Earlier this month, SOASTA and CloudBees released a plugin for the Jenkins continuous integration (or CI) server to run automated tests on real physical mobile devices. SOASTA released this plugin with optimizations that were developed by the creator of Jenkins, Kohsuke Kawaguchi. The plugin provides build steps for performing operations and testing mobile devices after entering minimal SOASTA CloudTest Server configuration information.
Kohsuke Kawaguchi, also CloudBees architect, commented in the official press release as follows:
I appreciate SOASTA's open-sourcing their Jenkins plugin and collaborating with the Jenkins community, SOASTA brings the product expertise and the Jenkins community brings their Jenkins expertise. When we collaborate, it's a win for everyone. We look forward to seeing more companies follow the same path.
Jenkins makes the following build steps available during the creation of jobs when this plugin is enabled:
- Make App TouchTestable - Adds the TouchTest Driver library to your app's source code.
- Install iOS App on Device - Ensures that your tests run against the latest version of your app.
- Play Composition - Executes a CloudTest composition, and saves the output.
- Wake Up iOS Device - Wakes up attached iOS devices, and opens Mobile Safari.
- Reboot iOS Device - Reboots attached iOS devices.
SOASTA automates testing of iOS and Android mobile devices, however not all build steps above work on the Android platform. Additionally, CloudBees and SOASTA performed a one hour webinar about mobile testing through automation, including practical usage of their new plugin. They have put the source code for the plugin on GitHub for others in the community to understand the technical details of the plugin and to enhance as needed.