Appium: this automation name really means 'just give me the default driver for the platform I've chosen.' It's not actually a separate driver on its own.Here's a brief description of each of the drivers, by their automationName: Of course, each driver typically only supports one platform. This bit of code defines which strings are allowed to be used as values for the automationName capability. These 'automation names' are the labels given to the various drivers which Appium knows about. Here's a diagram showing the full stack of technologies involved in the XCUITest driver (the current iOS driver): They might be passed on to a separate process running as a Java program on an Android device, for example.ĭrivers themselves can have quite a complex internal architecture, sometimes relying on a whole stack of technologies. something else-whatever gets the job done on the platform!įor architectural simplicity among other reasons, each individual driver is itself a standalone WebDriver-compatible server (though it doesn't have all the options the main Appium server does).Within the driver, commands that are received are handled in idiosyncratic ways. Drivers are essentially translators that turn Appium client commands into. It's ultimately the driver's responsibility to turn the Appium API (known as the WebDriver Protocol) into automation for a particular platform. The driver is arguably the most important concept in all of Appium. Android actually has 3 Appium drivers: one based on UiAutomator, one based on UiAutomator 2, and one based on Espresso. This is because some platforms (like Android) have multiple automation technologies which Appium targets to support automation of that platform. This almost means one Appium driver per platform (one for iOS, one for Android, etc.), but not quite. There is one Appium driver per underlying automation technology. This is more or less the same architecture as was first adopted by Selenium/WebDriver, which also utilizes a number of independent 'drivers' in order to support the automation of multiple browsers. The way that Appium organizes itself around this multi-platform model is by means of various 'drivers'.

It can automate multiple platforms, from iOS to Android and beyond.

Xcuitest appium tutorial