Run your first test

BrowserStack App Automate enables you to test native and hybrid mobile applications using Appium automation framework. Its easy to run your Appium tests written in PHP on real Android and iOS devices on BrowserStack. This guide will help you get started with your first test.

1. Setup

• You will need a BrowserStack username and access key. To obtain your access credentials, sign up for a free trial or purchase a plan.
• Ensure you have Appium’s PHP client library installed.
• Access to an Android app (.apk or .aab file) or an iOS app (.ipa file)

2. Upload your app

Upload your Android app (.apk or .aab file) or iOS app (.ipa file) to BrowserStack servers using our REST API. Here is an example cURL request to upload the app :

curl -u "YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_ACCESS_KEY" \
-X POST "https://api-cloud.browserstack.com/app-automate/upload" \
-F "file=@/path/to/app/file/Application-debug.apk"

A sample response for the above request is shown below:

{
    "app_url":"bs://j3c874f21852ba57957a3fdc33f47514288c4ba4"
}

Note the value of app_url returned in the API response (bs://j3c874f21852b..... in the above example). This value will be used later to set the app capability to specify application under test in your Appium test scripts.

3. Setup and run your test

In this step, you will learn how to configure your Appium test script using desired capabilities to test remotely on BrowserStack’s real device cloud. You will need to make the following changes in your PHP test script :

• Specify the application under test using the app capability. Use the app_url value returned at the time of app upload (Step 2) to set this capability.
• Specify the real Android or iOS device you want to test on using the device capability.
• In order to initialize an Appium driver, use a remote BrowserStack URL along with your BrowserStack access credentials as shown below :

    https://YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_ACCESS_KEY@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub
  

<?php

    require_once('vendor/autoload.php');
    use Facebook\WebDriver\Remote\DesiredCapabilities;
    use Facebook\WebDriver\Remote\RemoteWebDriver;
    use Facebook\WebDriver\WebDriverBy;

    $caps = array(
        "app" => "<app_url>",
        "device" => "Google Pixel 3",
        "name" => "Bstack-[Php] Sample Test",
        "build" => "Bstack-[Php] Sample Build"
    );

    $driver = RemoteWebDriver::create("https://"+"YOUR_USERNAME"+":"+"YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"+"@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub", $caps);

    $search_element = $this->elements($this->using('accessibility id')->value('Search Wikipedia'));
    $search_element->click();
    $driver->keys("BrowserStack");
    sleep(2);

    # The web_driver->quit() statement is required, otherwise the test continues to execute, leading to a timeout.
    $web_driver->quit();
?>

<?php

    require_once('vendor/autoload.php');
    use Facebook\WebDriver\Remote\DesiredCapabilities;
    use Facebook\WebDriver\Remote\RemoteWebDriver;
    use Facebook\WebDriver\WebDriverBy;

    $caps = array(
        "app" => "<app_url>",
        "device" => "iPhone 11 Pro",
        "name" => "Bstack-[Php] Sample Test",
        "build" => "Bstack-[Php] Sample Build"
    );

    $driver = RemoteWebDriver::create("https://"+"YOUR_USERNAME"+":"+"YOUR_ACCESS_KEY"+"@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub", $caps);

    # Your app related code

    # The web_driver->quit() statement is required, otherwise the test continues to execute, leading to a timeout.
    $web_driver->quit();
?>

4. Viewing test results

You can access results of your test sessions on the App Automate dashboard as well as using our REST API. You can drill down into the details of a specific test session to view its execution details and debugging information such as video recording, network logs and device logs.