Automate launching Safari from a iOS mobile app using appium - ios

Question

I am doing some automation with Appium on a iOS mobile app.
I need to:
open the app
do some tasks
open safari
I looked around how to do it but I've been reading that it's impossible due to a limitation in apple's framework, it doesn't allow you to sent commands to more than one app per session.
Does anyone know a way around this? Or if what I read is just not 100% true.

Answer 1

it doesn't allow you to sent commands to more than one app per session
Thats true, but you can run 2 sessions in a single test:
create instance of appium driver with app-based capabilities
do what you need in the app
quit driver
create instance of appium driver with browser-based capabilities
do what you need in the safari
quit driver
In a quick way it may look like:
#Test
public void testBothAppAndSafari() throws MalformedURLException {
URL appiumServerUrl = new URL("<your appium server host>");
DesiredCapabilities appCaps = new DesiredCapabilities();
// put required native app capabilities in appCaps
DesiredCapabilities safariCaps = new DesiredCapabilities();
// put required safari capabilities in safariCaps
IOSDriver driver = new IOSDriver(appiumServerUrl, appCaps);
driver.findElement(<locator for element in native app>).click();
// do whatever you want with mobile app
driver.quit();
driver = new IOSDriver(appiumServerUrl, safariCaps);
driver.findElement(<locator for element in web>).click();
// do whatever you want in safari
driver.quit();
}

Answer 2

You can use following approach,
Created two setup one for app and other for safari.
First launch application and perform task
clear first session
Created again new Appium object for safari ( call second setup )
Perform browser activity
Close safari appium session

Answer 3

You also can follow my approach without quit driver.
Go terminate application. (I've used javascript to run terminateApp cause native method not work for me.)
Find Safari on Home screen and then click on it
Use drive.get to open website as you expected.
In there you can change to WEBVIEW_*** to inspect web element.
Back to native context by NATIVE_APP keyword
Sample code:
System.out.println("Run application");
Map<String, Object> params = new HashMap<>();
params.put("bundleId", "com.example");
boolean terminalApp = (boolean) driver.executeScript("mobile: terminateApp", params);
System.out.println("terminateApp: " + terminateApp);
driver.findElementById("Safari").click();
Set<String> contextNames = appDriver.getContextHandles();
// Change context to WEBVIEW_***
appDriver.context(String.valueOf(contextNames.toArray()[1]));
driver.get("https://www.google.com.vn");
Thread.sleep(20000);
// Do something.
// ...
// If you want to communicate with NATIVE context just change to NATIVE_APP.
appDriver.context("NATIVE_APP");

Answer 4

you can activate system apps via driver.activateApp(BUNDLE_ID);
there is no need to kill the app driver and start browser driver to access browser, just switch between apps.
safari
driver.activateApp("com.apple.mobilesafari");

Answer 5

Here is how I resolved the issue:
driver2.activateApp("com.apple.mobilesafari");
Thread.sleep(5000);
boolean openSafariTab =
driver2.findElements(By.xpath("//XCUIElementTypeButton[#name=\"AddTabButton\"]")).size() > 0;
if (openSafariTab) {
driver2.findElement(By.xpath("//XCUIElementTypeButton[#name=\"AddTabButton\"]")).click();
} else { }
Thread.sleep(3000);
driver2.findElement(By.xpath("//XCUIElementTypeTextField[#name=\"TabBarItemTitle\"]")).click();
Thread.sleep(3000);
driver2.findElement(By.xpath("//XCUIElementTypeOther[#name=\"CapsuleViewController" +
"\"]/XCUIElementTypeOther[3]/XCUIElementTypeOther[1]/XCUIElementTypeOther[1]")).sendKeys("https://www.golfbpm.com");
Thread.sleep(3000);
driver2.findElement(By.xpath("//XCUIElementTypeButton[#name=\"Go\"]")).click();