Integrate BrowserStack App Automate with Azure Pipelines

Integrate your Appium tests with Azure Pipelines or Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS)

Introduction

Azure Pipelines formerly known as Visual Studio Team Services(VSTS) is a Microsoft product. Azure Pipelines is a Continuous Integration (CI) server, which automates the build and deploy process of your native apps. By running your Appium test suite in Azure Pipelines, you also automate testing as part of the build process. Add BrowserStack to the mix, and your native apps can be tested across 3000+ real devices. BrowserStack lets you integrate your Appium tests with Azure Pipelines using an extension that connects the CI server to the BrowserStack Appium Grid.

Use the BrowserStack Azure Pipelines extension to:

• Configure your BrowserStack credentials.
• Configure the App Uploader
• Set up and tear down the BrowserStack Local binary for testing internal, development and staging environments.
• Embed BrowserStack test results in your job results.

Prerequisites

You need the following set up before you begin.

• Azure Pipelines account
• BrowserStack account

Installing Azure Pipelines Extension

To run your tests with Azure Pipelines on BrowserStack, you will first need to install our extension. Before installing the plugin, ensure you have the necessary privileges to administer the installation.

1. Go to the BrowserStack extension page.

2. Click on Get it free. It will redirect to the installation page.

   

3. Use the drop-down Select an Azure Pipelines organization to select your organization. Click Install.

   

   This completes the extension installation.

Configuring Build Pipeline

Once you have installed the extension, you can configure a build pipeline by editing an existing pipeline or creating a new one. There is a slightly different process of integrating with BrowserStack depending on the type of pipeline editing option you are using in Azure as given below:

1. Using the YAML based pipeline editor
2. Using the classic pipeline editor in Azure

Configuring App Uploader

BrowserStack Azure Pipelines extension allows you to upload your app to the BrowserStack servers.

Configuring BrowserStack Local

BrowserStack Local Testing allows you to test apps that retrieve data from servers on your local machine, CI/CD machines/nodes, and other private network configurations.

Starting BrowserStack Local

To enable BrowserStack Local follow these steps:

1. Under BrowserStack configuration step, click on the checkmark next to BrowserStackLocal.

   

2. Use BrowserStack Local Options to set any additional configuration options when running the binary.

   For example to enable verbose logging and to force local, in the BrowserStack Local Options, pass:

    {"verbose": true, "forceLocal": true}
   

   The full list of options available in local testing modifiers.

   Please use camel case in local modifier options, for example, use logFile instead of --log-file

Stopping BrowserStack Local

Please note that stopping BrowserStack Local is only required if you enabled Local in the above step.

To stop BrowserStack Local follow these steps:

1. Select Agent job 1 and click on the + icon. Type browserstack in the search box.

2. Hover on BrowserStack Stop Local and click on the Add button.

Run Tests

The BrowserStack Azure Pipelines extension sets the following environment variables:

BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME
BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY
BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL
BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_IDENTIFIER
BROWSERSTACK_APP_ID

Use these environment variables to set the DesiredCapabilities in your tests. For example:

String userName = System.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME");
String accessKey = System.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY");
String browserstackLocal = System.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL");
String browserstackLocalIdentifier = System.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_IDENTIFIER");
String app = System.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_APP_ID");

public static void main(String args[]) throws MalformedURLException, InterruptedException {
    DesiredCapabilities caps = new DesiredCapabilities();
    caps.setCapability("device", "Samsung Galaxy S8");
    caps.setCapability("app", app);
    caps.setCapability("browserstack.local", browserstackLocal);
    caps.setCapability("browserstack.localIdentifier", browserstackLocalIdentifier);
}

driver = new AndroidDriver(new URL("https://"+userName+":"+accessKey+"@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub", caps);

userName = process.env.BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME
accessKey = process.env.BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY
browserstackLocal = process.env.BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL
browserstackLocalIdentifier = process.env.BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_IDENTIFIER
app = process.env.BROWSERSTACK_APP_ID

var capabilities = {
    "browserstack.user" : userName,
    "browserstack.key" : accessKey,
    "app" : app,
    "device" : "Samsung Galaxy S8",
    "browserstack.local" : browserstackLocal,
    "browserstack.localIdentifier" : browserstackLocalIdentifier
}

driver = wd.promiseRemote("https://hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub");

driver
  .init(capabilities)
  //Write your code here
  .fin(function() { return driver.quit(); })
  .done();

userName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME");
accessKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY");
browserstackLocal = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL");
browserstackLocalIdentifier = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_IDENTIFIER");
app = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("BROWSERSTACK_APP_ID");

