iOS app gets reset on creation of new appium session - ios

Question

I am performing following steps
Set capabilities and launch ABC app. By providing app path
capabilities.setCapability("app", "/Users/changdeojadhav/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/ABC/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/ABC.app");
capabilities.setCapability("bundleId","com.abc.ABC-Demo");
Perform some actions
quit driver by driver.quit()
Set capabilities for Xyz app. And launch XYZ app
Perform some steps
quit driver by driver.quit()
relaunch ABC app as mentioned in step #1.
Expected is "App ABC should retain it's state" but ABC gets reset.
I have launched appium with --no-reset parameter.
Any idea about what I am missing here
Thanks

Answer 1

As far as I can tell, there is currently no solution to reopening the application after going to the home screen without clearing the app from cache.
In past versions of iOS/Appium, the solution was to do:
from appium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Remote('http://0.0.0.0:4723/wd/hub', desired_caps)
driver.close_app()
app = driver.find_element_by_xpath('//UIAApplication/UIAWindow/UIAScrollView/UIAButton[#name="sampleApp"]')
app.click()
However this currently crashes Appium
I will update this question when I log a github issue for it.

Answer 2

The Appium help page says that it only supports multiple app testing in a single test session for Android without Selendroid:
iOS: Support for automating multiple apps in one session: No
Android:Support for automating multiple apps in one session: Yes (but not when using the Selendroid backend)
http://appium.io/slate/en/master/?ruby#toc_27
I'm guessing that is why you are having this issue, and it's most likely an Instruments/XCode issue.

Answer 3

I was able to relaunch the same app without it resetting its state with Appium 1.3.1 running with Xcode 6.1 on a Mac Mini running Mavericks. I did not try launching another app in between launches. I'm driving the automation from C#.
protected AppiumDriver GetAppiumDriver(bool forRestart = false)
{
DesiredCapabilities capabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
capabilities.SetCapability("appium-version", "1.0");
capabilities.SetCapability("platformName", "iOS");
capabilities.SetCapability("platformVersion", "7.1");
capabilities.SetCapability("deviceName", "iPhone Simulator");
capabilities.SetCapability("app", _appPath);
capabilities.SetCapability("locationServicesEnabled", true);
if (forRestart)
{
capabilities.SetCapability("noReset", true);
}
AppiumDriver driver = new AppiumDriver(_serverUrl), capabilities, new TimeSpan(0, 5, 0));
return driver;
}
public void iOSMobileAppBasicUITest()
{
// Initially Launch the app with the noReset capability at its default value of false to ensure a clean starting point.
_driver = GetAppiumDriver(false);
//Shut down the app.
_driver.Quit();
// Launch the app again, this time with the noReset capability set to true.
_driver = GetAppiumDriver(true);
// Use _driver to do whatever UI automation is desired.
// Optional: Send the app to the background so that iOS does state preservation.
_driver.BackgroundApp(3);
// Close the app.
_driver.CloseApp();
// Alternative: _driver.Quit();
// Launch the app.
_driver.LaunchApp();
// Alternative: _driver = GetAppiumDriver(true);
...

Answer 4

As I known, Appium by default runs in fast reset mode, and it tries to clear app's data when the session ends (as a result of the invocation of quit() in this case). If your want to keep app's data, the option --no-reset should work for you.