Silk AppDriver

October 9, 2017 · View on GitHub

Silk AppDriver is an implementation of the W3C WebDriver protocol for native (Windows) and mobile (Android and iOS) applications, built on top of Silk Test. The purpose of this project is to enable users of Silk Test to write tests for all kinds of applications using the WebDriver API in addition to the existing Silk Test APIs.

Prerequisites

Silk Test 18.0 has to be installed with a valid license. If you don't have Silk Test, download the evaluation version from https://www.microfocus.com/de-de/products/silk-portfolio/silk-test/trial/
Java (at least 1.8) has to be installed

Running

Download the latest Silk AppDriver release from GitHub
Run the Silk AppDriver server from the command line: java -jar silk-appdriver.jar
Run your tests against a RemoteWebDriver pointed to that server (http://localhost:8080 by default)
To use a different port than 8080 run Silk AppDriver with the server.port system property, for example java -Dserver.port=8123 -jar silk-appdriver.jar

Examples

Here's a minimal example written in Python that automates notepad.exe using Silk AppDriver:

from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Remote(
  command_executor='http://127.0.0.1:8080',
  desired_capabilities={'app': '%WINDIR%\\notepad.exe'})

textfield = driver.find_element_by_xpath("//TextField")
textfield.clear()
textfield.send_keys("hello from python!")

driver.find_element_by_xpath("//Menu[@caption='File']").click()
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//MenuItem[@caption='Exit']").click()
driver.find_element_by_xpath("//PushButton[@caption=\"Don't Save\"]").click()

driver.quit()

Further examples can be found here:

Java (notepad.exe): NotepadDemoTest.java
Java (mobile app on Android): MobileTests.java
Python (notepad.exe): notepad.py
JavaScript (notepad.exe): notepad.js

Building

To build Silk AppDriver on the command line:

Make sure you have silktest.jtf:18.0 in your local maven repository (See "Adding the JTF to your local Maven repository" in our "Embracing Open Source" blog post.)
Build the project with maven (mvn clean install)
Run the Silk AppDriver server from the command line: java -jar target/silk-appdriver.jar

To build Silk WebDriver in the IDE:

Import the Silk AppDriver project into Eclipse (at least 4.6.0) and build with maven.

Architecture

Noteworthy

The controller stub was auto-generated based on the "List of Endpoints" in the WebDriver standard using a simple Silk4J script. That can be found here: appdriver-generate

Current status

Silk AppDriver is still in an early stage and needs your help and contributions to get better!

Locator strategies

Only xpath is currently supported as a locator strategy. Ony "Silk Test xpath" locators will work.

API

The following table lists all methods listed in the W3C spec and the current status of the implementation in Silk AppDriver.

Command	Status	Comment
New Session	Done
Delete Session	Done
Status	Done
Get Timeouts	TODO
Set Timeouts	TODO
Go	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Get Current URL	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Back	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Forward	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Refresh	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Get Title	Done
Get Window Handle	Done
Close Window	Done
Switch To Window	Done
Get Window Handles	Done
Switch To Frame	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Switch To Parent Frame	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Get Window Rect	Done
Set Window Rect	Done
Maximize Window	Done
Minimize Window	Done
Fullscreen Window	Done
Get Active Element	TODO
Find Element	Done
Find Elements	Done
Find Element From Element	Done
Find Elements From Element	Done
Is Element Selected	TODO
Get Element Attribute	TODO
Get Element Property	Done
Get Element CSS Value	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Get Element Text	Done
Get Element Tag Name	Done	Yields the class name
Get Element Rect	Done
Is Element Enabled	Done
Element Click	Done
Element Clear	Done
Element Send Keys	Partly done	Missing: Handling of special keys
Get Page Source	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Execute Script	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Execute Async Script	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Get All Cookies	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Get Named Cookie	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Add Cookie	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Delete Cookie	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Delete All Cookies	Done	Not supported (yields "unknown command")
Perform Actions	TODO
Release Actions	TODO
Dismiss Alert	TODO
Accept Alert	TODO
Get Alert Text	TODO
Send Alert Text	TODO
Take Screenshot	Done	Takes a screenshot of the entire desktop
Take Element Screenshot	Done

TODOs

The biggest TODOs currently are:

Add more tests!
Add tests in other Selenium languages!
Implement the ability to specify more of the Silk Test BaseState options (through capabilities?)
Implement attribute/property retrieval. Do we need to distinguish between the two?
Implement handling special keys in sendKeys (map to Silk Test keys!)
Implement screenshot API
Implement customizable timeouts and other options
Implement window handling and switching between multiple windows
Add a possibility to get TrueLog files. Maybe we can use executeScript with a custom command to start/stop TrueLog?
Implement other locator strategies (by Id, by className, ... should be easy to map to XPath)
Implement alert handling
Implement action API
Add support for mobile and web apps
The Java client bindings (among others) support a Select helper method. Internally this relies on a couple of specifics (tag name has to be "select", children have to be "options", ...). Can we make that work with our combo boxes as well?

License

Code provided in this repository is licensed under the Apache 2.0.

Contribution

You want to contribute to Silk AppDriver? Great!

Changes may be contributed after signing the Micro Focus Individual Contributor License Agreement 1.0. Signed contributor agreements are to be sent, via PDF, to licensing@microfocus.com. You will be notified via email when the agreement has been accepted by Micro Focus.