TestProject enhances Appium’s driver and enables you to run iOS test automation on Windows operating system, without the need for macOS or Xcode!
The first thing you have to do is to get a TestProject account, no worries – it’s free! Then, you’ll have to follow this step-by-step tutorial to setup your iOS settings, and you’ll be good to go to start your iOS test automation projects.
Tutorial Overview
- Step 1 – Prerequisites
- Step 2 – Get your Apple’s Developer Program Team ID
- Step 3 – Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
- Step 4 – Create your Mobile Provisioning Profile
- Step 5 – Record or Develop iOS Test Automation using TestProject
Let’s get started!
Step 1 – Prerequisites
1.1. You need the TestProject Agent to be installed and running on your computer.
1.2. You must have an active Apple Developer Account (Notice that this is not the same as Apple ID).
Step 2 – Get Your Apple’s Developer Program Team ID
The first thing you need to do is to provide your Apple’s Developer Program Team ID from Apple Developers Portal. The Team ID is a 10-character string that’s generated by Apple to uniquely identify your team. You can get it by following these steps:
2.1. Click on “Membership”:
*Note that you have to have the “Apple Developer Program” label (as seen in the image above). If you don’t have this label, it means that you only have a simple Apple ID and that you do not have an Apple Developer Program subscription (As required in the prerequisites above in step 1.2).
2.2. Copy your Team ID:
2.3. Open another tab with your TestProject account, click on your name at the upper right corner, click on “Account” and then click on “iOS” in the setting’s left menu (you will reach this page). Enter the Team ID you copied from Apple Developer Account’s Membership screen (step 2.2 above):
Step 3 – Create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR)
In order to sign the driver with your certificate, you need to create a Certificate Signing Request (CSR).
3.1. On TestProject’s iOS settings page, generate a new “Certificate Signing Request (CSR)”, by clicking “Generate new” and download a certificate signing request file:
3.2. Go back to Apple Developers Portal and upload the CSR file generated by TestProject (in step 3.1 above). First, you need to click on “Certificates, IDs & Profiles”:
3.3. Then, click on the “plus” icon at the upper right side of the screen:
3.4. Then, choose “iOS App Development” and click “Continue”:
3.5. Now, upload the CSR file generated by TestProject (in step 3.1 above):
3.6. Download the certificate:
3.7. You should be able to see your certificate on the list below:
3.8. Now, you have to upload the certificate generated by Apple to TestProject. Head back to TestProject’s iOS settings page, and click “Upload New” in the “Certificate” section:
Step 4 – Create your Mobile Provisioning Profile
Back in the Apple Developer Portal, you need to complete the provisioning process. The provisioning profile is used by Apple to list the eligible devices where the driver can be installed.
4.1. Under “Profiles”, click on the “plus” icon:
4.2. Click on “iOS App Development” and click “Continue”:
4.3. Now you need to choose the App ID.
*Important: Make sure to choose the “Wildcard” option.
Only in case you don’t have a “Wildcard” option in the dropdown (as seen in the image above), you will need to create the Wildcard App ID manually by completing the steps described here: https://blog.testproject.io/2019/01/29/create-wildcard-app-id-ios/.
4.4. Select the certificate you have created in step 3.7 above, and click “Continue”:
4.5. Select your devices and click “Continue”:
4.5.1.To add a device, you will need the device UDID:
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Head over to the TestProject platform agents page: https://app.testproject.io/#/agents
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At the agent’s page, click on your agent.
3. Click on Devices
Here you can see Previously/Current connected devices and Simulators.
You can now copy the UDID to the clipboard.
4.6. Give your profile a name, and click “Generate”:
4.7. Now you need to download the newly generated provisioning profile:
4.8. Now, go back to TestProject’s iOS settings page, under “Provisioning Profile”, click “Upload new” and upload the provisioning file you have downloaded in step 4.7 above.
