How to do UI Mapping in Appium

Support
1

I just started using Appium recently for mobile app testing and have a question related to UI mapping.

I would like to assign frequently used elements in my app to variables at the beginning of my test script so I can just use the variable without typing out the locator each time I need to use the element in my testing.
e.g.
//Elements are not available yet
IOSElement settingButton = driver.findElement(By.name(“settings”));
IOSElement doneButton = driver.findElement(By.name(“Done”));
…
//Elements are now available
settingButton.click();
doneButton.click();

However, to my knowledge, the moment it is declared the findElement method will try to find the element and stop the test if it is not found.
The elements I would like to map might not be available at the time of declaration.

So my question is, how do I map the elements?

Thanks in advance.

1 Like
2

Anyone got any tips?

3

You should write objects that represent each screen. Inside the screen object, only find for elements that exist in that screen.

So for your example, you would have a ‘settings’ element on a screen object you’ve instantiated. You click that. You transition to another screen (and instantiate it) that has a ‘done’ button.

Modeling your code after real life in an objective way would be much better than a jumble of elements at the top of a test script that keep growing until they are unmanageable (which is very quick, I might add).

4

look here: My I keep an Element instance and reuse it after some operations?

1 Like
5

@wreed @Aleksei

Thanks a ton! I rewrote my tests with PageFactory and PageObject pattern and the element declaration reside in their respective pages now.