• Intro
• Features
  • Hub
  • Provider
• Setup
  • Common setup
    • MongoDB
  • Hub setup
  • Provider setup
• FAQ
• Thanks
• Demo video

Intro

GADS is an application for remote control and Appium test execution on mobile devices

The app consists of two main components - hub and provider
The role of the hub is to serve a web interface for the remote control of devices and provider management, as well as act as proxy for providers.
The role of the provider is to set up and provide the mobile devices for remote control/testing
Supports both Android and iOS devices
Supports Linux, macOS and Windows - notes below

Features

Hub features

• Web interface
  • Authentication
    • Login, session expiry
    • Add users (for admins)
  • Devices control (most of interaction is wrapped around Appium APIs)
    • Live video
    • Basic remote control - tap, swipe, touch&hold
    • Basic functionalities - Home, Lock, Unlock, Type text
    • Take high quality screenshots
    • Install/Uninstall apps
    • Reservation - loading a device sets it In use and can't be used by another person until it is released
• Backend
  • Serving the web interface
  • Proxy the communication to the provider instances

Provider features

• Straightforward dependencies setup
• Automatic provisioning when devices are connected
  • Dependencies automatically installed on devices
  • Appium server set up and started for each device
  • Optionally Selenium Grid 4 node can be registered for each device Appium server
• Remote control APIs for the hub
  • iOS video stream using WebDriverAgent
  • Android video stream using GADS-Android-stream
  • Limited interaction wrapped around Appium - tap, swipe, touch&hold, type text, lock and unlock device
• Appium test execution - each device has its Appium server proxied on a provider endpoint for easier access
• macOS
  • Supports both Android and iOS
• Linux
  • Supports both Android and iOS < 17
  • Has some limitations to Appium execution with iOS devices due to actual Xcode tools being unavailable on Linux
• Windows 10
  • Supports Android and iOS < 17
  • Has some limitations to Appium execution with iOS devices due to actual Xcode tools being unavailable on Windows

Developed and tested on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Windows 10, macOS Ventura 13.5.1

Setup

Currently the project assumes that GADS hub, device providers, MongoDB and Selenium Grid are on the same network. They can all be on the same machine as well.

• Download the latest binary for your OS from releases.

or build the project from source

• Clone the project.
• Open the hub/gads-ui folder in Terminal.
• Execute npm install
• Execute npm run build
• Go back to the main repo folder.
• Execute go build .

Common setup

MongoDB

The project uses MongoDB for storing logs and for synchronization of some data between hub and providers. You can either run MongoDB in a docker container:

• You need to have Docker(Docker Desktop on macOS, Windows) installed.
• Execute docker run -d --restart=always --name mongodb -p 27017:27017 mongo:6.0. This will pull the official MongoDB 6.0 image from Docker Hub and start a container binding ports 27017 for the MongoDB instance.
• You can use MongoDB Compass or another tool to access the db if needed.

or

• Start MongoDB instance in the way you prefer

Hub setup

Docs

Provider setup

Docs

Thanks

	About
go-ios	Many thanks for creating this CLI tool to communicate with iOS devices, perfect for installing/reinstalling and running WebDriverAgentRunner without Xcode
Appium	It would be impossible to control the devices remotely without Appium for the control and WebDriverAgent for the iOS screen stream, kudos!

Demo video

Screen.Recording.2024-05-31.at.16.27.46.mp4