That’s it! 😉
If you’ve followed all of the steps above, you should see a toast popup in TestProject’s Platform informing you that the provisioning has been completed successfully, and you will see a list of all eligible devices you can use with TestProject for your iOS test automation (on ALL operating systems, even iOS on Windows!).
If you see a toast with an error, go over this guide again and check the most common errors:
- The certificate you uploaded to TestProject was not the one that was generated using TestProject CSR (Certificate Signing Request). Go back to step 3.
- You selected the wrong App ID (You must choose the Wildcard option). Go back to step 4.3.
- The provisioning profile you uploaded does not contain the certificate that was generated using TestProject’s CSR. Go back to step 4.4.
Step 5 – Record or Develop iOS Test Automation using TestProject
With TestProject you can record your iOS tests from a Windows machine, or you can develop your tests using TestProject’s Java, Python or C# SDKs. Either way, we’ve got you completely covered!
So, what are you waiting for?
Go ahead and start testing your iOS Apps! 😎
For any questions or assistance, feel free to leave a comment below or contact us using one of our support channels:
- TestProject’s in-app chat
- Active forum
- Email us at [email protected]
Has something changed with creating a profile? I do not see the “+” to add a new profile.
Hi Nicole,
If you do not see the plus icon, it means that you are not the admin on your Apple developer account, so you don’t have permission to create a new certificate. You should ask the admin to do it for you.
Let me know if you will need my help.
Thank you!
i connected a device with USB. But it is not identifying the device in the test project while creating the new test.
Hi Suma,
Did you try to restart the device and the agent?
Also, did you complete this configuration process successfully?
I’m using a Mac with xcode, can I run an iOS test on one of the simulators or just on a real connected device?
Hi Sagi,
To run your test on iOS devices, you need to either connect a physical device or use a cloud device from BrowserStack/Sauce Labs. At the moment, a local iOS simulator is not supported.
Hi Amit,
Steps here are explained for a project which does not have any certificate in iOS developer.apple.com.
But what if we already have all the certificates in place in developer.apple.com and we want to use that in testProject.com?
Can you please help with that.
Hi Mayank,
It’s very important to follow all the steps in this tutorial. Even if you already have certificates in your Apple developer account.
You cannot use your existing certificates because you need to create one that includes the CSR file generated by TestProject.
If you need any help with that, please contact our support team through the in-app chat 🙂
Hi Amit,
To be able to follow your tutorial, I would have to purchase Apple Developer Program license for $119 in order integrate TestProject. Have I understood this correctly?
Hi Nevena,
In order to develop or test iOS applications, Apple requires you to have an active developer account. In TestProject, we merely providing you the ability to test your iOS applications on any OS and not just on MAC OS. No matter what automation framework you have, you will have to subscribe to Apple’s developer program.
Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with 🙂
I have followed your tutorial and I created a new test, however, I keep fail to create one.
“Error
Failed to create driver session. Check device is configured for automation and try again.”
This message above pops up every time I try to make a test and connect a test phone. I tried other devices, but it still gives me a same message.
Hi Jin,
Thanks for reaching out!
Did you complete all the steps in the tutorial exactly as described? It’s very important that you will create a new certificate based on the generated CSR from TestProject. Also, when creating the provisioning profile, make sure to include that certificate.
If you followed all the steps and it’s still doesn’t work, please contact our support team via the support chat (you’ll find it at the bottom-right corner of the screen in our website).
Thanks,
Amit
Hey Amit, this is awesome and really appreciated in it’s thoroughness and completion of getting someone set up to automate on an iOS device. I think something that would be an extra step is if you created another blog post to reference here about registering a new device.
Thanks again!
Hi Eric,
Thank you for your kind feedback!
Once you completed the iOS configuration process, all you need to do is plug in your iOS device. The registration of the new device is done automatically.
Thanks,
Amit
Hi Amit,
I followed the steps mentioned in the tutorial however it’s failing at the last step. When I upload and click on ‘OK’ to add the provisioning profile, it’s giving an error ‘Couldn’t finalize upload “Provisioning Profile” Unable to sign’
Can you please address why am getting this error.
