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Feature Testing: Why is it important before Release?

Posted on November 9, 2018 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Feature testing is a necessary process since updates are essential for an app to keep up with time, for monetary benefits and to make the customers feel that the makers of the apps are putting in so much effort.
Apart from bug fixing, the addition of new features is also essential for the survival of any app.
The biggest question here is how to test these new features of an app that has already been tested or not been tested?
interested? go through this blog.

Developing New Feature?
While developing a new feature for your mobile app you need to determine what you are going to develop? The new feature that you will develop should be worth releasing, otherwise, it might mislead users.
You need to come up with a feature according to the app’s user base responds to various elements of the mobile application.
Run various experiments for in-app elements to better understand the missing feature.
How do you test new features?

Determine the type of audience the feature caters to. By knowing the right audience you can calibrate your test according to it
Release the software with the intended features to a small amount of audience before the actual test
Make sure that you are recording the results and categorizing it to the appropriate section. For instance, Order values by departments, average order values, conversion rates, o add to cart rates, hits on the checkout page per department, etc. Categorization will help in analyzing interaction on various segments of the software
Once the software has been validated by a small number of users. Prepare it for the larger A/B test.
Create a product management system so that feedback can be run through a loop

Why you should do Feature testing?
Before releasing new features that you have developed, it needs testing to determine the impact among the users and application.
To better understand the impact of your feature you need to perform mobile application testing.
Mobile app testing will help you to understand the business impact of this new feature and what improvements should be made before release.
Testing of New Feature
Before releasing a new feature, it has to be tested with real-world test cases.
As the feature will be released among thousands of users, it becomes even more difficult to release an application that is error-free, as every individual is different from another.
Thus, below is some process for testing a new feature for mobile applications.

Field Testing

Field Testing becomes an important aspect of testing this new feature and its impact in real-world scenarios.
This test will be carried out by QA testers where they would be using this integrated feature as per the need in the real world.
However, field testing becomes a little difficult to carry out as it requires a large number of dedicated testers to execute field testing effectively and smoothly.
Also, field testing would require a number of devices and their maintenance which increases the cost of testing.
Although, this test may cost more it will provide an excellent overview of your new feature and its acceptance in the real world.

Leverage Your Community

Another option for you to test your new feature in real-world cases is to leverage your community.
You can easily source alpha and beta testers for testing your new integrated feature in the mobile application.
With the help of alpha and beta testers, you will be able to get appropriate feedback from actual users who will be using your new app feature in a real-world scenario.
While sourcing alpha and beta testers may come with risk, it provides an excellent method for exposing bugs to them.
It becomes a reliable method that can be gathered in a form of valuable feedback from actual users and let you do further improvement in your mobile app.

Incorporating Your Application

For a more efficient field testing of your new feature, you can also incorporate your integrated mobile application into the daily activities and workflow of your team members.
This will help you to encounter bugs and issues in your new feature naturally by your team.
Not only, it will save some cost for sourcing alpha and beta testers for your test but also it will increase the efficiency to detect any issue in a timely manner and improves it as soon as possible.
You can also use this approach to uncover details such as battery usage, device compatibility, and other environmental factors.

Crowd Sourced Testing

This test will expose the benefits, effectiveness, and efficiency of your application.
To perform Scaling UX and exploratory tests, testers would require enough time to devote to these valuable testing approaches.
Your team would need to use automation tools and services to free up the team’s time which can be utilized for other testing approaches.
Automation tools will enable them to eliminate the effort of testing applications in a repetitive cycle.

A/B Testing

A/B testing for your new feature in the mobile application would enable you to observe which versions perform better.
This test will compare your version A app with version B app and checks which one is performing better.
While conducting A/B testing you need to focus on key aspects such as user onboarding, user engagement rate, or user retention.
Making an Announcement of Your New Feature In-App
After completing mobile app testing for your new feature with improvements,
you can now make an announcement to all the users about the addition of the new feature in the application.
Introducing your new feature to the application will be useless if the right users are not aware of it.
To ensure that the right people know about this addition, you need to decide on how you are going to tell users about the new feature.
You can either use real-time context to tell them about the new feature or just make a proper announcement of your new feature before global release.
After achieving all these steps you can successfully release your new feature to your mobile app without any hesitation.

