In this guide, explore Xamarin, its features and benefits, and how to perform Xamarin testing of websites and applications. Nowadays, mobile development is not only about creating apps by small companies or startups. Therefore, many different devices are in use—especially when it comes to Android.
Writing mobile apps usually brings along its fair share of application logic run on the device. Due to the fact that the app has to be deployed and then executed on the device the test takes a couple of seconds to run through. Just keep in mind that UI Tests in general take a while longer to perform the same test that a integration test would need and that it is worth to choose beforehand which tests to execute. If you created your Xamarin.Android and iOS projects with UI tests from the beginning you can skip the next steps and just start writing the tests. If not do not despair a few easy steps will allow you start writing those UI tests in no-time.
What Kind of Tests Do We Have in Mobile Development?
After the release of iOS, the range of phone models was small, therefore eliminating the problem with them. However in the world of Android, the problem of fragmentation has risen to its maximum. There are thousands of various models on the market, with more coming out on the xamarin test cloud daily basis, while apps and games are expected to work flawlessly on each one of them. The Xamarin.Calabash.Start(); code is wrapped in an IFDEF DEBUG && IOS, so isn’t being called on a release build. If you use Xamarin`s IDE the integration can be considered as completed.
Xamarin.UITest embeds in solution rather easy, almost in a couple of clicks. If you are working on an app with a potentially large target audience, it’s always better to test the application thoroughly on as many device configurations as possible. In that case, you can try out platforms like AWS Device Farm, Kobiton, etc. Xamarin offers frameworks such as Appium, Calabash, Espresso, and Xamarin.UITest to execute your test scripts. When the test runs are completed, it will send out a notification to all the registered users with detailed test reports. The proficiency of Xamarin is attributed to the mix of factors – C# language, mobile development, and architecture patterns such as MVC and MVVM.
GET STARTED
Adding to that convenient DevOps tools to build and automatically run these scripts — and you can forget about the dark picture, with lots of man-hours for each release. Under this system, tests are written using Ruby Cucumber, and they are like interactive stories. Once a test is ready, it can be executed across the more than 1,000 devices in the Test Cloud.
This is where a cloud-based testing platform like LambdaTest comes into play. In the next section, we’ll discuss more about LambdaTest and how it helps you with Xamarin testing. When you try and compare two options, it all comes down to different factors that create an impact in the long run.
Xamarin Test Cloud Agent on Android
In my case, I am using Xamarin Android Player emulator (I advise you do the same; you can download it here). If you have your application already written in C# (Xamarin), you probably should choose UITest framework because you are familiar with the language. In this blog post we saw how a UI Test based on Xamarin Test Cloud is created.
- Adaptive towards changing technology and upgrade necessary skills needed in profession.
- The interface for the Test Cloud is incredibly intuitive, which makes it all the easier to zero in on bugs and other issues.
- LoadStorm can generate load to test the performance of your site or application under real-world conditions and performs in-depth analysis.
- According to de Icaza, at least part of the original Mono team had moved to the new company.
- Xamarin is a cloud-based software testing tools for building error-free mobile applications.
- The proficiency of Xamarin is attributed to the mix of factors – C# language, mobile development, and architecture patterns such as MVC and MVVM.
The very limited documentation and videos are of no help as they mainly focus on Android apps which are much easier to package. Test recorder runs on a Mac and requires the user to select a device (or simulator) and an app to test on the device. There are about 20 different models available for iOS and more than 50 for Android. You can manually test for free, while automation will cost from $299 per month. Test scenarios can be implemented using the Espresso, Robotium, UI Automator 2.0 and Robo tools. Test Lab is included in a single subscription to the service Firebase and can be completely free for the start.
Test automation made easy
In any case there are a sufficient number of farms on any technology stack and wallet, so you can easily find a suitable solution. AWS Device Farm has nearly 400 devices available (about 100 models), prices from 0.17 dollars per minute, there is also an Unlimited (!) option and 1000 first minutes free. Since the problem with the range of the devices is relevant first of all for Android, we’ll get to know the Google and Samsung farms first.
Also, you can test web, mobile, desktop apps, and APIs on the cloud, with access to 3000+ real devices and browsers. You have 21-day free access to the visual studio app center, after which you have to pay as per usage. Next, you can decide on the devices you want to run your tests on. You can select multiple mobile devices in one go and execute your tests on all of them. Once you have decided on the devices, you can choose the system language and the test framework you want to use. This has been developed by Google and is specifically designed for testing Android applications, but you can also test iOS apps.
Coding & Development
Cloud Testing Tools are used to test applications that are deployed on a cloud platform. Cloud platforms provide a scalable, on-demand environment for application development and deployment. Cloud Testing Tools help ensure that applications deployed on a cloud platform are operating effectively by examining the overall performance of cloud resources. Its main purpose is to help you performance test your site or app before it experience a high volume of traffic, so that way you can strengthen any areas beforehand. CloudTest allows you to test how well your website performs under pressure by simulating multiple users visiting the site at the same time. The tests can be worked into continuous integration processes, which continually check apps against all devices.
UITest is the Automated UI Acceptance Testing framework based on Calabash that allows programmers to write and execute tests in C# – more info can be found at this link. Nessus is developed by Tenable and is the most comprehensive vulnerability assessment solution on the market. Nessus Expert will help automate the vulnerability assessment process for the modern attack surface, save time on your compliance cycles and allow you to engage your IT team. This is because they offer a number of benefits that traditional testing tools don’t. There is support for integration with DevOps pipelines and running on emulators/simulators, although there are no more than 20 device models.
#1. Akamai CloudTest (Formerly SOASTA CloudTest)
It allows you to perform parallel automated tests on real devices hosted in the cloud. It helps you to create test cases using plain English, and there is no need to set up any infrastructure. Testing and execution using Xamarin Test Cloud actually happen on real devices. It was one of the biggest assumptions about Xamarin Test Cloud that they are not running on actual devices since so many cloud-based services use simulators. This makes Xamarin Test Cloud stand alone as it is distinguished from those other platforms that require simulators to achieve large device counts. Such unique feature sets Xamarin Test Cloud apart from other ‘real device’ testing platforms.