Thanks,
Satish
Hi Satish,
If the upload of the provisioning profile failed, it’s probably because one of the previous steps was done incorrectly.
It’s very important to create a new certificate based on the CSR file generated by TestProject. Then, you need to make sure that you included this certificate in the provisioning profile.
If you still can’t upload the provisioning profile, feel free to contact us in the chat and we will help you.
Thanks,
Amit
Hi All,
I am new to this. I am trying to automate one of the iOS app but while editing the setting in Test project application I am getting an error as ‘Couldn’t finalize upload provisioning profile. Unable to sign”. FYI. I am using one developer account , CSR generated, Team id and provisioning profile created and share by the iOS developer to me. I am the tester of the team who is going to automate my iOS app. Please help me and guide me how can I proceed for this?
Will be appreciable if I get quick response with detailed steps to follow.
Thanks,
Deep
Hello Deepak,
If the upload of the profile failed it is probably due to a configuration step that wasn’t done correctly. Make sure with the developer that the certificate is based on the CSR file generated by TestProject and that you followed all the steps described above.
If you still unable to complete the process please contact us in the chat.
Hi Amit,
I could not install Step 4 (Create your Mobile provisioning profile) as we have already provisioning profile created and I do not have permissions at my org. I selected available provisioning profile where my device is listed. As I upload at Step 4.8, I am seeing all devices but with error message “Application ID must be ‘My Team ID.*’ or ‘My team ID.TestProject.*’ with OK button disabled. I see application Id displayed as myTeamID.com.myCompanyName.myProjectName.
What should I do now ?
Hello Sai,
As the error message mentioned the application ID must be in the specified format. If you don’t have permissions to create provisioning profile you can ask someone who does to help you with setting it.
I have followed all the steps and at the final step which is the provisioning profile there is no error on uploading the profile, just a message saying Unknown device (UDID). The UDID is correct for my iphone and the device is added in the profile on Apple developer. Also if I press OK it shows Couldn’t finalize upload unable to sign.
Any suggestions??
Hi Lordson,
Can you make sure that the following things are correct,
The wild card you have on your Apple developer account is exactly: testproject.*
Also, can you make sure the UDID is valid, try to use the one that the TestProject agent recognizes under devices.
And for last please make sure you chose IOS App development as none of the others will work for testing purposes.
If you need further assistant please send us a message at our live chat at app.testproject.io in the bottom right corner.
Let me know if you managed,
Amit
Hi Amit,
I got the Apple UDID from iTunes, does the TestProject require UDID in different format??
I have successfully added the my iOS device and its visible under Devices as well. But , when trying to start with recording a new test getting below error-
Failed verifying iOS settings and installing driver on eb36040e551a4bbbeac87cd131ce7b291800baba. Please make sure your device has access to the internet and that you have configured your iOS settings as specified in the TestProject documentation.If the issue persists, contact support.
Is there anything I am missing?
Is this setup is a one time thing? do I have to do that each time i want to add a new ios device?
Hi Yuval,
You only need to do it once and all the devices you included in your provisioning profile will be available for testing.
I was using my iPad for automation using test project. I did the set up and provisioning and it worked. It has stopped working after I upgraded iOS to 15 and it shows the error “Test Project needs to be Updated” The dev of this app needs to update it to work with this version of iOS”
Please help!
Hi,
If you are having a specific issue on a device, please contact our support team at [email protected] or on our chat.
Generally, iOS 15 is fully supported, but please make sure you are not using a ‘beta’ version like 15.2 (at the time of writing it is beta, 10/27/2021).
Hi,
I have set up the iOS Certificate and Profile in the iOS Settings page and seems to be all okay. Now I am not able to continue the automation as I am getting a warning message ‘Only simulators and provisioned devices can be used for recording. You can configure iOS settings here.’, with the ‘Select’ button in the popup is disabled!
The device connected to the system is provisioned and it’s UDID has been added to the Profile.