Once, your new feature is live and released globally, you need to get feedback from different users who had just used your new feature.
This will help you to understand the true nature of your new feature. What if people did not use your new feature?
Or did they have any issues?
You can easily get feedback from your users regarding your new feature and make sure to improve them.
After releasing your new feature you can also record the impact and compare it with your testing results to ensure more improvement in testing areas.
Benefits of Feature Testing

The environment of the product can be figured out easily
Helps in gathering metrics of features and validate it
Basic elements of software can be tested
Helps in keeping a check on various integration
You can check the different configuration of the software product
bugs and issues can be found out
You can perfect the software and prepare it for success

How to use Selenium for the automation of feature testing?
How It Can Help in Feature Testing?
It depends on the kind of developer you are. If you are a developer who believes in testing all key features after deployment then Selenium Webdriver would be a panacea for you.
But there are many developers who just believe in developing new stuff and not first testing the existing features and then go ahead with building new ones. This would lead to a lot of bugs and the cost incurred with finding a defect would increase in the defect life cycle.

Also Read : 15 Top Selenium WebDriver Commands For Test Automation

So, the strategy should be testing the existing features and then building new stuff. If you are thinking that testing existing new features would consume a lot of time then in that case you can use Selenium Webdriver to cut the time taken to test these features.
In this way your code would be bug-free and costs associated with defects will decrease.
Let’s now prepare the first test with Selenium WebDriver. If you are thinking that you are not a Java Expert; then how would you start writing code and explore. Selenium Webdriver needs minimal use of Java if you want to start with it so don’t worry and go ahead!
Set-Up Needs To Be Done

The first thing is to download the Chrome Browser as you will test your code on chrome.
Next is to download ChromeDriver from Seleniumhq official site and hence; you can download the chromedriver.exe file in your system.
You should have Java installed in your machine and this you can check by opening cmd and fire command “java –version”.
You should have Eclipse installed in your machine as it is a perfect IDE to develop the test to check the features.
You can now open eclipse and then click on New -> Java Project -> Next -> Give Project Name and Finish
Now add Selenium library to your project by first downloading the Jars from Seleniumhq site. Then click on Properties of your project and click on Build Path and then click on “Add External Jars”.
After this, you are ready to start with your code. All initial setup is ready.

First Test With Selenium Webdriver To Test Login Feature
For writing code you need to make a class file in your project. For doing that; click on New -> Class -> Next -> Name your Class -> Finish. Now, you can start writing your code in this section. As of now just copy the code below and run it on your local machine.
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
public class Test1 {
static WebDriver webDriver;
public static void main(final String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
// Telling the system where to find the chrome driver
System.setProperty(
“webdriver.chrome.driver”,
“C:/PATH/TO/chromedriver.exe”);
// Open the Chrome browser
webDriver = new ChromeDriver();
// Maximize the browser window
webDriver.manage().window().maximize();
if (testlogin()) {
System.out.println(“Test WordPress Login: Passed”);
} else {
System.out.println(“Test WordPress Login: Failed”);
}
// Close the browser and WebDriver
webDriver.close();
webDriver.quit();
}
private static boolean testlogin() {
try {
// Open google.com
webDriver.navigate().to(“https://www.YOUR-SITE.org/wp-admin/”);
// Type in the username
webDriver.findElement(By.id(“user_login”)).sendKeys(“YOUR_USERNAME”);
// Type in the password
webDriver.findElement(By.id(“user_pass”)).sendKeys(“YOUR_PASSWORD”);
// Click the Submit button
webDriver.findElement(By.id(“wp-submit”)).click();
// Wait a little bit (7000 milliseconds)
Thread.sleep(7000);
// Check whether the h1 equals “Dashboard”
if (webDriver.findElement(By.tagName(“h1”)).getText()
.equals(“Dashboard”)) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
// If anything goes wrong, return false.
} catch (final Exception e) {
System.out.println(e.getClass().toString());
return false;
}
}
}
Run this you will find Chrome Browser opening up and then testing the login functionality. Let me explain the steps one by one for better understanding.

