Appium Mobile Automation Testing — TheApp (Login Flow)

Mobile UI automation project built with Appium and WebDriver (wd) to test the login flow of TheApp, HeadSpin's open-source sample Android app. The suite drives a real Android emulator end-to-end: launching the app, filling in the login form, and asserting the app routes to the correct screen for both valid and invalid credentials.

Built as part of SQT 3043 – Mobile Application Testing.

What this demonstrates

• Setting up a full mobile test automation environment from scratch (Node.js, JDK, Android Studio/AVD, Appium Server)
• Writing Appium automation scripts in JavaScript using accessibility IDs and XPath locators
• Driving an Android emulator programmatically (element location, input, clicks, wait strategies)
• Validating both the "happy path" (successful login) and a negative case (invalid login) in the same test
• Reading and debugging Appium/WebDriver session logs

Tech stack

Layer	Tool
Automation framework	Appium 2.x
Client library	wd (WebDriver client for Node.js)
Language	JavaScript (Node.js)
Target app	TheApp by HeadSpin (sample Android app)
Device	Android Emulator — Pixel 8, API 34
Driver	UiAutomator2

Project structure

appium-theapp-mobile-testing/
├── README.md
├── appiumTest.js        # login automation script
├── package-lock.json
├── package.json
└── docs/
    └── screenshots/         # environment setup + test run evidence

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18+ recommended)
• Java Development Kit (JDK)
• Android Studio with an Android Virtual Device (AVD) configured
• Appium Server (Desktop app or CLI)
• The TheApp APK for Android

Setup

1. Install dependencies

   npm install

2. Start an Android emulator Open Android Studio → Device Manager → launch your AVD (e.g. Pixel 8, API 34).

3. Install TheApp on the emulator Drag-and-drop the .apk onto the running emulator, or install via adb install TheApp.apk.

4. Start the Appium server

   appium

   or launch Appium Desktop and click Start Server (default: http://localhost:4723).

5. Update capabilities In src/appiumTest.js, set the app path (and deviceName if different) to match your local setup.

Running the tests

npm test

This runs src/appiumTest.js, which:

1. Opens TheApp and navigates to the Login Screen demo
2. Submits valid credentials and asserts navigation to the Secret Area screen
3. Submits invalid credentials and asserts the expected error message is shown
4. Prints pass/fail output to the console and closes the session

Test scenario walkthrough

Step	Action	Expected result
1	Tap "Login Screen" on TheApp's home menu	Login form is displayed
2	Enter valid username/password, submit	App navigates to "Secret Area"
3	Enter invalid credentials, submit	App shows an "Invalid login credentials" error

Evidence / screenshots

All screenshots referenced below live in docs/screenshots.

#	Screenshot	Description
1	01-node-version.png	Node.js installed and verified (node -v)
2	02-java-version.png	JDK installed and verified (java -version)
3	03-appium-install.png	Installing Appium globally via npm
4	04-appium-version.png	Verifying Appium install (appium --version)
5	05-appium-server-ui.png	Appium Desktop server UI
6	06-appium-server-running.png	Appium server running and listening on port 4723
7	07-avd-manager.png	Android Virtual Device configured (Pixel 8, API 34)
8	08-emulator-home.png	Emulator home screen
9	09-theapp-menu.png	TheApp's demo menu (Login Screen, Echo Box, etc.)
10	10-npm-init.png	Initializing the Node.js project (npm init -y)
11	11-npm-install-appium.png	Installing the appium package as a project dependency
12	12-npm-install-wd.png	Installing the wd WebDriver client
13	13-login-test-code.png	The loginTest automation function
14	14-test-console-output.png	Console/session log from a successful test run
15	15-demo-recording.gif	Screen recording of the automated run on the emulator

Note: 15-demo-recording.gif is a large file (~12 MB). If your GitHub push is slow or you'd rather keep the repo lightweight, consider trimming/compressing it (e.g. with ezgif.com) or using Git LFS for it.

Result

✅ Login succeeded with valid username & password, and correctly failed (with the expected error) for invalid credentials.