Desktop Linux apps support

[baptx]

The project says:
Appium is an open-source, cross-platform test automation tool for native, hybrid, and mobile web and desktop apps. We support simulators (iOS), emulators (Android), and real devices (iOS, Android, Windows, Mac).

But it would be nice if desktop Linux apps are supported too.
Is there any plan to do it or an alternative tool?

[mykola-mokhnach]

Currently there are no plans to support Linux because:

• The need for such feature is low
• There is no common approach in Linux UI world for accessibility, which could be used for as a base for an automation framework. The current ecosystem is too fragmented
• There are not enough human resources even to properly support current drivers

Although, we would be happy to accept any proposals to add such driver if somebody else wants to maintain it.

[baptx]

@mykola-mokhnach maybe it is better to keep this issue open to give more visibility in case people are interested to contribute?

[mykola-mokhnach]

Ok, lets keep it as feature request

[baptx]

@mykola-mokhnach if Qt apps are supported, I guess it would be easier to support desktop Linux apps and even alternative mobile operating systems using Qt like SailfishOS (since Qt is a cross-platform framework that is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux).

[agouaillard-cosmo]

@mykola-mokhnach We would be interesting of doing the heavy lifting for some reasonable linux use case (e.g. limited to ubuntu, ...). Can we talk?

[mykola-mokhnach]

@agouaillard-cosmo Sure, join our Appium slack channel

[davudmurtazin]

Are there any updates on it? Is it possible to run Appium tests on Linux?

[jlipps]

Appium runs on Linux, yes.

But there is no "Linux Desktop" driver for Appium such that you could automate Linux Desktop apps using Appium.

[davudmurtazin]

@jlipps @mykola-mokhnach Thank you! Does it mean that I can execute Appium tests on android emulator in docker image that uses Linux?
Maybe you have some kind of examples or guide?
Sorry for out of scope, but I spent a lot of time to configure environment and stuck.

[ifeeltiredboss]

https://github.com/fantonglang/appium-linux-driver
I have never used above and I don't know how it works.

[jlipps]

Does it mean that I can execute Appium tests on android emulator in docker image that uses Linux?.

Yes, that is the point of the https://github.com/appium/appium-docker-android project

[jlipps]

https://github.com/fantonglang/appium-linux-driver

woah awesome! nice work @fantonglang!

[hurufu]

Hi! I just want to add that there is an established and widely supported Linux GUI testing framework LDTP: https://github.com/ldtp/ldtp2

They are using AT-SPI interface which is implemented by every major UI framework. Appium can just use the same dbus interfaces, map them to Webdriver protocol, and you are all set.

[Alper-Celik]

there is https://invent.kde.org/sdk/selenium-webdriver-at-spi too
also at-spi is the standard accessiblity api of linux

[jlipps]

@Alper-Celik nice! Looks like someone would need to write an Appium driver to download/start this server and proxy commands to it, to be usable from within Appium 2

[mykola-mokhnach]

For now the recommendation would be to use third party linux driver(s)
We are not going to support them as officially as it also puts the additional maintenance burden on us.