setProperty(“webdriver.chrome.driver”,”C:/PATH/TO/chromedriver.exe”);

This statement is to tell your program where it can find chromedriver.exe file in your local.

webDriver = new ChromeDriver();
manage().window().maximize();

These commands will open Chromedriver instance and then would maximize the size of the browser.

if (testlogin())

This would test if the login feature is properly working or not. If it is not working then “Test failed” would be printed else “Test passed”.

Also Read : 52 Software Tester Interview Questions That can Land You the Job

The test login module has tried and catches statements inside it. If everything goes as expected as per you then code in try block would be executed else code in catch would be executed. Suppose when you try to locate an element and it is not present in DOM then it would throw an exception “NOSUCHELEMENTEXCEPTION” and this code in catch block should be executed.

In this testlogin function steps are mentioned.

webDriver.navigate().to(“https://www.YOUR-SITE.org/wp-admin/”);
webDriver.findElement(By.id(“user_login”)).sendKeys(“YOUR_USERNAME”);
webDriver.findElement(By.id(“user_pass”)).sendKeys(“YOUR_PASSWORD”);

These would be hit the URL in the browser and then find username and password fields. With the help of sendKeys you will be able to write to these text boxes.

findElement(By.id(“wp-submit”)).click();

With the help of this command you are clicking on submit form.

sleep(7000);

This sleep is included in order to follow the test visually. 7000 means 7000 ms that means 7s.

Now if the login is successful then the headline of the page should change to “Dashboard” and h1 headline is used only once in every page so you can get it by using tagname h1. You can get the text out of the webelement and then compare it with “Dashboard” to test whether you have successfully login or not. The below code is for that.

if (webDriver.findElement(By.tagName(“h1”)).getText().equals(“Dashboard”))
{
return true
} else {
return false;
}

You can find the elements using various locators like ID, Name, Xpath, CSS Selector, and Link Text. Mostly you should prefer ID and name when they are not dynamic. Otherwise it is good to go with Xpath and CSS.

Conclusion
Feature testing increases the chances of success and mitigates risk to a great extent. Do think of it as a setback or baggage, development alone is not the key to software success. You gave to make sure it has what it takes to survive the market.

17 Different Approaches to Comprehensive Mobile Testing for iOS and Android Apps

Posted on May 2, 2017 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

People are not so positive on QA even if they know how important it is for a software nourishment. A step of testing is avoided more often than not to save on budget.

