Xamarin Test Cloud and Its Importance to Mobile Testing

As a cross-platform mobile application development platform, Xamarin makes it easier developers to build native apps for iOS, Android and Windows using a single code base written in C#. But the developers still have to put additional time and effort to ensure that the application runs flawlessly on a wide variety of devices. They need to perform elaborate user interface (UI) acceptance testing to assess the app’s usage and user interaction effectively.

As a cloud-based service, Xamarin Test Cloud is designed to help businesses to automate the UI acceptance testing effort. It enables testers to assess the application’s look, feel, functionality and performance across a wide variety of devices without putting any extra time and effort. There are also a number of reasons why many enterprises nowadays opt for Xamarin Test Cloud.

Why Use Xamarin Test Cloud for UI Acceptance Testing of Mobile Apps?

Choose from Two Frameworks

Xamarin Test Cloud allows testers to write automated UI tests using either Xamarin.UITest or Calabash. Each framework runs smoothly on the application’s user interface, and tests its behavior accurately. The experienced QA professionals can use Xamarin.UITest to write tests in C#, while taking advantage of a popular testing library like NUnit. Likewise, the testers can use Calabash to write tests based on behavior-driven development methodology. Calabash enables them to write tests in Ruby, while taking advantage of Cucumber.  They can simply follow the grammatical rules imposed by Cucumber to develop test scripts in the language of businesses.

Test Mobile Applications on 1000+ Devices

Nowadays, each mobile app must deliver quality experience across a wide variety of devices to become popular and profitable. That is why, testers need to perform UI acceptance testing of applications across different models of smartphones, tablets and phablets. Xamarin Test Cloud enables testers to test the code on more than 1000 device. They can simply write the test scripts once, and run the same scripts to against various devices and emulators locally. Likewise, they can simply press a button to run the same tests across a variety of devices on the cloud. So businesses can use Xamarin Test Cloud to assess their mobile applications across a large percentage of mobile devices available in the market. 

Assess Various Aspects of a Mobile App

To test a mobile app effectively, the testers must focus on many factors. For instance, they must keep in mind the various ways to interact and use the mobile device. Likewise, they also need to need to assess the application’s functionality and performance in various environments. In addition to automating UI acceptance testing, Xamarin Test Cloud also helps users to assess the application thoroughly. The users can avail the cloud-based service to test the application under a variety of network conditions including 3G, 4G, Wi-Fi and no network. Also, they can assess the mobile application’s functionality accurately by simulating common user behaviors like rotating the device, tapping and swiping the screen, pressing any button, switching network connection, changing GPS location, and accessing hardware like camera.

Work with Popular Continuous Integration Tools

Often QA professionals have to test a mobile app repeatedly and frequently to identify and eliminate all defects. Xamarin Test Cloud allows users to create individual tests and functionality locally, and then submit the application or tests to the cloud through a command prompt. The testers have option to submit the tests to Xamarin Test Cloud either manually or though continuous integration (CI) tools. They also have option to work with some of the commonly used CI tools like TeamCity, Jenkins and Team Foundation Server. The CI tools make it easier for QA professionals to test the mobile app at frequent intervals and during different phases of development. 

Generate Detailed Reports

Various stakeholders in the project need detailed and accurate test results to take crucial decisions related to the mobile application’s release and promotion. So the testers have to present the test results in a detailed yet easy-to-understand format. Xamarin Test Cloud makes it easier for users to generate detailed test reports. The testers have option to generate reports for individual tests. Also, they can enhance the quality of reports by including high-resolution screenshots. Along with device logs, stack traces and similar debugging information, the test reports also provide useful results based on test duration, memory consumption, CPU access and similar performance data.  

However, it is also important for users to understand some of the major limitations of Xamarin Test Cloud. The cloud-based service does not allow testers to run different sets of tests simultaneously. So they have to queue up various sets of tests sequentially. Likewise, Xamarin Test Cloud cannot be used effectively to test certain hardware features like NFC technology and Bluetooth Pairing. But the enterprises can still use Xamarin Test Cloud to automate the UI acceptance testing process effectively