When you are testing mobile apps there are a number of non functional elements you need to consider (that do not apply to website testing) such as push notifications, device network issues, location services and app installation. In this post I'll cover these and explain how to test these areas. Push notifications Push notifications were pioneered by Apple in 2008 and this technology was subsequently adopted by Google for its Android OS and by Microsoft for its Windows Phone OS. Push notifications allow an app to deliver information to a mobile device without a specific request from the app. This means that the app does not need to be launched for the mobile device to get the push notification. Each operating system has their own Push Notification Service. On iOS it's called Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) and Android had Google Cloud Messaging (GCM) but this has been superseded by Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM). Note that FCM can also be used to send push no
In this post I'll describe how to access files and databases associated with a mobile app. On the apps that I test we have log files and SQLite databases that are useful to look at when investigating potential bugs. How do you access files and databases on a mobile device? As usual that depends on whether you are testing iOS or Android. App specific files are available on both devices but they way you access them is different for each OS. iOS For Apple devices, you can use iTunes to access app specific files. Open iTunes on your PC or Mac and connect your device. You will see the device: Select the device icon. This will open the apps page. Under File Sharing you can then select your app to view its associated files. You can then add files, save files to your PC or delete files on the device. Android On Android devices there is usually a folder called "MyFiles". App specific files are stored under that folder. To access them,