HeadSpin Documentation
Documentation

Appium Capabilities

In addition to the standard Appium capabilities^1 (including each driver specific capabilities) and the W3C WebDriver spec^2, the Appium server running on each HeadSpin host supports a number of custom capabilities below. In addition, the HeadSpin Appium load balancer running in the cloud supports additional capabilities that control device selection and redundancy.

Unless otherwise stated, these capabilities work for any Android, iOS, or TV device in the pool.

Supported drivers

HeadSpin supports

Base Appium version appium:automationName appium:platformName Driver repository
Appium 1.x appium, UIAutomator1 Android appium-android-driver
Appium 1.x, 2.x UIAutomator2 Android appium-uiautomator2-driver
Appium 1.x, 2.x Espresso Android appium-uiautomator2-driver
Appium 1.x, 2.x XCUITest iOS appium-xcuitest-driver
Appium 1.x Flutter Android, iOS appium-flutter-driver
Appium 2.x TizenTV TizenTV appium-tizen-tv-driver
Appium 2.x Roku Roku appium-roku-driver
Appium 2.x WebOS LGTV appium-lg-webos-driver
Appium 2.x Vizio Vizio -

Host capabilities

Note, that HeadSpin allows <code class="dcode">deviceName</code> to be blank in the capabilities and will automatically use the device <code class="dcode">udid</code> instead.

Appium session

Capability Description Values
headspin:appiumVersion Appium version to be used for the test. Defaults to the latest stable version installed on the host. See Setting the Appium Version below. e.g. 1.20.2, 1.17.0, 2.0.0
headspin:appiumAutomationVersion The appium:automationName version to be used for the test. It functions only in Appium 2.x sessions. Defaults to the default version listed in the response of Setting the Appium Version below. e.g. 5.5.0, 2.24.1
headspin:appiumPlugins Appium plugins to enable in an Appium session. It is available only in Appium 2.x session. Defaults to an empty list. e.g. ['relaxed-caps', 'images']
headspin:appiumOptions Appium options to include Appium server configuration for an Appium session. It is available only in Appium 2.x sessions. See Setting Appium options for Appium 2
headspin:autoDownloadChromedriver Enable downloading chromedriver automatically from the official Google storage as Appium standard feature. Default true. true or false
headspin:controlLock Starting the session with this set to true allows interaction with the device via the remote control UI during the session. This should be used with tools such as Appium Inspector, with which you may manually interact with the device during a session. If this is false, the device will be in view-only mode during the session. If the device is already locked by the user (by accessing it in remote control UI or via API), then an automation session cannot be started unless this is set to true. Default false. true, false
headspin:controlLock.autoUnlock Whether or not to unlock the device as part of quitting the session. If the headspin:controlLock is true and this headspin:controlLock.autoUnlock is false, the session will keep the device locked. Unlock a device API is required to unlock the device explicitly. This capability makes your automation script flexible with hs connect for example. Default true. true, false
headspin:enableAdbShell Allow Appium server to invoke mobile: shell command in On-Premise environment. For cloud environment, please refer to Android Device API to use adb commands. Default false. true or false
headspin:enableBatch Allow Appium server to invoke execute-driver command. Default false. true or false
headspin:newCommandTimeout Set request timeout to be the same as the newCommandTimeout in the standard Appium capabilities. If the standard capability is given, the standard value will take priority over the HeadSpin capability. e.g. 120
headspin:preferSystemUnzip Set APPIUM_PREFER_SYSTEM_UNZIP as false in starting an appium process when this capability is false. This prevents possible iOS application installation failure since Appium 1.22.1. Please read the official description for more details about APPIUM_PREFER_SYSTEM_UNZIP. Default false. true or false
headspin:quitOnDisconnect Quit the session when client disconnects true, false
headspin:restartDeviceOnSessionStart Restarts the device before starting the test. Default false. true, false
headspin:screenshotSource Configure the screenshot source. The available values are default and camera. camera means taking a screenshot via the Camera Device (CD) instead of Appium. This option does not affect taking an element screenshot. Please read A/V Box API about the Camera Device. It returns an error response if it failed to take a screenshot via the Camera Device. The value will be default if the device under test does not have a Camera Device associated with it. Default camera. default, camera
headspin:useAppiumUnlock Unlock the device using Appium's built-in mechanism when set to true in a new session creation request. In all cases, HeadSpin's software+hardware "pintap" system will activate if the device is still locked, which will handle MDM and other hard lock cases. Default false. true, false
headspin:useMjpegScreenshotUrl Use HeadSpin MJPEG server to capture device screen. Defaults to false true, false
headspin:waitForAvailableTimeout Set the timeout to wait for a locked device to be available. Defaults to 0 seconds or newCommandTimeout in the Appium capabilities, if provided. e.g. 90
headspin:assistiveTouch Configure iOS Assistive Touch. The assistive touch configuration will remain after the session. enable will enable the assistive touch in a session. disable will disable it. none respects the current device configuration. If this capability is left out or a value other than disable, enable, or none is used then the capability will behave as if disable was used. Defaults to disable. enable,disablenone
headspin:forceQuitSession Handle a delete session request similar to unlock the device in order to quit the session immediately after reaching the request to the Appium server. For example, driver.quit() quits the session immediately even if the previous commands are waiting for responses. Then, these waiting response requests will get invalid session id responses. This helps to quit a session early while the session has no response commands so long. This behavior is similar to quitting Appium process forcefully in the local Appium run. Default false true,false

