Integrate Your Test Suite with BrowserStack
BrowserStack Robot SDK supports a plug-and-play integration. Run your entire test suite in parallel with a few steps!
Prerequisites
Looking for a starter project? Get started with our Robot sample project.
Integration steps
Complete the following steps to integrate your Robot test suite using BrowserStack SDK.
Install BrowserStack Robot SDK
Execute the following commands to install BrowserStack Robot SDK for plug-and-play integration of your test suite with BrowserStack.
Unable to install BrowserStack SDK?
If you can’t install BrowserStack SDK due to sudo privilege issues, create a virtual environment and execute the adjacent installation commands again.
python3 -m venv env
source env/bin/activate
python3 -m venv env
env\Scripts\activate
Create your BrowserStack config file
Once you have installed the SDK, create a browserstack.yml config file at the root level of your project. This file holds all the required capabilities to run tests on BrowserStack.
Set app to be tested
The app property determines the app to be tested. You can upload an Android app (.apk or .aab file) or an iOS app (.ipa file) from your local filesystem.
| Supported method | Description |
|---|---|
| path(Recommended) | SDK uploads the app using the specified relative or absolute path. Eg: app: ./SampleApp.apk. |
Check out how to create IPA files for iOS app testing on BrowserStack.
Set the path to your app. Or, if you have already uploaded your app, provide one of the other acceptable app property values here
Other acceptable app property values
You can use BrowserStack REST API to upload your app.
Following is a sample response that is generated when you upload an app using any of the mentioned methods:
{
"app_url":"bs://f7c874f21852ba57957a3fdc33f47514288c4ba4",
"custom_id":"SampleApp",
"shareable_id":"exampleuser/SampleApp"
}
The following table explains the other acceptable app property values:
| Supported method | Description |
|---|---|
| app_url | Uploaded app’s app_url is a valid value for app property.Eg: app: bs://45e1c1473b17b7643aed1761f51cb5cdf3d3e334
|
| custom_id | If you’ve defined a custom_id while uploading your app, the same value can be used as app property value.Eg: app: CalculatorApp
|
| shareable_id | If you wish to test an app uploaded by someone else from your organization, a shareable_id can be used as the app property value.Eg: app: exampleuser/CalculatorApp
|
Check out how to specify the application under test to understand the above options better.
Set platforms to test on
Set the devices you want to test under the platforms object.
Set number of parallel threads per platform
The parallelsPerPlatform property determines the number of parallel threads to be executed. BrowserStack’s SDK runner will select the best strategy based on the configured value.
Example 1: If you have configured 3 platforms and set parallelsPerPlatform as 2: a total of 6 (3 x 2) parallel threads will be used on BrowserStack.
Example 2: If you have configured 1 platform and set parallelsPerPlatform as 15: a total of 15 (1 x 15) parallel threads will be used on BrowserStack.
Enable BrowserStack Local
Test apps with local/staging API servers
BrowserStack’s Local Testing feature connects with locally hosted API servers to run your apps
BrowserStack Reporting
You can leverage BrowserStack’s extensive reporting features using the following capabilities:
Set a name to your build (usually the same as the build ID that’s on your CI/CD platform).
Accepted characters: A-Z, a-z, 0-9, ., :, -, [], /, @, &, ', _. All other characters are ignored.
Character limit: 255
| buildIdentifier | Description | Generated build name on BrowserStack dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| ${BUILD_NUMBER} (Default) | If build is triggered locally, an incremental counter is appended. If build is triggered with CI tools, CI generated build number is appended. |
bstack-demo 1 bstack-demo CI 1395 |
| ${DATE_TIME} | The timestamp of run time is appended to the build. | bstack-demo 29-Nov-20:44 |
Advanced use cases for Build Names
Custom formatting of Build Name
Prefix buildIdentifier with desired characters, for example # or :
buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: '#${BUILD_NUMBER}'
Re-run tests in a build
You can re-run selected tests from a build using any of the following options:
Option 1: Set the build name as a combination of buildName and buildIdentifier as seen on the dashboard and set the buildIdenitifier as null:
buildName: bstack-demo 123
buildIdentifier: null
Option 2: Set the buildIdentifier as the build number or time of the required build as seen on the dashboard:
buildName: bstack-demo
buildIdentifier: 123
Set a project name for your project
The sessionName and sessionStatus are the names of your test sessions and status of your test sessions respectively. They are automatically picked from your test class/spec names and statuses. They do not need to be set manually when using the BrowserStack SDK. To override the sessionName and sessionStatus capabilities, use the following in your browserstack.yml file:
testContextOptions:
skipSessionName: true
skipSessionStatus: true
Use additional debugging features
By default, BrowserStack provides prettified session logs, screenshots on every failed selenium command, and a video of the entire test. Additionally, you can enable the following features:
Use App Percy Visual Testing
App Percy is an all-in-one visual testing and review platform enabling teams to automate visual tests, detect visual bugs, and provide valuable insights into UI changes.
