As the mobile app development is increasingly getting competitive thanks to the evolving quality parameters, the development companies across the sizes and niches are focusing more on getting validation and checking done through easier means. This is precisely why the QA process across development forms is so focused on choosing the right automation tool.
This is particularly true for the iOS app developers who always try hard to deliver the most sophisticated and visually standout UI without undermining the performance. No wonder, at present, we find a plethora of most sophisticated UI automation tools to help iOS developers more than ever before.
Here we are going to briefly explain some of the leading UI automation tools that iOS development projects can particularly be benefited from. But before that, we will spare a few words on why choosing the right tool is so important.
Choosing the Right Tools for App Development
UI automation initiative for any development company starts with the right choice of tools. Since there is no dearth of choice for the developers out there, they need to only focus on the most tried, tested, and acclaimed tools that already benefited countless projects.
At the same time, one must remember that every UI automation tool has its pros and cons, and this further makes a choice difficult. This is why it is wise to choose a tool that perfectly fits your specific UI validation needs than just choosing account of the surface value or offerings.
Xcode UI Tests
This UI automation testing solution created and maintained by Apple can easily integrate with the platform-specific IDE, unlike the earlier JavaScript-based one from Apple. While the first generation solution from Apple could not offer auto-completion or syntax highlighting, this UI automation tool is pretty robust with everything developers need to test and evaluate iOS app UIs.
Xcode UI Tests is a mature and well-built tool that is declared by Apple as the principal tool for UI automation. Being written in Swift language, the developers using this tool can easily access all search controls and other elements. As for test writing, it follows the same JUnit style and adds a new bundle to the project as a bunch of tests. To make things super easy and fluid, it easily integrates with Xcode and Xcode Bots.
Let’s have a look at some of the strengths of this tool.
- It is a fast-paced tool.
- It works out of the box without any need for configuration or additional setup.
- By using Swift as the main language, it helps native iOS developers.
- It easily integrates with Xcode and allows writing tests and receiving feedback from the test runs.
- It also offers a black-box testing feature to allow testing the app separately using a sandboxed app instance.
- As for stability, this tool ensures a more predictable and reliable performance than others.
Calabash
Calabash is a completely open-source mobile UI automation testing tool which is mainly preferred by developers because of its ease of use and simplicity. In spite of being not so comprehensive covering every aspect of UI automation, it comes with an array of advantages as well. Let’s have a quick look at the key strengths of this tool.
- This tool allows writing in plain English instead of using any coding language.
- The tool also allows writing tests for both local and hybrid apps.
- The tool also comes equipped with Xamarin and Cucumber functions.
- The tool as an open-source project comes as completely free.
- While using this tool, you can access a whole array of cloud services.
- It is a versatile tool that works across both devices and simulators.
Appium
Appium is the most acclaimed UI automation tool with a bounty of developer-friendly features, and the ease of use and versatility made it one of the greatest tools for development projects across all niches and sizes. The tool is particularly favored by developers because of its cross-platform nature. This is why any of the UI elements of your app in both iOS and Android versions look to be similar, and this tool can be ideal for automation testing.
Let’s have a quick look at the key strengths of the Appium tool.
- It allows developers to tag for different test scenarios.
- By using Gurkin, it also offers great abstraction level for different test scenarios.
- The tool is cross-platform and exceptionally easy to set up.
- It also offers a separate black-box approach to test code externally from the project.
KIF – Keep-It-Functional
This UI automation tool, which is specifically designed to test and evaluate user interfaces of all sorts of apps, is distinct from other tools for a variety of reasons. Besides being able to integrate directly with the Xcode project that helps developers to do away with the hassles of using a separate web server, the tool is also great for exceptional ease of use and flexibility. Most important of all, it is capable of running tests faster than many other UI automation tools in the market.
Let’s have a look at the biggest strengths of this UI automation tool.
- It is a tool that allows writing tests specific to the UI requirements.
- It is very closely related to XCUITest.
- It offers great synchronicity with Apple projects and developments in the pipeline.
- It always works on very natural and realistic conditions for tests.
Conclusion
All the UI automation tools mentioned so far are pretty robust, versatile, and extremely easy to use. No wonder, for the vast majority of the iOS app development projects, these tools are used so extensively by the developers.
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