Robot keys to simulate Home button press on iOS using Java

Issues/Bugs
1

I’m using this method here to simulate the hardware “HOME” button press (CMD+SHIFT+H) on an iOS device.

public static void homeButtonPress(AppiumDriver mobileDriver){
try{
Robot robot = new Robot();
robot.setAutoDelay(300);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_META);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_H);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_H);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_META);
}catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

When I actually launch the appium server and run the code, finder opens the java application and code exits with no error. The home button isn’t simulated either. Any thoughts on this?

2

This code snippet works for me:

        Robot robot = new Robot();
        robot.setAutoDelay(300);
        // Use Apple script to get focus on the simulator
        ScriptEngineManager mgr = new ScriptEngineManager();
        ScriptEngine engine = mgr.getEngineByName("AppleScript");
        String script = "tell application \"Simulator\" \n activate \n end tell";
        engine.eval(script);
        robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_META);
        robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);
        robot.keyPress(KeyEvent.VK_H);
       // Have to release the key press
        robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_H);
        robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_H);
        robot.keyRelease(KeyEvent.VK_SHIFT);

There are 2 things you need to be aware of here:

  1. You have to get focus on the simulator before you press on the combination of SHIFT + OPTION + H. Otherwise robot java program ( which is launched separately) will get the focus
  2. Have to release the pressed keys
3

Does the same thing work for hardware key press as well?

4

Please see my answer for “launching the home screen in is simulator” here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/43233505/with-appium-how-to-click-the-home-button-or-launch-the-home-screen-in-ios-simu/43371922#43371922