How to locate elements with Appium and Python?

Question

• Testing a simple Calculator App on Android Device.
• Tried many methods to locate an element, but failed.
• The information I can get from UI Automator Viewer is the class name, button name, co-ordinates. I just want to locate the button "7" and press it.

Codes:

import unittest, time, os
from appium import webdriver
from time import sleep




class Android_Maaii(unittest.TestCase):
    "Class to run tests against the ATP WTA app"
    def setUp(self):
        "Setup for the test"
        PATH = lambda p: os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), p))
        desired_caps = {}
        desired_caps['platformName'] = 'Android'
        desired_caps['platformVersion'] = '4.2.2'
        desired_caps['deviceName'] = 'Galaxy S4'
        desired_caps['app'] = PATH('C:\Python34\MyCalculator.apk')        
        # Since the app is already installed launching it using package and activity name
        desired_caps['appPackage'] = 'com.example.mythirdapp'
        desired_caps['appActivity'] = '.MainActivity'
        # Adding appWait Activity since the activity name changes as the focus shifts to the ATP WTA app's first page
        desired_caps['appWaitActivity'] = 'com.example.mythirdapp.MainActivity'
        self.driver = webdriver.Remote('http://localhost:4723/wd/hub', desired_caps)

    def tearDown(self):
        "Tear down the test"
        self.driver.quit()

    def test_maaii(self):
        #"Testing the ATP WTA app "
        self.driver.implicitly_wait(30)
        time.sleep(5)

        print ("Slept for 5 sec...")

        element = self.driver.find_element_by_name('7')

#---START OF SCRIPT
if __name__ == '__main__':
    suite = unittest.TestLoader().loadTestsFromTestCase(Android_Maaii)
    unittest.TextTestRunner(verbosity=2).run(suite)

Error Report:

ERROR: test_maaii (__main__.Android_Maaii)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python34\testfiles\MaaiiTest_new.py", line 59, in test_maaii
    element = self.driver.find_element_by_name('7')
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 302, in find_element_by_name
    return self.find_element(by=By.NAME, value=name)
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 662, in find_element
    {'using': by, 'value': value})['value']
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 173, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\appium\webdriver\errorhandler.py", line 29, in check_response
    raise wde
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\appium\webdriver\errorhandler.py", line 24, in check_response
    super(MobileErrorHandler, self).check_response(response)
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 166, in check_response
    raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: 'An unknown server-side error occurred while processing the command.' 

======================================================================
ERROR: test_maaii (__main__.Android_Maaii)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python34\testfiles\MaaiiTest_new.py", line 31, in tearDown
    self.driver.quit()
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 455, in quit
    self.execute(Command.QUIT)
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 173, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\appium\webdriver\errorhandler.py", line 24, in check_response
    super(MobileErrorHandler, self).check_response(response)
  File "C:\Python34\lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 138, in check_response
    if 'message' in value:
TypeError: Type str doesn't support the buffer API

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ran 1 test in 47.363s

FAILED (errors=2)

What is the real problem? I have tried all locate element methods but failed.

Answer 1

You can use uiautomatorviewer present in android SDK to get the id of each element, the you can use the id of the element. Then use

 self.driver.implicitly_wait(10)
 self.driver.find_element_by_id("com.android.calculator2:id/digit7").click()
 self.driver.implicitly_wait(10)