Appium has the ability to automate Windows PC Desktop apps. This driver relies on a project from Microsoft called WinAppDriver, which is an Appium-compatible WebDriver server for Windows Desktop apps (and more in the future). WinAppDriver is often abbreviated "WAD". WAD is bundled with Appium and does not need to be installed separately.
The Windows Driver supports testing of Universal Windows Platform (UWP) and Classic Windows (Win32) applications.
In addition to the WAD repo, development of the Appium driver takes place at the appium-windows-driver repo.
In addition to Appium's general requirements:
- Windows PC with Windows 10 or up
- Ability to enter Administrator mode
The way to start a session using the Windows driver is to include the
platformName
capability in your new session request, with
the value Windows
. Also, ensure that you set the deviceName
capability to
WindowsPC
as well. Of course, you must also include an appropriate app
capability, at a minimum (see below).
The Windows driver supports a number of standard Appium capabilities. See below for how these should be used specifically with the Windows driver.
To test a Windows app, simply make sure you have turned developer mode on.
When running Appium (whether Appium Desktop or from the command line), ensure that you have started the app / cmd prompt as an administrator.
You could begin by taking a look at some existing samples:
Java Samples
- Open the sample folder as an existing project in a Java IDE such as IntelliJ. For example: CalculatorTest
- In the Java IDE build and run the test
C# Samples
- Pull and open
CalculatorTest.sln
under CalculatorTest - In Visual Studio 2015 with the test solution open build the test and select Test > Run > All Tests
If you want to write tests from scratch, you can choose any programming language or tools supported by Appium/Selenium to write your test scripts. In the example below, we will author the test script in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio 2015.
- Open Microsoft Visual Studio 2015
- Create the test project and solution. I.e. select **New Project > Templates
Visual C# > Test > Unit Test Project**
- Once created, select Project > Manage NuGet Packages... > Browse and search for Appium.WebDriver
- Install the Appium.WebDriver NuGet packages for the test project
- Start writing your test (see sample code under [samples])
To test a UWP app, you can use any Selenium supported language and simply specify the Application Id for the app under test in the app capabilities entry. Below is an example of creating a test session for Windows Alarms & Clock app written in C#:
// Launch the AlarmClock app
DesiredCapabilities appCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
appCapabilities.SetCapability("app", "Microsoft.WindowsAlarms_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App");
AlarmClockSession = new WindowsDriver<WindowsElement>(new Uri("http://127.0.0.1:4723"), appCapabilities);
// Control the AlarmClock app
AlarmClockSession.FindElementByAccessibilityId("AddAlarmButton").Click();
AlarmClockSession.FindElementByAccessibilityId("AlarmNameTextBox").Clear();
When testing the application you authored yourself, you can find the Application Id in the generetated AppX\vs.appxrecipe
file under RegisteredUserNmodeAppID
node. E.g. c24c8163-548e-4b84-a466-530178fc0580_scyf5npe3hv32!App
To test a classic Windows app, you can also use any Selenium supported language and specify the full executable path for the app under test in the app capabilities entry. Below is an example of creating a test session for Windows Notepad app:
// Launch Notepad
DesiredCapabilities appCapabilities = new DesiredCapabilities();
appCapabilities.SetCapability("app", @"C:\Windows\System32\notepad.exe");
NotepadSession = new WindowsDriver<WindowsElement>(new Uri("http://127.0.0.1:4723"), appCapabilities);
// Control the AlarmClock app
NotepadSession.FindElementByClassName("Edit").SendKeys("This is some text");
As mentioned above, you should additionally use these capabilities to ensure you are getting a Windows App automation session:
platformName
: Windows
deviceName
: WindowsPC
app
: the appID of the Windows app for testing, or the path to the .exe file
Microsoft Visual Studio 2015 by default includes Windows SDK that provides
great tool to inspect the application you are testing. This tool allows you to
see every UI element/node that you can query using Windows Application Driver.
This inspect.exe tool can be found under the Windows SDK folder such as
C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86
. The tool will show various
element attributes. The table below shows you witch Appium locator strategy you
should use to find elements with the corresponding attributes.
Locator Strategy | Matched Attribute |
---|---|
accessibility id | AutomationId |
class name | ClassName |
name | Name |