Remember, branded products always come with standard price; but, why….? Because of the quality they assure.
We all have heard the proverb “all that glitters is not gold.” Likewise, no matter how beautiful, trendy and charming your application design looks, it is not going to bring anything good
if it doesn’t provide the expected quality.
As a user, you would definitely go for a better option if the expected application goes on loading for more than 5 seconds. Believe me, some of the users won’t even wait for 2 seconds. A book series can be written about the customer dissatisfaction experiences on the applications. Remember, a user once lost is lost forever.
The purpose of testing is not always about finding the errors, but, it is also to make sure the application works properly.
Does it functions well?
Is the user satisfied?
Does the application work as developer expected?
The best stairway to perfection is always questioning the possibilities. Testing is a mixture of techniques and methods; there is no simpler way to make sure the working status of an application. For every execution process, we need a plan.
Here, we are going to discuss about 17 different approaches that can be applied for testing iOS and Android apps.
General strategies
1. Let the QA tester belong to the core developing team.
Generally, companies have a waterfall way of processing an application. In that case, testers will get busy with in a week of starting the project. But, in the agile method of working, QA is an important part, which the team considers as an essential ingredient for the success of the project. When a tester gets involved, he/she will be well aware of the development taking place and be sure about the part in which improvements are needed.
Also, approach it, considering the design and user expectation.
2. Ensure the test scripts
There are people who think, ‘QA is not that important, let’s just ensure performance’
Can you believe that people actually think like that even at this time of hectic competition? Also, it’s not as simple as testing everything casually. A pure, complete knowledge on function should be there and the required data should be provided to the tester for a complete logical testing.
The product team has to make sure that the scripts provided are understandable by the tester.
It should be made simple for any programmer to understand.
3. Functional testing
· Do the features work?
· Can user complete the task?
These are the two main questions we need to find the answer for explaining functional testing. The tester will work along with the procedures of the application so that he will understand the performance and the flow of to and fro pages.
4. Unit testing
Unit testing works in relation with codes. Usually, developers do this. Codes are mantled, separated into different parts called units and tested thoroughly. The unit referred here can be a code module or a function.
5. Performance testing
Testing is all about improvisation. So, performance testing is done to make sure that no delay in performance of application happens as the result of improvisation.
Here, the testers monitor the speed and how well the application responds to features. Time consideration is also a factor involved in performance testing along with
· Data consumption
· Battery duration
· Space consumption
· Navigation
· Network coverage etc.
6. User acceptance testing
The term ‘User acceptance testing’ is a wrong term because we don’t have an actual user. Instead, we select a group to conduct the test.
We can’t just go on and ask people to take part in this session since it takes time. So, we seek the help of our colleagues. A group from inside the company, who may or may not be a part of this application development, will take part in this testing.
Usability testing is usually considered as a final step in the case of websites or applications,
Steps followed in usability testing are:-
1. Planning
2. Selection of group
3. Explaining what is expected and what is not
4. Introducing main scenario
5. Testing specification, bugs
6. Sign off
7.Manual Testing vs Automated Testing
Machines are faster; that’s why it is better to make QA tests automated. It is because computers can find anything that does not work, faster than the human brain can.
It simply saves money, time and provides more accuracy.
Yet, not every QA task cannot be completed by computer. Sometimes issues occur, that are too awful for software to complete.
8. Load Testing
Load testing is a lot of work. It is checking the user capacity that an application can hold to make sure that the application loading will not be exhausted in an expected number of user logins.

Basics of load testing
1. Record the traffic
2. Replay the request
3. Analysis
9.Regression Testing
Regression testing is like marvel movies. Interesting, huh?
The hero gets unusual power, use it stupidly, but, at the end, he realizes that he can make big changes.
Even a small change in code can error the whole application. So, regression testing helps in ensuring that the changes made doesn’t affect the flow of the application.
10. Device Testing
Mac and Windows are usually considered for device testing,
That’s something cool about device testing. There are over 24,000 models that exist in Android itself.

This is a bird eye view of android screens that presently exist. (source)
Deciding which screen size application is optimized is more important here. Having a clear company policy will help testers to ensure that the rules and test selected rather than all supported devices.
11. Testing Interruption
Interrupt conditions are mainly the interruptions that occur while the applications are running.
It includes incoming/outgoing calls, text messages, notifications etc. In the cycle of applications when disturbances happen, interruption testing tells applications how to behave properly.
In short, interruption testing is just like teaching good manners to a child, “behave boy” 🙂
12. Crowd source Testing
Crowd sourcing is simply recruiting a specific group through a third party. When a developer wants to test a product, he contacts any agency that provides a collective group which is suitable for testing product. This agency will collect the record and give the developer a result.
In mobile application, crowd sourcing is becoming a latest trend.
The agency and the group get paid according to the bugs they find.
13. Connectivity Testing (Network)
Since digitization is taking over the world, we are provided with plenty of connectivity carriers.
We may run out of daily supplies, but data connection! Never.
So, what the tester has to make sure here is, how applications respond to various data carriers, especially, 3G 4G, LTE.
Testing on popular data providers would help to ensure the performance of applications since they will be the widely used networks. Also, testing how applications work when data loss or weak connection happens may help.
14.Emulator Testing policy.
There are many emulators now that developers use effectively to test any application.
Browserstack.com is the most popular among them.
In a tester’s perspective, you would want experts to test in one or more devices, on most popular versions of Android and iOS but testing in different devices, screen sizes, and OS versions can be done through emulators in order to save money and time.
15. OS version: Testing and Support
iOS and Android have significant OS versions in existing markets. Also, we have to agree that iOS is better than Android. It is the main reason why many companies are advised to develop applications in iOS initially.
Android doesn’t have complete power on the available versions provided for the users. But, apple has complete power on the users and provided versions since they manufacture both software and i Phones.
16.UXA Testing
UXA stands for user experience assessment which takes an account of skills, methods and tools used to identify how much aware the user is about the application.
UXA is categorized into three:
1. Implict
2. Explict
3. Emotional/Creative assessment
Various reasons can be pointed out for why developers always fail to replace the functionality as designers outline it. The variations that occur between UXA and software may be too small but noticeable. But, the eye of a good tester should be like a hawk, catch prey at instant.
17.Security Testing
‘According to 2017 application security report published by cyber security ventures, 111 billion new software code lines are being developed every year
Hope you all understood what we are going to discuss now.

