iOS app gets reset on creation of new appium session

Question

I am performing following steps

1. 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");

2. Perform some actions

3. quit driver by driver.quit()
4. Set capabilities for Xyz app. And launch XYZ app
5. Perform some steps
6. quit driver by driver.quit()
7. 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.