Xamarin Now Supports Appium For Testing Automation

1. Calabash – A test automation framework that enables app developers to create and execute acceptance tests for iOS and Android apps using Ruby and Cucumber. It is considered as Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) test automation framework, which means it works on philosophy of outside-in development that focuses on writing executable specifications. The tests created with Calabash framework can be configured to run on many different iOS and Android devices providing real-time feedback across many different hardware specifications, OEM customizations and OS versions.
2. Xamarin.UITest – A testing framework based on Calabash that enables Xamarin developers to write and execute Automated UI Acceptance Tests in NUnit and C# to validate the functionality of Android and iOS apps. It not only integrates well with Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.iOS projects but can be used with native Android and iOS applications written in Java and Objective-C/Swift. Xamarin.UITest is suitable for app programmers who are already familiar with creating NUnit test and/or building their cross-platform mobile app using Xamarin.
3. Test Cloud – It is a cloud-based mobile app testing service that enables the developers to test their apps on huge collection of real mobile devices from across the world. The users have to upload their mobile apps with tests to the cloud, which will then install it on physical devices and run the tests. On completion, the results are made available to users through web-based front end which is informative and easy to use. Test Cloud allows users to choose devices based on OS, hardware manufacturer, form factor as well as popularity in specific target markets.
4. Xamarin Test Recorder – This tool, though under development, is ideal for someone who's new to Xamarin.UITest. Mobile app testers can start Test Recorder by connecting it to a device or to a simulator or emulator, and then start using the mobile app. Test Recorder captures all the interactions made between the user and the mobile app, and delivers output of a Xamarin.UITest in C#.

Xamarin’s Mobile center is a mission control for mobile apps, covering all parts of the development lifecycle with cloud services you need to ship high-quality app faster. Mobile Center is the next step towards the future of Xamarin Test Cloud and we are more excited about the new possibilities ahead of us. Many app developers depend on Test Cloud for conducting day-to-day operations. In order to avoid any interruption, the existing Xamarin Test Cloud product will continue to function and deliver all the testing features in both the service itself and the test frameworks (Calabash and Xamarin.UITest) will be supported until we seamlessly transition your apps to Mobile Center.

As a new feature development going forward, Microsoft has also provided Test Cloud users a long-awaited feature—of supporting Appium. Appium’s popularity is known for its test automation. Xamarin Test Cloud offers support for Appium tests written in Java with JUnit and will continue to expand support for other programming languages as the demand increases. Appium works seamlessly with your existing Xamarin Test Cloud subscription and also in Mobile Center. In order to implement the integration, you simply need to follow the instructions during the test run dialog to instrument your project with the requisite libraries for Test Cloud.