One of the main reasons that security testing should be done is to secure user data. Whatever data user provides should be encrypted and should never reach in bad hands.
That’s a duty, moreover a responsibility. Data leakage is an issue that happens commonly. Therefore, make sure that the data transfer is done through proper channel.
‘It’s a wild world out there’.
Source

6 Automation Tools for iOS App Testing

Posted on January 25, 2016 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Developing application for iOS is not similar to developing an application for Android Operating System. Apple has certain guidelines that could stop the development efforts. And it will become a balancing act of developing an appropriate app and getting the Apple’s approval. There are so many advantages in developing iOS platform rather than developing the android platform. There are six iOS app testing tools that are to be mentioned if one need to know about mobile automation testing.

Below follows the top six automation tools for iOS app testing:

XCTest

One can use the framework called XCTest for the purpose of unit testing. This framework is provided by Apple. They can also maintain a good integration with integrated data environment in order to write test, run test and doing test-driven development work-flow. XCTest is the recommended testing framework when the use of Xcode5 and OCUnit got depreciated.

Read Also: 8 Must-Know iOS Testing Tips

2. User Interface Automation

There is User Interface Automation, especially for the more typical functional test or black box tests where the user is going to write code that stimulates end user navigating the app. User Interface Automation is also by Apple and is one of the apple sanctioned way of carrying out iOS app testing. For using User Interface Automation, there is the need of instruments that comes as one of the tools of Xcode. The only disadvantage of using User Interface Automation is that tests are written in Javascript which is entirely different from iOS code written in Objective-C or Swift.

3. Ocmock

It is a typical mock framework that acts like a code that leverages in a remote application program interface just like a web service. We can also use Ocmock for code which relies on user interface objects that you can’t easily represent by yourself through unit tests.

4. KIF (keep it functional)

One of the better alternatives for User Interface Automation is a tool called KIF. KIF is an abbreviation for keeping it functional. It is an open source and better than User Interface Automation. It mostly relies on accessibility labels just like User Interface Automation. While defining the application, it should be made sure that the app is accessible to people who are visually impaired. When compared to User Interface automation, KIF has certain benefits that are, one can write a test in Objective-C which supports Swift. This is not possible for User Interface automation. Also, KIF tests are executed in the same way as unit tests. Graphical User Interface based tests are much easier to execute with the help of KIF.

You May Also Like: 11 Differences Between iOS And Android Mobile App Testing

5. FBSnapshotTestCase

As the name suggests, it is indeed created and maintained by Facebook. The basic function of this tool is that it allows to verify one’s User Interface code by doing visual differences between saved screenshots. One can do it in a granular level than the full screenshot. You can take little User Interface view where you will get widget on the screen. One can isolate the snapshot text case to the User interface subclass view to change anything.

6. FRANK- Behavior Driven Development for iOS

For doing end-to-end testing and to use behavior driven development and cucumber ( written using a ruby programming language), it is better to use the tool called Frank. It allows us to create acceptance tests and requirements using cucumber. Frank helps to run behavior driven development tests against our iOS app testing.