HeadSpin session and capture

Capability Description Values
headspin:audio.device If the device resides inside of an "A/V box", specify a screen device to be used for injecting/capturing audio front, back
headspin:autoLabel Set rules to add custom session labels in session capture. See Applying labels automatically section in Selenium Capabilities for details. The rule is the same, but Appium can have wd/hub prefix in its endpoint. e.g. 'open HeadSpin url': {'commands': [{'method': 'POST', 'endpoint': '/session/:sessionId/url', 'body': 'headspin.io'}], 'category': 'open url time'}
headspin:capture Enable video, network, and function call capture. Default false. These capture components can be overriden individually by headspin:capture.video, headspin:capture.network, or headspin:capture.functionCall. If set, the individual settings take precedence. true, false
headspin:capture.autoStart Force HeadSpin capture to start when setting the Appium appium:autoLaunch capability to false. Please read the table below to understand how this capability can help. Default false. true, false
headspin:capture.disableHttp2 Prevent the device from using HTTP/2 during network capture. Default false. true, false
headspin:capture.disableServerCertCheck Do not verify server TLS certificates during network capture. This is useful when the client makes TLS connections without SNI, because without SNI we don't know what name to expect the server certificate to contain. Default false. true, false
headspin:capture.functionCall Enable function call capture. When set, this takes precedence over headspin:capture. Also, headspin:capture does not need to be set for this to take effect. true, false
headspin:capture.ignoreHosts A list of ignored host:port regex patterns. These hosts are ignored from the network capture session. The pattern can be just a host name also, in which case all ports are matched. e.g. ['abc\.example\.com:443', '.*\.mydomain.com']
headspin:capture.network Enable network capture. When set, this takes precedence over headspin:capture. Also, headspin:capture does not need to be set for this to take effect. true, false
headspin:capture.networkConfig Configures the network used by the device during the capture session. Allowed keys are shaping, redirectRules, spoofRules, headerRules. See Network Config below for details of each.
headspin:capture.networkKeepInSessionPatterns Controls whether a destination host:port (or ip:port) is kept in the session after an error. By default any destination with an error (e.g. TLS exception) will be excluded from the session, to allow the app to perform as well as possible going forward. Add glob patterns here to keep a destination with an error in the session, to continue to try to parse the network protocol for that destination. This is a list of globs that must fully match host:port or ip:port. e.g. ['headspin.io:443', '*.headspin.io:443']
headspin:capture.video Enable video capture. When set, this takes precedence over headspin:capture. Also, headspin:capture does not need to be set for this to take effect. true, false
headspin:enableJSConsoleLog Enable to record the browser JavaScript console log for XCUITest (for iOS) and UIAutomator2 drivers (for Android) in the delete session request. Default false. true, false
headspin:capture.startTimeout Set timeout in seconds to wait for the capture session preparation to be ready as part of a new session creation up to 600 seconds. It is similar to how long the new session creation should wait to prepare capture session via Session API as part of it. Default 300 seconds. 200, "500"
headspin:capture.linkSessionEnd Ends the running Appium session when the corresponding capture session ends if the capability value is true. For example, an Appium session started with headspin:capture will end when the corresponding capture session ends with Session API. Then, Appium commands sent after the capture session end will get an invalid session id error messages. In case a capture session starts via Session API against a running Appium session, this capability affects the first capture session. This means that when a capture session starts via the Session API against a running Appium session, the running Appium session will end if the session ends with the Session API. Default false. true, false
headspin:frameSettings Dictionary containing frame settings for the session. Supported settings are,
quality : JPEG compression quality in a range of 1 to 100 where 1 being the worst quality and 100 being the highest
maxWidth, maxHeight: Bounding box that the real screen frame is fit into, maintaining the aspect ratio
maxFps: Maximum number frames captured in a second. This is dependant on the quality. Having a lower quality will allow higher FPS