DesiredCapabilities caps = new DesiredCapabilities();
caps.SetCapability("browserstack.user", userName);
caps.SetCapability("browserstack.key", accessKey);
caps.SetCapability("app", app);
caps.SetCapability("device", "Samsung Galaxy S8");
caps.SetCapability("browserstack.local", browserstackLocal);
caps.SetCapability("browserstack.localIdentifier", browserstackLocalIdentifier);

AndroidDriver driver = new AndroidDriver(new Uri("https://hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub"), caps);

user_name = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME")
access_key = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY")
browserstack_local = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL")
browserstack_local_identifier = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_IDENTIFIER")
app = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_APP_ID")

desired_cap = {
    'browserstack.user': user_name,
    'browserstack.key': access_key,
    'device': 'Samsung Galaxy S8',
    'app': app,
    'browserstack.local': browserstack_local,
    'browserstack.localIdentifier': browserstack_local_identifier
}

driver = webdriver.Remote("https://" + user_name + ":" + access_key + "@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub", desired_cap)

user_name = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME")
access_key = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY")
browserstack_local = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL")
browserstack_local_identifier = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_IDENTIFIER")
app = os.getenv("BROWSERSTACK_APP_ID")

desired_cap = {
 'app': app,
 'device': 'Samsung Galaxy S8',
 'browserstack.local': browserstack_local,
 'browserstack.localIdentifier': browserstack_local_identifier
}

driver = webdriver.Remote("https://"+user_name+":"+access_key+"@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub", desired_cap)

user_name = ENV["BROWSERSTACK_USERNAME"]
access_key = ENV["BROWSERSTACK_ACCESS_KEY"]
browserstack_local = ENV["BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL"]
browserstack_local_identifier = ENV["BROWSERSTACK_LOCAL_IDENTIFIER"]
app = ENV["BROWSERSTACK_APP_ID"]

desired_caps = {
	'device': 'Samsung Galaxy S8',
    'app': app,
    'browserstack.local': browserstack_local,
    'browserstack.localIdentifier': browserstack_local_identifier
}


appium_driver = Appium::Driver.new({
    'caps' => desired_caps,
    'appium_lib' => {
        :server_url => "https://#{user_name}:#{access_key}@hub-cloud.browserstack.com/wd/hub"
    }}, true)

Note: You must pass browserstack.local and browserstack.localIdentifier capabilities to test on your local development servers.

Generating test reports

The BrowserStack Azure Pipelines extension enables you to embed the test results from BrowserStack into Azure Pipelines. We currently support viewing test reports in Azure Pipelines with a select set of languages and frameworks, which are Java with JUnit/TestNG, and Node with Protractor and WebdriverIO. The sections below describe how to configure your project to generate BrowserStack test reports.

Java - TestNG and JUnit

Follow the below steps to generate test reports.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.browserstack</groupId>
    <artifactId>automate-testassist</artifactId>
    <version>1.1.0</version>
</dependency>

<repositories>
  <repository>
    <id>sonatype-nexus-snapshots</id>
    <url>https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
  </repository>
</repositories>

<pluginRepositories>
  <pluginRepository>
   <id>sonatype-nexus-snapshots</id>
      <url>https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
  </pluginRepository>
</pluginRepositories>

<build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>com.browserstack</groupId>
        <artifactId>automate-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.0</version>
        <configuration>
            <source>${jdk.source.version}</source>
            <target>${jdk.target.version}</target>
            <complianceLevel>${jdk.source.version}</complianceLevel>
        </configuration>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <goals>
              <goal>test-compile</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

{
  "dependencies": {
    "wdio-browserstack-reporter": "~0.1.1"
  }

// wdio.conf.js
module.exports = {
    // ...
    reporters: ['browserstack'],
    reporterOptions: {
        browserstack: {
            outputDir: './'
        }
    },
    // ...
};

Embedding test reports

Once you have completed the above steps, you can configure your Azure Pipelines setup to embed all the BrowserStack Appium reports and logs.

1. Select Agent job 1 and click on the + icon. Type browserstack in the search box.

2. Hover on BrowserStack Results and click on the Add button. Click on Control Options and enable Continue on error.

With this integration, you can now view the results of your Appium tests within Azure Pipelines. This is how the test results look in Azure Pipelines:

Conclusion

By following the steps outlined in this guide, you should have a seamless integration between your existing automation in Azure Pipelines, your Appium tests and the BrowserStack Appium grid. This will help you leverage all the benefits of test automation and the scale and coverage offered by BrowserStack.