Handling alert windows in iOS7 with the API framework of Telerik TestStudio for iOS

[Vladimir]

Hello,

We are using the API framework of Telerik TestStudio for iOS (http://docs.telerik.com/teststudio/mobile-testing/api-framework/using-the-api.aspx)
to create automated tests for iOS using OCUnit and Objective C.

We are having problems with the built-in iOS alert windows after migrating our tests from iOS 6.1 to iOS 7. 
We can no longer find the alerts and any UI controls in them (labels,buttons, etc) with your libraries.

This is probably due to a change that Apple made in the UIAlertView behavior in iOS 7 described in the accepted answer in this StackOverflow article http://stackoverflow.com/questions/18702565/find-uialertview-without-having-reference-to-it-ios-7/19275311#19275311

We tried the hack/workaround approach suggested in the second answer from the same article and the following snippet seems to
find the iOS alert fine:

   Class UIAlertManager = objc_getClass("_UIAlertManager");
   UIAlertView *topMostAlert = [UIAlertManager performSelector:@selector(topMostAlert)];

Unfortunately our attempts to close the actual alert using something
like this…

    [topMostAlert dismissWithClickedButtonIndex:0 animated:YES];

… do not do anything.

Do you have a solution for handling alert windows under iOS7 with your API framework? Unfortunately those alerts are widely used in the majority of the iOS applications.

Also what happened to the Telerik TestStudio for iOS product itself?  Although we use only the API library for automation, we can no longer find the app in the app store. Also the old URL your site (http://www.telerik.com/automated-testing-tools/ios-testing/ios-application-testing.aspx)
now seems to be missing.

Regards,
Vladimir

[Anthony]

Hello Vladimir,

Do you have a solution for handling alert windows under iOS7 with your API framework?
No, we do not. You are correct – iOS 7 moved alert windows into a separate process that our automation is not hooked into.

What happened to the Telerik Test Studio for iOS product?
Test Studio for iOS is a legacy product and is no longer actively developed. That is why we removed it from the App Store. That also applies to the Objective-C framework we bundled with it.

We are now focused on Mobile Testing, an integral part of the new Telerik Platform. Mobile Testing is a JavaScript-based automated testing solution for native, hybrid, and web apps. Please try it and provide us your feedback.

We are investigating how to tackle alert windows in iOS 7, but only in our new solution.

Regards,
Anthony
Telerik

[Vladimir]

Hi Anthony,

This is extremely bad news for us. We found your Objective C automation framework to be very useful (actually the best available) and have written quite an extensive set of tests for our app with it.  Our mobile apps (both Android and iOS) use custom developed controls and that is why we need a native test automation solution, allowing us for example to be able to access the native UI objects in the app and call their methods sometimes. This is why we cannot use a JavaScript based test framework. We tried using Apple’s built-in JavaScript tool before we found your solution and we could not create any meaningful tests with it.

Is there any chance that you might decide to opensource the Objective C API if you are not going to support it anymore?

Regards,
Vladimir

[Anthony]

Hello Vladimir,

There have been no discussions on that yet, but I'm happy to bring it up with my colleagues. Thank you again for your interest and kind words on Telerik Testing.

Regards,
Anthony
Telerik