NOTE: Currently only quality is supported across all platforms
e.g.
headspin:network.regionalRouting Sets the gateway through which network traffic will be routed, for the duration of the capture session. When the session ends, the network tunnel is removed. This capability is available for devices that support capture sessions. Note: network capture while routing through a gateway is currently unsupported, and will be disabled. string denoting the egress gateway, e.g. "us-nyc", "gb-lhr"
headspin:session.description Set the description of the HeadSpin session. For existing sessions, the description can be updated in the Waterfall UI or via the Session Annotation API. string
headspin:session.name Set the name of the HeadSpin session. For existing sessions, the name can be updated in the Waterfall UI or via the Session Annotation API. string
headspin:sessionTags Tag the session with an array of key, value tags. Tags will only be applied to sessions that have performance capture enabled. e.g. [{"demo": "tag"}, {"hello": "world"}]
headspin:testData Add custom measurements to the session. This data will be inserted into the performance test, for this session ID e.g. [{"key":"App Load Time", "value":20, "title": "Custom Metrics", "units": "seconds"}]
headspin:testName Sets the User Flow name of this capture session for Performance Monitoring, where all sessions with the same User Flow name are grouped together. To use this, at least one of the following capture components must be active for the session: video, network, or function call capture. For details on adding passed/failed/excluded status on the session, see User Flow Status below. e.g. app_load_test

Apps

Capability Description Values
headspin:app.id Specify the app ID of an APK or IPA that was uploaded using the App Management API to be installed on the device. This takes precedence over the headspin:appId and the Appium app capabilities. e.g. "be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e"
headspin:app.resign Resign the app, specified by the app.id capability, with HeadSpin's provisioning profile. This setting currently applies only to IPA files. Default true true or false
headspin:app.resignTimeout Set the timeout to resign the app in seconds. The resigned file is cached in the host machine in order to re-use it without resigning every session. The value can be either string or integer. This setting currently applies only to IPA files. Default 600 900 (string) or 900 (int)
headspin:appId Specify the app ID of an APK or IPA that was uploaded using the app upload API to be installed on the device. If the Appium app capability is also defined then headspin:appId would take priority. Note: this capability is for the older v0 app API. Users are encouraged to use the App Management API and the headspin:app.id capability. e.g. "be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e"
headspin:appId.resignIpa Resign the IPA, specified by the appId capability, with HeadSpin's provisioning profile. Default true true or false
headspin:appId.resignIpaTimeout Set the timeout to resign the IPA in seconds. The resigned IPA file is cached in the host machine in order to re-use it without resigning every session. The value can be either string or integer. Default 600 900 (string) or 900 (int)
headspin:removeAppPackages Provide a list of package globs to uninstall before starting the test e.g. ['com.example.app', 'com.xyz.app', 'com.foo.*']
headspin:otherApps.ids Specify the app IDs of an APK or IPA to be installed prior to running a test. These apps will be converted to the appium:otherApps capability. Valid apps are apps that were uploaded using the App Management API. The headspin:app.resign capability will also apply to apps specified using this capability. true, false
headspin:resetUiAutomator2 Uninstall io.appium.uiautomator2.server and io.appium.uiautomator2.server.test packages before starting the test. Default false. true, false

If <code class="dcode">appium:app</code> capability has http/https scheme, and the URL has <code class="dcode">.ipa</code> extension name, HeadSpin's provisioning profile will be applied by default to avoid possible installation failure. <code class="dcode">headspin:app.resign</code>, <code class="dcode">headspin:app.resignTimeout</code>, <code class="dcode">headspin:appId.resignIpa</code> and <code class="dcode">headspin:appId.resignIpaTimeout</code> capabilities can handle the resigning as same.