In almost every testing process, automated tests are used. Automated testing can help to exclude errors and can thus take care of omission in the test that takes place at the time of execution caused by humans. Each of the above automation tools is unique and possess certain characteristics.

8 Must-Know iOS Testing Tips

Posted on November 11, 2015February 12, 2024 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

There is high demand for iOS applications these days. iPhones and iPads are gaining popularity with every new release, and so are the apps that come along with them. With so many people demanding iOS apps, the importance of thorough testing has become much more than ever. High standards and good quality are most important for users. With so many apps emerging in the market, one has to maintain really high standards to make it big in the App store.

You need to ensure that your app runs well on all the iOS devices. This is the first thing to keep in mind. You could reach out to a wider audience this way. iPhone App Testing requires a good amount of homework beforehand. Here are some tips to help you in your testing process:

There is no “Untestable Behaviour”

“Untestable Behaviour” cannot exist. There could only be ‘untestable code”. It is a very simple point to remember.
You should be able to test every part of your app. If there is any part that cannot be tested, you must think about refactoring some parts of the code to make it happen. You must have a good answer to the question,” Why can’t I test this?” Your answer could most probably be that the code is either too complicated or there may be too many actions in the code. Resolve such issues by dividing the code and making it cleaner. Make your code more modular, as it helps you to test it more effectively.

There must be only one Source of Truth

You must be very thorough about how your object should behave. It is also important that you have complete confidence in yourself when you say that.
Always attempt to make simple classes that have well defined and concrete responsibilities independent of one another. You must understand these specified responsibilities and should be able to describe them well. There are two important testing frameworks in the world of iOS, Quick for Swift and Specta for Objective C.

Ensure that Objects have Minimum Dependencies

Your objects need to know as less as possible. The lesser they know, the lesser you will have to test, and the easier it becomes for you. Remember the rule to minimize adhesion and maximize cohesion. Objects should not be too dependent on each other. Each module must be complete in itself. Your test writing becomes simple if you have less to test in a single module. This ensures a better quality for all your products through effective iOS App Testing.

Read Also: 11 Differences Between iOS And Android Mobile App Testing

Remember the SOLID Rules

Over time, there are a lot of changes in the devices, the hardware, architecture, operating systems, and the programming languages. But, there are some classic rules that remain true no matter what changes. They are the solid foundations for building an efficient software product. The S, L, and D rules are essential in the case of iOS App Testing.

S – Single Responsibility Principle

According to this, your class must be entrusted with only a single responsibility. This makes it much easier for you to understand its purpose and role in the product. When you understand what exactly it does, it makes it easier for you to write its specification.

L – Liskov Substitution Principle

You should make sure that your objects can be replaced with other instances. You should be able to substitute objects with instances of their subtypes as well. Mocks are often used to test any specific behaviour exhibited by objects, but such testing could not be applicable for your whole program or system.

D – Dependency Inversion Principle

Using protocols to decouple your classes is the most effective practice you could use in iOS for testing purposes. Do it for a few parts only and test them independently to assess the behaviour individually. You must test bit by bit as testing it as a whole will never help you.

Restrict your class to 150 lines of code

Your class must never have more than 150 lines of code. If it exceeds the limit, there is definitely something wrong in it. Divide it in to smaller parts that can be easily managed and maintained. This makes your code break up in to smaller units of logical codes. This helps you as well as other who look in to your code. A legible code is an indication of a good developer. It helps you in iPhone App Testing also.

Tests help you out

Most developers have the wrong notion about writing tests. They do not help the end user in any way. Moreover, there can be cases where the test case for a class has more lines of code than the class itself. As such, it is considered to be an unnecessary waste of time. But, this is not the case. When you get a code and have no idea what is happening in there, the test cases can actually help you out. There are numerous classes and tricks in every code. Cracking them is not an easy task. When you write tests, it will definitely help in maintenance and testing.

