Eggplant For Mobile App Testing

By Author: abner hardens
Total Articles: 37
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The mobile app market is booming worldwide and according to a research done by MarketsandMarkets the total global mobile applications market is expected to be worth $25 billion by 2015 (up from about $6.8 billion in 2010) with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 29.6 percent from 2009 to 2014. These figures are no surprise as for the last few years the mobile app market seems to have gone wild. The tremendous growth of mobile apps and their acceptance in the enterprise environment globally has made developers and vendors to seek out new possibilities in this field and thus fuelling its growth and making the market more competitive and complex. With mobile operating systems like Android, Windows and iPhone competing and handset manufacturers like HTC, Nokia, Samsung and Motorola building handsets based on these mobile OS (Operating System), the role of the mobile app market becomes crucial.

The extreme diversity in handsets, OS versions and telecom carriers brings in a plethora of challenges in testing mobile apps. With mobile web browsing is increasing everyday making inter-platform compatibility a major issue and ...
... that too with serious business implications. So when it comes to testing mobile apps, the tests are not only meant to find errors but also to understand the quality of the app, the ease with which it can be used. People use apps as they are easy to use and quickly provide them with what they need. So when it comes to testing apps testers face two main challenges- device, network and script.

The device is probably the biggest challenge. Each device is different from the other; they have different display size and screen resolution, different OS, different hardware specifications, different input method (touch screen, keyboard or both) and differ in the responsiveness of application. Next comes network; there are over 400 mobile network operators across the world with some being GSM, some CDMA whereas some follow less common network standards such as iDEN, FOMA, and TD-SCDMA. Each network follows different protocols. The last challenge is scripting, the process used to execute the test script. Due to the difference in devices they differ in the menu structure and keystroke options making scripting the hardest. For example a script that follows the input method of Apple’s iPhone surely won’t function on BlackBerry Bold as they have different input mechanisms. Some of these challenges can be addressed by testing on an emulator but for best results they need to be performed on the real device which again is not always possible.

eggPlant, a GUI testing automated test tools developed by Test Plant is delivering robotic solutions to mobile app testing across different devices and multiple operating platforms. eggPlant uses patented intelligent image recognition and RealVNC, generic VNC technology to see the display on any mobile device. The unique image recognition feature of eggPlant enables it to locate variances in expected results to the level of changes in color tones, not just changes in colours, icons, and text thus resulting in higher accuracy of test results. It is capable of connecting with applications in a non-invasive manner across a global network. eggPlant’s scripting language “Sense Talk” is easy to use and can be used even by non-developers. The biggest advantage however is that a single script can be used to test multiple devices and emulators. eggPlant enables testers to test on real mobile devices with just a single script and within the firewall of an organization. With the market moving towards OS based devices, automated testing tools are inevitably “the holy grail” of software testing making it more accurate, fast and affordable.