Please make sure the application under test has isInspectable enabled for <code class="dcode">WkWebView</code> or <code class="dcode">JSContext</code> components in apps built with the iOS/iPadOS 16.4+ SDK, to make WebView contexts available in Appium. Apple started requiring this attribute, which defaults to <code class="dcode">NO</code>/<code class="dcode">false</code>. Please read Enabling the Inspection of Web Content in Apps for more details.

TV devices

TV devices support limited capabilities as below. The description section explains the TV devices specific behavior. Empty description means the behavior is the same the above.

Capability Description Supported drivers Values
headspin:appiumPlugins all drivers e.g. ['relaxed-caps']
headspin:appiumAutomationVersion all drivers e.g. 0.10.0
headspin:appiumOptions all drivers e.g. 0.10.0
headspin:chromedriverMajorVersion Specify the chromedriver version for a session. The session will be automatically detected and download (if necessary) proper latest chromedriver for a session with appium-tizen-tv-driver 0.10.0+ and appium-lg-webos-driver 0.3.0+ by default if nothing is provided. Available value is 2.36. TizenTV, WebOS 2.36
headspin:waitForAvailableTimeout all drivers e.g. 90
headspin:screenshotSource all drivers default, camera
headspin:newCommandTimeout all drivers e.g. 120
headspin:forceQuitSession all drivers true, false
headspin:app.id all drivers e.g. "be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e"
headspin:app.resign TizenTV true, false
headspin:capture Video/Network capture is available via A/V Box. When this capability is set to true, appium.log will be available through the Session API using the session ID, but the session will not appear in the list of performance sessions in the UI. all drivers true, false
headspin:capture.autoStart all drivers true, false
headspin:autoLabel all drivers e.g. 'open HeadSpin url': {'commands': [{'method': 'POST', 'endpoint': '/session/:sessionId/url', 'body': 'headspin.io'}], 'category': 'open url time'}

Setting <code class="dcode">options</code> for HeadSpin Appium options

<code class="dcode">headspin:options</code> used to combine all capabilities as an object value of a single <code class="dcode">headspin:options</code> capability, meaning you do not need to use prefixes for each capability inside the object. Values specified in this way take precedence over values specified outside of this capability.

Example:


{
    "headspin:options": {
        "restartOnError": "true",
        "app.id": "be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e",
        "app.resign": "true"
    }
}

HeadSpin commands

These HeadSpin commands are designed to be run by the Execute Mobile Command interface.

Command Name Description Arguments
headspin:quitSession End the session and optionally set the session's user flow status at the same time. See User Flow Status below. {"status": "[passed|failed|excluded|not_set]"}
headspin:installApp Install the app ID of an APK or IPA that was uploaded using the App Management API. Available arguments are HeadSpin specific idcode>, resign, resignTimeout and each Appium driver's driver.install_app and mobile:installApp commands such as XCUITest driver and UIAutomator2 driver. id is the app ID, that is required. resign and resignTimeout are optional and work as same as app.resign and app.resignTimeout in the above capabilities for iOS. {"id": "be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e", "resignTimeout": 400}, {"id": "be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e", "grantPermissions": false}

Example of <code class="dcode">headspin:installApp</code>


# Python
driver.execute_script('headspin:installApp', {'id': 'be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e', 'grantPermissions': False})


# Ruby
driver.execute_script 'headspin:installApp', {'id' => 'be06ca64-712a-4695-9430-2e6937144a3e', 'resign' => false}

<code class="dcode">app</code> standard Appium capability

HeadSpin drops the <code class="dcode">app</code> capability when <code class="dcode">*</code> is provided as the value.

The value <code class="dcode">*</code> is invalid for standard Appium, but some Appium client tools require the app capability even when it is not necessary. In these cases you can set * as the value to establish an Appium session using another capability.

<code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code> and <code class="dcode">headspin:capture.autoStart</code>

Appium uses an <code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code> capability to control if Appium launches the application under test. This is documented in the Appium documentation for creating a new session. The application under test launches when the capability is <code class="dcode">true</code>.