Look at the Picture as A Whole

When you are working and get stuck with a piece of code, you tend to overlook other things that matter. Your focus is always put on this single piece that you are working with. You tend to stop seeing other ways to resolve your issues or get your work done. In such cases, you must always take a small break and get your mind cleared. This lets you see the bigger picture at hand. You will be able to find other different ways to get your work done. You could even consult a fellow developer for new ideas to pour out.

Recommended Read: Best Practices to Follow for iOS Mobile App Testing

Keep Learning

Even if you are a pro, you could always learn something new. This is applicable to testing and programming in general. Never keep your mind closed to new things. Most professionals consider their code to be perfect. Even if that is the case, you could always improve. Writing tests will always speed up your development time. Even you break your code unknowingly at times. As such, machine check of the code helps you faster. It is much faster that manually going through every line of your code. So, keep learning and improving yourself for the better every time.
So, here were a few tips you need to keep in mind with regard to iOS App Testing. Some of them are applicable to Android App Testing as well. Building efficient apps that work seamlessly on the intended platform is the ultimate aim of every developer. Follow these steps to make that possible in a more productive and efficient manner.

Best practices to follow for iOS mobile app testing

Posted on June 1, 2015 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

There is no doubt about what iOS has done for mobility gaming. The exquisite functionalities coupled with a simple user experience have paved way for the ‘mobile era’. In spite of this, working with the iPhone/iPad mobile application for software testing and monitoring can be challenging.

Challenges and complexities surrounding iOS mobile testing continues to interfere with development even as iOS app market continues to produce a record growth. One of the greatest challenges is in Apple iOS being a closed operating system when compared to an Android OS. The development and app testing stages for a closed system is far more complex, since extracting the necessary data from low level objects is impossible for users. This is crucial for test automation.
The best approach to get the necessary access to these levels of an iOS app testing are rooting (jail-breaking) and compile-time source instrumentation. But nothing can match a cloud-based hybrid approach which can offer developers and software testers the necessary coverage, capabilities and flexibility to deliver better iOS apps.
Rooting (jail-breaking)
These are the two common methods used in today’s mobile testing industry to address the challenges of inadequate access to the low level objects. These are rooting and source instrumentation.
The process of removing the limitations placed by Apple on the iOS devices is called jail-breaking. This helps achieve low level (root) access to the operating system, thus allowing testers to recognize objects within the application being tested.
Source Instrumentation (compile-time)
Compiling the application that is being tested with an additional piece of code to get a back door access to the low level OS for object recognition is referred to as source instrumentation. These codes help testers to execute low level calls and get the Object ID’s from the operating systems without the need to root or jailbreak the device.
The decision on what approach should be adopted depends on several considerations like SDLC process used, corporate policies, application under test, frequency of testing and many more.
Comparison
The jail-breaking approach is less suited in situations where customers need a quick test for a new iOS version or a new iOS device. In such cases, even though additional codes in the test application will complicate the SDLC, compile-time method is preferred.
The advantage of jail-breaking a device is that it lets you test the application with the exact same code by which it will be released. In compile-time before store submission, the “back-door” will have to be removed or they will be exposed to serious security issues. Jail-breaking therefore eliminates the need for compilation and intrusive operations which avoids any risk to quality.
While using a compile-time approach companies should also consider possible regulations (such as HIPAA) which implements testing on the final binary version and not on debug or test friendly version.

The Hybrid Approach
The combined (hybrid) approach lets you choose your iOS app testing methods depending on the nature of your application, project needs, and policy. Deploying and securely managing the test devices in a “private cloud” guarantees that a jailbreak does not introduce any risks or abuse to the platform for non-testing purposes. Such jail-broken devices are used only in a closed and secure testing environment for testing purposes only.
Since the use of visual analysis may pose to be insufficient, a strong object recognition capability is mandatory for testing a mobile application. For example, the OCR technology can detect UI issues and glitches on the test devices while its heuristic nature makes it incapable of ensuring 100% accuracy. On the other hand, a low level object can easy miss the obvious qualifications that a visual analysis could easily detect. That’s why an analysis using a hybrid approach incorporating both visual and native object can be instrumental for covering all mobile business cases.