percyCaptureMode takes effect only if you set percy to true. If you set the capture mode to manual, ensure you use the Percy Screenshot function in your test script.
Create browserstack.yml file
Copy the following code snippet and create browserstack.yml file in the root folder of your test suite.
You can also pass regular expressions (regex) in deviceName and platformVersion capabilities if your device selection is more flexible. Check out how to use regular expressions to specify device attributes.
Use our Capability Generator to select from a comprehensive set of options you can use to customize your tests.
Run your test suite
Your test suite is now ready to run on BrowserStack. Execute the following command from the project’s root directory(android/ios) to run your test suite with BrowserStack.
To find out the location of the BrowserStack SDK log files, refer to BrowserStack SDK Log Files. If you are looking for more information, see FAQ documentation.
After you run your test, visit the App Automate dashboard to view your test results.
Advanced features and use cases
Here’s a list of features and capabilities you may find useful.
Accept insecure certificates
The acceptInsecureCerts capability suppresses warning about self-signed certificates usually found in staging environments.
| Capability | Expected values |
|---|---|
acceptInsecureCerts |
A boolean. Default is False.True if you want to accept all SSL certificates. |
Change device orientation
The deviceOrientation capability changes the default mobile screen orientation for your tests on BrowserStack infra.
- If the parameter is set at the root level, its applicable to all the devices in the test.
- If you wish to apply it to a specific device, set it at the platform level which has the device details.
| Capability | Description | Expected values |
|---|---|---|
deviceOrientation |
Set the orientation of your app before beginning your test | A string. Default orientation is portrait. Supported orientations: portrait and landscape. |
Simulate IP geolocation
The geoLocation capability lets you test your app across different countries.
Note that this capability is supported on the Enterprise plan only. You can contact sales to get an Enterprise plan for your account.
| Capability | Description | Expected values |
|---|---|---|
geoLocation |
Set the country code you want your test to detect | A string. An ISO 2 country code FR for France, CN for China Check out the complete list of 45+ countries we support. |
Simulate network conditions
The networkProfile capability lets you test your app under different network conditions.
| Capability | Description | Expected values |
|---|---|---|
networkProfile |
Set the network profile to start the test with | A string. 2g-gprs-good, 4g-lte-advanced-lossy |
Others
Following are a few additional links to documentation pages that might help with your test scenarios:
Troubleshooting
Here’s a list of troubleshooting options you may find useful.
Resigned Apps and Third-Party Library Integration Issues
-
Uploading an unsigned version of an Android app will require us to sign it with our certificates before installing it on our devices. In the same manner, any uploaded
.aabfiles will be converted into a universal APK and signed with our certificates. -
If BrowserStack resigns the apps, third-party library integrations such as Google Firebase services, Google Maps SDK, Facebook SDK, etc., may not function properly if the use of API keys is restricted based on the SHA-1 certificate fingerprint of the app’s signing key.
-
To prevent this issue, it’s recommended to sign the APK with your own certificates before uploading it to BrowserStack.
Disabling Re-Signing for iOS Apps
- If you upload an iOS app, we will re-sign the app with our own provisioning profile to be able to install your app on our devices during test execution.
- However, if your app is signed using the Apple Developer Enterprise Program, you can disable this behavior to test features such as push notifications on BrowserStack devices.
| Capability | Expected values |
|---|---|
resignApp |
A boolean. To disable re-signing, set the capability to false in your Appium test scripts. |
Next steps
Once you have successfully integrated your test suite with BrowserStack, you might want to check the following:
- Generate a list of capabilities that you want to use in tests
- Find information about your Projects, Builds and Sessions using our REST APIs
- Set up your CI/CD: Jenkins, Bamboo, TeamCity, Azure, CircleCI, TravisCI.
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