When <code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code> is <code class="dcode">false</code>, Appium does not launch the application under test automatically in creating a new session. Then, you are responsible for launching the application under test manually with one of the available ways to launch an application under test. HeadSpin session capture starts when Appium receives one of thes

If you have a scenario where you need to launch the application under test without the standard application launch commands, for example, when you test a Progressive Web Application (PWA) on iOS, then HeadSpin session capture does not start automatically as described above. Instead, you can combine the <code class="dcode">"appium:autoLaunch"</code>: false capability with the <code class="dcode">"headspin:capture.autoStart"</code>: <code class="dcode">true</code> capability to start HeadSpin capture anyway. Then you may launch the application under test in any available manner, for example, by tapping the PWA application icon on the home screen.

with <code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code>

The following table describes the possible outcomes in the case where appium:autoLaunch is specified. Note that setting a value for <code class="dcode">headspin:capture.autoStart</code> is ignored in the case that <code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code> is set to <code class="dcode">true</code> and a capture session will always start along with the application under test.

appium:autoLaunch headspin:capture.autoStart Start session capture starts
true - See creating a new session
false true See creating a new session
false false (default, unless autoLaunch is true) When Appium gets a command from one of the available ways to launch an application under test

without <code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code>

Appium is going to stop supporting the <code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code> capability in accordance with this issue. When not specifying <code class="dcode">appium:autoLaunch</code>, detecting if a session starts the application under test as part of a new session request will depend on the whether or not other capabilities are set; if both an app is specified via <code class="dcode">appium:app</code>, <code class="dcode">headspin:appId</code>, or <code class="dcode">headspin:app.id</code> or a corresponding <code class="dcode">appium:appPackage</code> or <code class="dcode">appium:bundleId</code> is specified then appium will start the application under test in a new session request.

Only if the new capabilities do not include both <code class="dcode">appium:app</code>, <code class="dcode">headspin:appId</code>, or <code class="dcode">headspin:app.id</code>, and <code class="dcode">appium:appPackage</code> or <code class="dcode">appium:bundleId</code> AND if the <code class="dcode">headspin:capture.autoStart</code> capability is <code class="dcode">false </code>(default), does the session only start capture when it gets one of the available ways to launch an application under test. Otherwise the capture session will automatically start along with the launching of the application under test when a new session request starts.

Available ways to launch an application under test

The following are ways to manually launch an app. Launch App, Activate App, Reset App, and Start Activity. Future versions of Appium will favor the following existing ways to launch an app: <code class="dcode">mobile:activateApp</code>, documentation for iOS, documentation for Android, and <code class="dcode">mobile:launchApp</code> for iOS.

Browser logs (<code class="dcode">enableJSConsoleLog</code>)

HeadSpin collects JavaScript console logs when <code class="dcode">headspin:enableJSConsoleLog</code> is enabled in a capture session before ending the session. The log can be downloaded from the Waterfall UI or the Session API. They are in <code class="dcode">jsconsole.log</code>.

To get logs from Appium, you must specify the log type for Appium to collect the logs. For Android, use <code class="dcode">browser</code> log type, and for iOS use <code class="dcode">safariConsole</code> log type.

If you already acquired the log during a session, HeadSpin will only collect the log after the command runs.

Android (UiAutoamtor2 driver) requires that the context be WEBVIEW when the session ends since the <code class="dcode">browser</code> log type is available only via chromedriver over Appium.

Setting the Appium Version

New Appium versions are made available to customers as soon as they are certified on the platform. HeadSpin works with the Appium team to test and provide new versions ^3. A few select versions are available on every host by default. You can always confirm what versions are available in a host via the version API below. Please contact us if you need a specific version that is not in the result.

You should always set <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumVersion</code> to the version you are using, to avoid changes related to system updates in the future.

Appium 2.x support

HeadSpin supports Appium 2.x and drivers, which are available over Appium 2.x. The session needs to specify Appium 2.x with <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumVersion</code> right now, such as <code class="dcode">"headspin:appiumVersion": "2.0.0"</code>. The available Appium versions and driver versions are listed in the result of <a href="#check-available-appium-versions">Check available Appium versions</a> below. The <code class="dcode">default</code> keys/values in the <code class="dcode">drivers</code> are the default driver version for each <code class="dcode">appium:automationName</code> session.

<code class="dcode">headspin:appiumAutomationVersion</code> capability allows a session to start with the specific driver version with the given <code class="dcode">appium:automationName</code> if the host had the pair. With the automation version capability, you could run an arbitrary driver version for a session.

