Appium + Python: Environment Setup and a Simple Mobile Automation Demo

Appium is a popular automation framework that supports both Android and iOS, and allows scripts in Java or Python; this article demonstrates a simple automation flow using Appium with Python.

Environment Configuration

Required tools (Windows 7 64‑bit): Python 2.7 (or 3.6), Appium 1.5.2, Appium‑Python‑Client, JDK 1.8 (64‑bit), Android SDK, PyCharm, ADB (included with the SDK), and optionally Node.js for npm installation of Appium.

Step 1 – Obtain Package and Activity Names

Run the following command after launching the target app: adb shell dumpsys activity > d:/package.txt Open the generated package.txt and search for "cmp" to find the package name (e.g., com.xxx.cloudrefactor) and the launch activity (e.g., MainActivity).

Step 2 – Write the Automation Script

The Python script includes key capabilities: platformName: mobile OS deviceName: device identifier platformVersion: OS version appPackage: target app package appActivity: launch activity

webdriver.Remote('http://127.0.0.1:4723/wd/hub', desired_caps)

: connects to the default Appium server

After saving the script, start the Appium server and click the "Start" button in the GUI.

Step 3 – Launch the Application

With the server running, execute the Python script; the app will start automatically on the connected device.

Step 4 – Element Location with uiautomatorviewer

Use the Android SDK tool uiautomatorviewer to capture the UI hierarchy, then locate elements by text, resource-id, or class. Example of clicking an element using resource-id: driver.find_element_by_id('com.example:id/button').click() This two‑line snippet can be combined with the launch script to perform a click action.

Tips

1. Chinese Input : Add the following capabilities to enable Unicode keyboard input:

"unicodeKeyboard":"True"

"resetKeyboard":"True"

2. Appium Service Timeout : The default session timeout is 60 seconds. To extend it, start Appium with the argument --command-timeout 600 (e.g., main.js --command-timeout 600) to prevent the service from stopping during long idle periods.

These steps provide a complete, end‑to‑end example of setting up and running a basic mobile automation test with Appium and Python.