Building a Mobile Automation Testing

Desktop-based testing it’s a no-brainer: Use object-based scripting to maximize reuse across platforms/browsers.

In today’s mobile world it really isn’t that easy. There are many different platforms, OS versions, form factors and carrier/manufacturer customizations. Multiply that by mobile web, native app, or some hybrid in-between and you’ve got yourself a healthy testing matrix. A daunting task for even the most skilled Automation Engineer.

In order to tackle this problem, an Automation Engineer cannot simply look at it from a “one size fits all” perspective to create a set of objects and re-use them across all combinations of platforms. For example, there are fundamental differences in how an app behaves on iOS and Android, even with something as basic as a “back button” has its quirks.

In order to truly make your mobile testing easy, TCE automation is the right solution for the job. The solution combines the convenience and efficiency of test automation with the accuracy of live mobile interactions to generate reliable, reportable and actionable results.


Related Links

1. Mobile Device Testing
2. Mobile Web Readiness
3. Mobile Application Testing Strategies

Is your mobile site up to speed for back to school shoppers?

It’s back to school time, is your site ready to handle the traffic?
Over the past year we've seen quite a few retailers jump on the mobile bandwagon recognizing that mobile shopping is now mainstream. Innovative new social shopping applications like Zoomingo, Wrappand even one launched by Seventeen Magazine, are inspiring a new age of mobile consumers to shop at the tip of their fingers.

According to Keynote Competitive Research’s mobile user survey, 47 percent of smartphone owners use their phones to purchase products and services.The survey also shows that mobile shoppers like their apps, but they like the mobile web even more. Along with the increased number of users shopping on mobile, the tightening of expectations continues when it comes to performance and the user experience.

According to NRF's Back to School Cheat Sheet, 43.8% of U.S. tablet owners will use their tablets to research products and compare prices this season. The survey also found that 28.4% of shoppers with children in grades K-12 will make a purchase with their tablet; slightly more, 34.5%, will purchase college items via their mobile devices.

Considering that 16 percent of mobile users will not return or wait for a website to load if it takes too long  to load and six percent will go to a competitor’s website (Keynote Competitive Research 2012), making sure a site is optimized for mobile is critical for this back-to-school shopping season.
If your mobile site isn't up to speed, here are some basic tips:

• Considering Data URIs (Universal Resource Identifiers).
• Lighten the load on your home page with fewer objects and smaller images.
• Display a clean, simple mobile-friendly user interface. Remove all content a mobile user doesn't need.
• Optimize your website for the mobile screen following mobile design best practices for better usability and performance.
• Create a unique site for tablet users. Don't send them to a smartphone or desktop site.
• Monitor your mobile website's availability around the clock.  Mobile shopping isn't necessarily a Monday - Friday (9am - 5pm) activity.

You don’t want your mobile site to add to the stress of any back to school shopping, so be sure your mobile site is geared up to go.

Testing Mobile Devices Cost Effectively

Although manual testing is a need with real devices and real networks, avoiding it whenever possible is always a good idea. Manual testing is expensive and slow, it also lacks the necessary instrumentation to isolate application problems of your product to ensure a quick delivery. Instead, how about considering a solution that combines some manual testing, some remote-manual testing, and a lot of testing using emulated devices.

Mobile testing with an emulator is cost effective as it can be done very quickly and efficiently. Diagnostics on the tool is a must have, this lets you isolate problems and ensures flexibility in network stacks you will need to test different network options. Ensure that your emulated device solution contains a high – level scripting solution to allow you to repay your test cases over and over. Also look for an emulated device that lets you change device profiles quickly.

Emulation Technologies and Mobile Device Monitoring

Many Websites and services require only a browser to render the page and do not depend on the operating system of the device (for example, SMS). To accurately monitor such services on a broad range of possible combinations in the mobile ecosystem, the mobile monitoring solution needs to be able to emulate the vast array of devices available. A diagnostic capability helps to quickly pinpoint the root causes of failures when something goes wrong. Emulation technologies must contain, along with a wide range of device profiles, an awareness of the multiple factors comprising the end-user experience.

Emulated mobile device monitoring can be performed by content owners in two separate modes:

● Over the air mobile monitoring for true end-user experience

This requires a measurement solution that truly emulates the entire technology behind mobile downloads—including the actions of the operator network that sits between the Web server and the end user’s device.

● Direct over the Internet monitoring to measure only the availability of content without the impact of operator networks

By using this method, you can quickly identify the root cause of failures experienced by end users.

Read More on Mobile Monitoring

Interactively Test and Verify Mobile Content

Mobile is the fastest growing mode of access for online content. The biggest challenge associated with the success of mobile content is assuring your users can quickly access it no matter what device they are using.

When it comes to a mobile device simulator, MITE - a desktop tool by Keynote Systems lets you interactively test and verify mobile content by emulating more than 1,800 devices and 11,000 device profiles.

MITE device profile is a unique combination of device manufacturer, device model, user agent and device orientation. The same device model can have different user agents that represent different operating system/firmware versions.

Unlike other mobile device simulators, MITE device profiles also contain device characteristics such as image types supported, screen size, headers supported, hardware features, and more.

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