Connecting to Mobile Devices

Overview

Eggplant Functional (EPF) supports multiple methods for testing Android and iOS mobile devices. The best method to use depends on your particular use case. To test mobile devices, you may:

• Access physical or virtual devices hosted by Sauce Labs
• Access physical or emulated devices that you or your organization own

Testing mobile devices through Sauce Labs may be best for you if you don't want to incur the burden of purchasing and maintaining mobile devices. Using Sauce Labs also gives you access to a large selection of mobile devices and mobile device operating systems. It essentially gives you access to a comprehensive mobile device compatibility lab. For details on accessing mobile devices via Sauce Labs, please see Connecting to Sauce Labs Devices and Browsers.

Testing devices that your organization owns may be best for you if network restrictions and/or cost prevent you from accessing Sauce Labs' cloud-based services. In some cases, you also may need to perform certain low-level device operations which are not permitted on Sauce Labs. Regardless of which model you choose, Eggplant Functional will make it easy for you to accomplish your testing.

Testing devices that you own is a little more complicated than the Sauce Labs use-case. How you test your devices depends on the type of the device you are testing (i.e. iOS or Android). There are shared similarities between the devices, but each device platform has its own unique requirements.

To test Android or iOS devices that you own, you can connect directly using Eggplant Functional's Mobile Device Connection, which is powered by Eggplant Gateway. Eggplant suggests using a Mobile Device Connection for a more efficient workflow when testing your own mobile devices. For advanced assistance, refer to the Mobile Device Connections documentation here.

Connecting to Mobile Devices

Before you attempt your first connection to a mobile device, it may be helpful for you to understand several concepts related to using mobile devices with Eggplant. Please read Working with Android Mobile Devices and/or Working with iOS Mobile Devices before setting up your first Mobile Device Connection. If you are already familiar with the mobile device workflow for your mobile device, you are ready to enter the world of mobile device testing.

To create a Mobile Device Connection, you may do so using Eggplant Functional's Connection List UI or via scripting. Please see Using the Eggplant Functional Connection List for details on creating Mobile Device Connections through the UI or the SenseTalk Connect Command for information on creating the connections via SenseTalk. To run scripts that use Mobile Device Connections from a command line interface (CLI), you can use the Runscript command.