Check available Appium and driver versions

HeadSpin host provides the list of available Appium versions as API. It helps to confirm which Appium versions can run on the host machine. Please contact us if you want to use a particular Appium version which is not available on the host machine.

The minimum supported version is <code class="dcode">1.11.0</code>.

Route Method
https://{headspin-host}:{headspin-port}/v0/{your-api-token}/wd/hub/versions GET

Example


curl -X GET https://proxy-jp-tyo-1.headspin.io:7001/v0/{your-api-token}/wd/hub/versions

Response


{
    "status": 0,
    "session_id": null,
    "value": {
        "default": "2.0.0",
        "available": ["1.22.3", "2.0.0", "2.2.1"],
        "drivers": {
            "default": {
                "uiautomator2": "2.34.0"
            },
            "available": {
                "uiautomator2": ["2.29.10", "2.34.0", "2.34.1"]
            }
        },
        "plugins": {
            "available": {
                "relaxed-caps": "1.0.5"
            },
            "default": {
                "relaxed-caps": "1.0.5"
            }
        }
    }
}

The <code class="dcode">available</code> is available Appium versions. You can specify them as <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumVersion</code>. The <code class="dcode">default</code> is chosen if a create session capabilities has no <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumVersion</code>.

The <code class="dcode">default</code> in the <code class="dcode">drivers</code> is the pairs of <code class="dcode">appium:automationName</code> and the available version on the host. The <code class="dcode">available</code> in the <code class="dcode">drivers</code> shows what driver versions are available on the host. <code class="dcode">appium:automationName</code> and <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumAutomationVersion</code> capabilities let a session specify the combination.

The <code class="dcode">default</code> in the <code class="dcode">plugins</code> is the pairs of <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumPlugins</code> and the available version on the host. The <code class="dcode">available</code> in the <code class="dcode">plugins</code> shows what plugin versions are available on the host. <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumPlugins</code> capability let a session activate the plugins.

The <code class="dcode">drivers</code> and <code class="dcode">plugins</code> will be used when you create a new session with the Appium 2.x.

Please contact us if you would like to use a driver, a plugin or a version which is not in the list.

Setting <code class="dcode">appiumOptions</code> for Appium 2

<code class="dcode">headspin:appiumOptions</code> capability is available to configure the Appium server in a session, using the capabilities suggested by the Appium team for providers supporting Appium 2.x*.

Available keys

Capabilities Description Values
version Appium version to be used for the session. e.g. 2.0.0
automationVersion The appium:automationName version to be used for the session. e.g. 2.34.1 with "appium:automationName": "uiautomator2"
plugins The list of plugin names to be used for the session. e.g. ['images', 'relaxed-caps']

Example


{
    "headspin:appiumOptions": {
        "version": "2.0.0",
        "automationVersion": "5.5.0",
        "plugins": ["images", "relaxed-caps"]
    }
}

Without <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumOptions</code>, you also can specify them as individual HeadSpin Appium capabilities.

  • <code class="dcode">version</code> works as same as <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumVersion</code>
  • <code class="dcode">automationVersion</code> works the same as <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumAutomationVersion</code>
  • <code class="dcode">plugins</code> works as same as <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumPlugins</code>

The individual capabilities will take priority over those inside <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumOptions</code>. For example, if a capabilities set has both <code class="dcode">"headspin:appiumOptions": { "version": "2.0.0" }</code> and <code class="dcode">"headspin:appiumVersion": "1.22.3"</code>, the session will use Appium 1.22.3 provided as <code class="dcode">headspin:appiumVersion</code>.

Network Config

Key Name Description Values
shaping For all devices with the exception of browsers, this specifies network conditioning targets. Note that for devices which fall back on gateway capture, you may need to work with your company network team and your HeadSpin administrator. All values must be zero or positive. up and down set upper bounds for the upload and download rate in megabits per second (Mbps), respectively. rtt is the additional delay in seconds on top of the native link round-trip time. loss applies a further packet loss fraction between 0 and 1 to the native link conditions (received packets fraction = (1 − native link loss) * (1 − simulated loss)). e.g. {"down": 5.1, "up": 1.2, "rtt": 10, "loss": 0.1}
redirectRules A list of rules host_regex=destination_host. If the host regex matches a host, the request will be rewritten as if the client sent it to destination_host instead. Backtick back references are allowed in the destination host. e.g. ["foo\.com=bar.com", "(.*)<company name>\.io=\1<company name>.com"]
spoofRules A list of rules host_regex=destination_host. If the host regex matches a host, the request IP will be changed to the IP resolved by destination host, as if the DNS record for the original host were changed to the destination host's. e.g. ["foo\.com=13.33.148.190", ".*\.headspin.io=13.33.148.51"]
headerRules A list of rules host_regex=header:value. If the host regex matches, the header will be injected into the request. Multiple headers of the same name will be comma separated in the final request. Backtick back references are allowed in the header and value. e.g. [".*=X-Custom:MyApp"]

