Xamarin.UITest cheat sheet
Important
Visual Studio App Center is scheduled for retirement on March 31, 2025. While you can continue to use Visual Studio App Center until it is fully retired, there are several recommended alternatives that you may consider migrating to.
This document is a cheat sheet that condenses some UITest information for quick reference, it contains the following topics:
Writing Tests
This snippet is a boilerplate TestFixture for a test class on a single platform:
using System;
using NUnit.Framework;
using Xamarin.UITest;
using Xamarin.UITest.Android;
using Xamarin.UITest.Queries;
namespace MyApp.MyUITests
{
[TestFixture]
public class Tests
{
IApp app;
[SetUp]
public void BeforeEachTest()
{
// Uncomment the line that's appropriate for the platform:
// app = ConfigureApp.Android.StartApp();
// app = ConfigureApp.iOS.StartApp();
}
// Test cases here
}
}
For solutions involving both Android and iOS, the following code will help with writing cross platform UITests.
using System;
using NUnit.Framework;
using Xamarin.UITest;
using Xamarin.UITest.Queries;
namespace MyApp.MyCrossPlatformUITests
{
public class AppInitializer
{
public static IApp StartApp(Platform platform)
{
if(platform == Platform.Android)
{
return ConfigureApp.Android.StartApp();
}
return ConfigureApp.iOS.StartApp();
}
}
[TestFixture(Platform.Android)]
[TestFixture(Platform.iOS)]
public class Tests
{
IApp app;
Platform platform;
public Tests(Platform platform)
{
this.platform = platform;
}
[SetUp]
public void BeforeEachTest()
{
app = AppInitializer.StartApp(platform);
}
}
}
Xamarin.Forms solutions should follow the instructions described in the guide Automating Xamarin.Forms testing with Xamarin.UITest and App Center.
Initializing Xamarin.UITest on iOS
Add the following snippet to the FinishedLaunching method of the AppDelegate class:
#region Code for starting up the Xamarin Test Cloud Agent
// Newer version of Visual Studio for Mac and Visual Studio provide the
// ENABLE_TEST_CLOUD compiler directive to prevent the Calabash DLL from
// being included in the released version of the application.
#if ENABLE_TEST_CLOUD
Xamarin.Calabash.Start();
#endif
#endregion
The Xamarin Test Cloud Agent uses non-public Apple APIs, which causes apps to be rejected by the App Store. The Xamarin.iOS linker will remove the Xamarin Test Cloud Agent from the final IPA if it not explicitly referenced anywhere by the code. Release builds don't have the ENABLE_TEST_CLOUD compiler variable, which causes the Xamarin Test Cloud Agent to be removed from app bundle. Debug builds have the compiler directive defined, preventing the linker from removing the Xamarin Test Cloud Agent.
Determine Device ID for iOS Simulator
You can determine the UUID for the iOS simulators on a computer, use the instruments command as shown below:
$ xcrun xctrace list devices
Known Devices:
bushmaster [5A4B28A1-392A-59FB-81C5-137E881D61E9]
Resizable iPad (8.1 Simulator) [B3BF8A06-2938-4B74-BF87-16C223F8690C]
Resizable iPhone (8.1 Simulator) [E712409B-CFCC-409A-8162-627B6254EB3C]
iPad 2 (7.1 Simulator) [E8572F8F-227B-4DB0-8C92-590DC770360D]
iPad 2 (8.1 Simulator) [1F425263-3F96-4DAB-B843-0D041C3C71EA]
iPad Air (7.1 Simulator) [2863AFF6-D9FC-45E8-8385-E2A548F19002]
iPad Air (8.1 Simulator) [BBCF5CF2-20A4-4C47-9FA5-EBFF7311B071]
iPad Retina (7.1 Simulator) [B7CBB024-E1D3-4B24-8C20-3E9F7B54CF61]
iPad Retina (8.1 Simulator) [3E21ECD3-397A-4251-AEB6-2ADCF29AEE89]
iPhone 4s (7.1 Simulator) [D36354DD-D6A3-4E08-A25B-276620D844B8]
iPhone 4s (8.1 Simulator) [5C8FE602-8BA7-494D-A113-66C8B9AB3CB7]
iPhone 5 (7.1 Simulator) [C696E83D-F9FE-4DBC-8C67-FA0FC533246E]
iPhone 5 (8.1 Simulator) [9A8A5D92-A7D9-4A3C-81AA-97A9924F7D09]
iPhone 5s (7.1 Simulator) [6CDF5B5C-A315-4A8C-9D38-29437FE59C6D]
iPhone 5s (8.1 Simulator) [3F1C286F-3D5D-47B2-92B8-66B673BD0236]
iPhone 6 (8.1 Simulator) [995FF713-9DE4-460B-800E-F5A20FD93AA7]
iPhone 6 Plus (8.1 Simulator) [AB1C20F6-BFFC-4C80-879C-F19A7E3F0B5C]
Starting an iOS Simulator Instance
It's possible to run UITests on a specific iOS version and simulator by using the device ID.
const string simId = "3F1C286F-3D5D-47B2-92B8-66B673BD0236"; //iPhone 5s (8.1 Simulator)
app = ConfigureApp.iOS.DeviceIdentifier(simId).StartApp();
Reset an iOS Simulator to Factory Defaults
This code snippet can be used to stop a given iOS simulator and reset it back to factory defaults:
static void ResetSimulator(string deviceId)
{
var shutdownCmdLine = string.Format("simctl shutdown {0}", deviceId);
var shutdownProcess = Process.Start("xcrun", shutdownCmdLine);
shutdownProcess.WaitForExit();
var eraseCmdLine = string.Format("simctl erase {0}", deviceId);
var eraseProcess = Process.Start("xcrun", eraseCmdLine);
eraseProcess.WaitForExit();
}
Code Snippets
This section will provide some code snippets that can be helpful for writing UITests.
Querying Elements Based on Property Value
//Finds all elements that have a "hint" property with a value of "Search"
app.Query(e => e.All().Property("hint", "Search"));
Enable Screenshots Locally
app = ConfigureApp.Android
.EnableLocalScreenshots()
.StartApp();
The above code example puts screenshots in the directory where the test assembly is, naming the image screenshot-X-png.
Invoke a Method on an AppResult or UI Element
It's possible to execute native methods on underlying views with the AppQuery.Invoke method. The method invoked must match the native method name, not the C# method name. For example, to invoke the setGravity method on an Android TextView:
app.Query(e => e.Id("userName").Invoke("setGravity", 1)); //center text
The Invoke uses Java TextView.setGravity method and not the C# TextView.Gravity property.
Handling Android permissions
ConfigureApp.Android.Debug().ApkFile(apkpath).StartApp()
If you install using .ApkFile(apkpath) instead of PreferIdeSettings(), then the app is granted with "all" permissions, which remove the permission pop-ups. In the .ApkFile(apkpath) method, apkpath must point to the compiled apk file.