Is it possible to dor UI test of a desktop application using appium and python language?

Question

I am going to do UI automation tests for a desktop application using appium. My preference is using appium python client. However there are no python test samples for a desktop application and all the examples are dedicated for android or ios apps. And I don't really know how to start with my project without a sample code. Can anyone tell me, if it is possible to do UI automation tests for desktop apps in python. I would be greatful, if you would send me also a example link.

Answer 1

yes you can!

You will need to download and install WinAppDriver from here: https://github.com/Microsoft/WinAppDriver/releases and Developer mode will have to be enabled on your PC, this will tell you how: https://github.com/microsoft/WinAppDriver

You will also need to ensure that you are using Selenium at v3.141.0 and appium-python-client at v1.3.0

pip install selenium==3.141.0
pip install appium-python-client==1.3.0

You can run tests with or without Appium.

To run without make sure Appium is not running and try the following example (modified from https://github.com/microsoft/WinAppDriver/tree/master/Samples/Python):

import unittest
from appium import webdriver
import os

class SimpleCalculatorTests(unittest.TestCase):

    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(self):
        # WinAppDriver can be run independently instead if required
        os.startfile('C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Windows Application Driver\\WinAppDriver.exe')    
        
        #set up appium
        desired_caps = {}
        desired_caps["app"] = "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App"
        desired_caps['platformName'] = "Windows"
        self.driver = webdriver.Remote(command_executor='http://127.0.0.1:4723', desired_capabilities= desired_caps)

    @classmethod
    def tearDownClass(self):
        self.driver.quit()

    def getresults(self):
        displaytext = self.driver.find_element_by_accessibility_id("CalculatorResults").text
        displaytext = displaytext.strip("Display is " )
        displaytext = displaytext.rstrip(' ')
        displaytext = displaytext.lstrip(' ')
        return displaytext

    def test_initialize(self):
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Clear").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Seven").click()
        self.assertEqual(self.getresults(),"7")
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Clear").click()

    def test_addition(self):
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("One").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Plus").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Seven").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Equals").click()
        self.assertEqual(self.getresults(),"8")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    suite = unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromTestCase(SimpleCalculatorTests)
    unittest.TextTestRunner(verbosity=2).run(suite)

To run using Appium try the following example instead:

import unittest
from appium import webdriver

class SimpleCalculatorTests(unittest.TestCase):

    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(self):
        #set up appium
        desired_caps = {}
        desired_caps["app"] = "Microsoft.WindowsCalculator_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App"
        desired_caps['platformName'] = "Windows"
        #self.driver = webdriver.Remote(command_executor='http://127.0.0.1:4723/wd/hub', desired_capabilities= desired_caps)

    @classmethod
    def tearDownClass(self):
        self.driver.quit()

    def getresults(self):
        displaytext = self.driver.find_element_by_accessibility_id("CalculatorResults").text
        displaytext = displaytext.strip("Display is " )
        displaytext = displaytext.rstrip(' ')
        displaytext = displaytext.lstrip(' ')
        return displaytext

    def test_initialize(self):
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Clear").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Seven").click()
        self.assertEqual(self.getresults(),"7")
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Clear").click()

    def test_addition(self):
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("One").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Plus").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Seven").click()
        self.driver.find_element_by_name("Equals").click()
        self.assertEqual(self.getresults(),"8")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    suite = unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromTestCase(SimpleCalculatorTests)
    unittest.TextTestRunner(verbosity=2).run(suite)