User Flow Status

To mark sessions passed, failed, or in some error state, you can either use a HeadSpin Appium command to end the session, or use the Performance Monitoring API at any time. In either case, the session must be attached to a user flow by specifying <code class="dcode">headspin:testName</code> (this in turn requires that capture is turned on for the session, see description in the Appium capabilities section).

Valid user flow status strings are: <code class="dcode">passed</code>, <code class="dcode">failed</code>, <code class="dcode">excluded</code>, and <code class="dcode">not_set</code>.

Note: If a session gets attached to a user flow and its status is set to passed, failed, or excluded, standard tags will be automatically added to the session. For more details on what these standard tags are, see Annotating Your Session: Session Tags.

Set user flow status using the <code class="dcode">headspin:quitSession</code> command

  1. Set <code class="dcode">headspin:testName</code> when starting the session. This is required for the next step to work.
  2. End the session by sending the command <code class="dcode">headspin:quitSession</code> with the argument <code class="dcode">{"status": <user flow status>}</code>.

For example, the Python script below sets the session's status to <code class="dcode">excluded</code>:


from appium import webdriver

caps = {
    ...  # Other capabilities
    "headspin:testName": "test user flow",  # Required to link session to user flow
    "headspin:capture": True                # Required to have a capture session
}

driver = webdriver.Remote('<Web Driver URL>', caps)

# Perform tests
...

response = driver.execute_script('headspin:quitSession', {'status': 'excluded'})

This will end the session and set its user flow status at the same time. It can be used in place of the <code class="dcode">driver.quit()</code> command to end the session. When called without any argument, it has the same effect as <code class="dcode">driver.quit()</code>.

If the command is successful, there will be no return value (<code class="dcode">response is None</code> is <code class="dcode">True</code>). However, if an argument is given but it could not be processed into a valid user flow status, then a string containing information about the problem will be returned. The session will still end, but no user flow status will be set.

Set user flow status using Performance Monitoring API

  1. Set headspin:testName when starting the session, or link the session to a user flow after it has started using the Performance Monitoring API.
  2. POST to the Performance Monitoring API to set the status of the session, using the session ID from the driver.

For example, the Python script below sets the session's status to <code class="dcode">passed</code> using <code class="dcode">requests</code> to post to the API:


from appium import webdriver
import requests

# Start a session with capture
driver = webdriver.Remote(...)

# Set api_token in the header
headers = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer <your_api_token>'
}

perf_data = {
    'session_id': driver.session_id,
    'status': 'passed'
}
requests.post('https://api-dev.headspin.io/v0/perftests/upload', headers=headers, json=perf_data)

BYOD and <code class="dcode">appInstallStrategy</code>

Bring Your Own Device allows you to add your own devices to HeadSpin platform. You can run appium sessions against the devices, but the application installation might fail in iOS for some reason. You can try the Appium capability <code class="dcode">"appium:appInstallStrategy": "ios-deploy"</code> to help complete the installation successfully.

Resolving Errors

HeadSpin Appium sessions return errors directly from the underlying Appium driver without modification. Additionally, the HeadSpin platform may return the following extra errors:

HTTP status code Error (error) Note How to Resolve
400 invalid argument Request body is invalid or API token in the request is invalid. Make sure the API token is valid or Appium commands and correct.
403 unknown command The command is not allowed. Please check the error message. For example, Execute Driver Script Appium command needs headspin:enableBatch capability.
404 invalid argument The device was not found. Run your tests with correct capabilities.
404 invalid session id Cannot find active session id on the host. Run your tests from session that was created.
500 session not created Failed to create a new session. This error includes when a device is unavailable by some reason like the device was locked by someone or the device was disconnected. Please check the error message.
500 unknown error An unknown error occurred, or the session was terminated. Please contact support if this continues to happen.