Does an open-source tool exist? Yes, it does, and the most prominent example is; mobile app testing with Appium. Appium is one such tool that offers an open-source environment to its users.
In a modern-day world, hardly any organization would contemplate functioning with a mobile app. Above 60 percent of businesses have an application or are in the process of developing one.
You should test it across multiple performance parameters to guarantee that it provides an excellent experience to its users and fulfills performance expectations.
Appium is a mobile application test automation tool that helps with easy application testing. Now, let’s look into how performance testing with Appium works, plus the free tools that come with it mobile app testing with Appium.
Benefits of Leveraging iOS App Performance Testing Tools
The iOS app performance testing tools and tests had many significant benefits, from improving the overall application’s performance to improving customer experience and making it more robust. Mobile application performance testing enables you to do the following:
- Detect concurrency or functionality glitches
- Observe the application’s capacity and know to what extent it can rise
- Identify the amount of load it can support
- Measure the actions that are performed to eradicate risk factors
What is Appium?
Appium is an open-source tool that automates hybrid and native mobile apps. It allows you to leverage the same API to run tests against several platforms, such as Windows, Android, and iOS.
Automation with Appium works like Selenium. Both Selenium and Appium are cross-platform automation test frameworks. The only difference is that Selenium supports central operating systems and desktop browsers, whereas Appium mainly focuses on mobile platforms.
Some reasons why to choose mobile app testing with Appium are as follows:
- Allows hybrid and native app testing for mobile and desktop
- Open-source mobile app testing tool
- Allows cross-platform testing on emulators, simulators, and actual devices
- Provide support for several programming languages like Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, and more
Now, let’s move on to some free tools for mobile app testing with Appium.
Several open-source and accessible programs and libraries can benefit you in performance testing. Here’s a look into some best open-source programs:
1. Wireshark
Wireshark is a popular open-source tool leveraged for troubleshooting, software and network analysis, and communications protocol development. It enables you to capture data on the local network plus secure it for offline analysis.
It can gather network traffic from connections like Token Ring, Frame Relay, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and Wireless.
Wireshark also places it in the libpcap format. Thus, leveraging a similar format, it can transfer network traces with CA NetMaster, tcpdump, and other apps.
Features:
- Read data from various types of network
- Capture or edit transferred files leveraging command-line switches
- Capture data from a network connection
- Browse captured data leveraging a terminal or GUI
- Refine data display leveraging a display filter
- Filter wireless connection
- Detect VoIP calls
- Assign timers, filters, and settings to filter the output
- Design plug-ins for disjoining new protocols
Wireshark enables mobile apps to learn about the layers of network traffic leveraged by apps if the app goes directly without respecting proxy settings. The HTTP traffic can be examined to figure out and rectify configuration glitches by working at the network traffic stage despite the proxy.
2. Tcpdump
Tcpdump is a protocol analysis tool and network analyzer program based on the libpcap interface. It runs under a command-line interface plus enables you to uncover packets such as TCP/IP over a system. Tcpdump is a free-to-use software tool distributed under the BSD license.
- The packet analyzer will benefit you in tracking & analyzing the network traffic. Hence, it is a handy tool for troubleshooting and resolving network issues.
- The availability of the program is under Linux/Unix-based OS. It allows you to save captured packets for future analysis in libpcap format.
- A Tcpdump is helpful in particular apps like displaying and intercepting another user’s or computer’s communication. Also helpful in checking account credentials of customers’ behavior like routers through which non-encrypted data like HTTP or telnet passes.
3. Mitmproxy
Mitmproxy is a free and interactive HTTPS proxy that allows seamless HTTPS and HTTP interactions.
Other available tools with Mitmproxy are; Nitmdump and Mitmweb. Mitmweb is a web interface for Mitmproxy, whereas Mitmdump is a version of the Mitmproxy command line. Contemplate it as a tcpdump for HTTP.
Features:
- Intercept HTTP & HTTPS requests
- Move traffic to browsers having reverse proxy mode.
- TLS/SSL certifications
- Secure client-side HTTP communications of prior HTTP responses
- Secure HTTP communications for later analysis
- Make updates or changes to HTTP traffic leveraging Python
4. Advanced Network Profiling
The Android Profiler offered by Google is the best replacement for Android Monitor tools in Android Studio 3.0 and is more extensive. It gives a real-time understanding of how an application leverages network, battery, CPU, and memory. It’s highly compatible with Android 5.0 and larger API.
Profiling is an integral aspect of testing the performance of mobile applications. An application is declared to perform poorly if it consumes excess power, crashes/freezes, or responds slowly. App profiling benefits you to identify if your application absorbs numerous device resources.
Application profiling helps track the following components of applications’ performance:
- Battery usage
- CPU usage
- Network usage
- Memory consumption
5. Stetho
Stetho is an open-source and free debug library for Android and iOS app performance testing tools. It allows you to leverage chrome debugging tools to remove network traffic, making the debugging process interactive and rich for developers.
You can also leverage the Dump App tool to provide a solid command line to application internals. Stetho provides you with a seamless integration and setup process.
Features:
- Network Inspection
- Chrome DevTools
- Dumpapp
- Database Inspection
- Custom Dumpapp plug-ins
- View Hierarchy
- JavaScript Console
Closing Thoughts
We have provided you with main open-source and free tools for mobile app testing with Appium. Mobile app performance testing using Appium enables you to automate testing across different mobile platforms.
You can use programs and libraries for Appium to improve your testing time and efforts accordingly. It’s high time to start performing Appium testing on the device’s cloud.
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