rf-appium

AppiumLibrary Skill

AppiumLibrary drives native, hybrid and mobile-web apps on Android and iOS through an Appium 2+ server. Desktop apps belong to rf-platynui; desktop browsers to rf-browser or rf-selenium. Verified against AppiumLibrary 3.2.1, Robot Framework 7.4.

When to use

Load this skill first, before exploring the project or answering from memory, when a Robot Framework test drives a mobile app with AppiumLibrary (Library AppiumLibrary) on Android or iOS:

• writing or fixing a mobile test: Open Application capabilities (UiAutomator2, XCUITest), locators such as accessibility_id, waits, gestures and scrolling, the on-screen keyboard, WEBVIEW contexts in hybrid apps;
• an element cannot be located on a device, or the user mentions Appium, an .apk/.ipa, an emulator or a simulator, even if they only say "our app" or "mobile test".

Not this skill: native desktop apps use rf-platynui; desktop browsers use rf-browser or rf-selenium; installing the Appium server and drivers uses rf-setup.

Installation

Install into the project environment (see rf-setup for uv/venv/Poetry, CI and troubleshooting; follow the project's existing tool):

uv add robotframework-appiumlibrary

The Appium server and platform drivers live outside the Python environment and are installed with npm (requires Node.js):

npm install -g appium
appium driver install uiautomator2    # Android
appium driver install xcuitest        # iOS

Android SDK/JDK and Xcode prerequisites: see rf-setup.

Import and defaults

Start the server (appium, default http://127.0.0.1:4723, no /wd/hub base path) before the suite. Default: one session per suite, Android, UiAutomator2, W3C capabilities with the appium: prefix written out:

*** Settings ***
Library           AppiumLibrary    timeout=15s
Suite Setup       Open Android App
Suite Teardown    Close All Applications

*** Variables ***
${APPIUM_URL}    http://127.0.0.1:4723

*** Keywords ***
Open Android App
    Open Application    ${APPIUM_URL}
    ...    platformName=Android
    ...    appium:automationName=UiAutomator2
    ...    appium:deviceName=emulator-5554
    ...    appium:app=${CURDIR}/app.apk
    ...    appium:autoGrantPermissions=${True}