Connect Appium Inspector to Kobiton

Connect Appium Inspector to Kobiton to inspect UI elements during automation sessions. Kobiton also includes a built-in Inspector in Manual sessions and Session Explorer.

Prerequisites

Download and install Appium Inspector

Download Appium Inspector for your operating system.

Follow the official installation guide to install Appium Inspector.

Configure connection to Kobiton

Open Appium Inspector, then specify the Appium server to connect to.

For Cloud and Hybrid deployments:

  1. Select Select Cloud Providers.

  2. Select Kobiton, then select Done.

  3. Select the Kobiton tab.

  4. Enter your username in Your Kobiton Username and your access key in Kobiton Access Key.

For Standalone and on-premises deployments:

  1. Select the Appium Server tab.

  2. In Remote host, enter the address of Kobiton Portal. Find this value in kobitonServerUrl under Automation settings. For example, 192.168.50.85 or www.kobiton.local.

  3. In Remote port, enter 3000.

  4. In Remote path, enter /wd/hub.

  5. Select the SSL checkbox if Kobiton Portal has SSL enabled.

For more details, see Manage devices - Automation settings.

Configure Appium capabilities

Under Capability Builder, enter the required capabilities in JSON format.

The Capability Builder tab in Appium Inspector showing Kobiton capabilities and their JSON representation

To authenticate with Kobiton Portal, provide the following capabilities. Skip them for Cloud and Hybrid deployments, which authenticate through the Kobiton tab.

  • "appium:username": the Kobiton account username.

  • "appium:accessKey": the Kobiton account API key.

To start a basic Appium 2 session, provide the following capabilities:

  • "kobiton:runtime": "appium".

  • "appium:automationName": one of the following values:

    • "XCUITest" for iOS devices.

    • "UIAutomator2" for Android devices.

The following examples show both session types.

Xium session. Xium is the default execution method for Appium tests on Kobiton.

{
"appium:bundleId": "com.example.ToDoApp",
"kobiton:sessionName": "Automation iOS Hybrid App",
"kobiton:sessionDescription": "Automation session",
"kobiton:app": "kobiton-store:v10",
"appium:deviceName": "iPhone 14",
"appium:udid": "aa2ace81ea5b7e6164965b97c5bf432432",
"platformName": "iOS"
}

Basic Appium 2 session:

{
"kobiton:runtime": "appium",
"appium:automationName": "XCUITest",
"appium:bundleId": "com.example.ToDoApp",
"kobiton:sessionName": "Automation iOS Hybrid App",
"kobiton:sessionDescription": "Automation session",
"kobiton:app": "kobiton-store:v10",
"appium:deviceName": "iPhone 14",
"appium:udid": "aa2ace81ea5b7e6164965b97c5bf432432",
"platformName": "iOS"
}

For an explanation of each capability, see Available capabilities.

To switch a session to basic Appium 2, see Launch a basic Appium 2 session (Beta).

Start the session

After you enter all required capabilities, select Start Session.

Troubleshooting

  • Verify that your credentials are correct and current.

  • Confirm that the device UDID matches a device in your account.

  • To use the context switcher, launch a basic Appium 2 session.

  • In a Xium session, the context switcher is not available. Under the Commands tab, use Context → getContexts to get the name of the web context, then use switchContext to switch to the web view.

Known issues and workarounds

Appium Inspector and basic Appium 2 server are community-driven projects that Kobiton does not manage. The following workarounds address known issues with these tools.

Android:

  • When "browserName" is set to "chrome" in a basic Appium 2 session, the web context name is CHROMIUM rather than WEBVIEW_<activity>. After you switch to native context and back, CHROMIUM is not selectable from the context dropdown in web or hybrid app mode. As a workaround, use Context → getContexts under the Commands tab to get the web context name, then use switchContext to switch to the web view.

  • Tap and swipe by coordinates do not work in web context in a basic Appium 2 session. Switch to native context to perform these actions.