction
- The value of BUILD_ID environment variable is changed to avoid killing of the background process by Jenkins agent after the job is finished
- isRunning check is done by verifying the actual network endpoint
- The output of daemonized processes is logged, so it is possible to track errors and unexpected failures. The content of the log files is automatically added to the actual error message if the server fails to (re)start.
- Real device id can be parsed from
system_profiler SPUSBDataTypeoutput - Simulator id can be parsed from
xcrun simctl listoutput - UrlChecker class is imported from org.openqa.selenium.net package