mobile » iOS Setup

Introduction

It is common knowledge that the iOS automation can only be performed on Apple’s hardware - iOS-supported device or MacOS system like MacBook and iMac. However, with Nexial it is possible to execute mobile automation remotely from a non-Apple hardware. This means that you can run your automation scripts (Nexial) from a Windows or Linux system, and the corresponding commands execute on a remote MacOS system. In addition, one can employ cloud test platform such as BrowserStack to enable remote automation. Note that for local testing on real devices, the iOS-supported devices must be connected to a MacOS system.

Before iOS automation can be performed, we must first prepare the target MacOS system. This involves a series of one-time software installation (all free). Follow the guide below to complete the installation and preparation work.

Note that most of the information below derived from other websites, particularly from:

• Setup Appium on MacOS for Android and iOS App Automation
• Appium Pro

Pre-requisites

• macOS 10.11 or higher (latest recommended)
• iOS device with iOS 9.3 or higher (latest recommended)
• Enough storage to install Xcode, NodeJS and a series of free software (below). Approximately 40 GB.

Installing Required Software

Install Latest Xcode

1. Install the latest Xcode from Mac App Store
   • Read about why Xcode is needed to automation iOS devices
2. Install Xcode command line tools

   xcode-select --install
   sudo xcode-select -r
   

3. Change permission and accept xcode license

   sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/share/man/man5 /usr/local/share/man/man7
   sudo xcodebuild -license accept
   

Install Appium Desktop

• Navigate to appium-desktop release page.
• Select the distro for Mac version (i.e. Appium-mac-....dmg) to download.
• When the download finishes, double-click the .dmg file. Then drag and drop the Appium icon into the Application icon.
• Follow the additional environment set up documented in Install and Configure Appium

Install Homebrew (for managing missing packages and dependencies) from https://brew.sh

Open a terminal session and enter the following command:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Install Support Software for Appium and iOS Automation

Open a terminal session and enter the following commands (OK to run a few lines as a time):

brew install carthage
brew install node

brew tap wix/brew
brew install wix/brew/applesimutils

brew install ios-webkit-debug-proxy
brew install osxfuse
brew install ifuse

brew tap facebook/fb
brew install idb-companion
pip3 install fb-idb --user
brew install fbsimctl

brew install libimobiledevice
brew install ios-deploy
npm install -g authorize-ios
brew install ideviceinstaller

Install appium-doctor

Appium Doctor checks most of the preconditions for Appium to run successfully. In order to install it, run the following command:

npm install -g appium-doctor
appium-doctor

Check log (example above) to ensure that all the required components are properly installed.

Additional Notes

To find the UDID of the connected device or simulator, here are a few ways:

1. To find the UDID of connected device:

   idevice_id –list
   

2. To find the UDID of running simulator:

   xcrun simctl list | grep Booted
   

       

3. Use Xcode to find the UDID (Identifier) of connected devices and simulators:
       Xcode -> Window -> Devices and Simulators -> Select Device