WebDriverAgent runner cannot be activated with activateApp

Problem

Hello. I am trying to activate the WebDriverAgent app in iOS with no luck. What I want to do is open it and set something to clipboard and then bring my own app back.

Environment

• Appium version (or git revision) that exhibits the issue: 1.21
• Desktop OS/version used to run Appium: MacOS
• Mobile platform/version under test: iOS 14.6
• Real device or emulator/simulator: iPhone XS
• Appium CLI or Appium.app|exe: Appium CLI

Details

Before the iOS 14.6 I could set something to clipboard, without activating the WebDriverAgent, even thought the documentation advised for the opposite. Now after the upgrade, I followed the instructions to bring the WDA in foreground but a timeout occurs and nothing happens. Also, the same happens if I try to activate another app with the activateApp command, after the first timeout.

Link to Appium logs

https://gist.github.com/nikoskyr/41063dd279f6ee410b6f25ccf32da140

Code To Reproduce Issue [ Good To Have ]

driver().activateApp("com.facebook.WebDriverAgentRunner"); I also tried to change the WDA bundleId but the same problem happened.

[KazuCocoa]

I tried with some iOS versions (15, 14.6 and 12.5.4(recent update for iOS 12)), iPad 15 and Xcode versions (10.3, 12.4 and 13). Then, probably not sure since, but XCTest framework changed the behavior. It seems launch and activate which are the endpoint of XCTest in WDA cannot launch the WDA process itself. e.g. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xctest/xcuiapplication/2873317-activate

For instace, in the below line worked very slowly. Once they succeeded, launch and activate method by XCTest started to re-install WDA apps. The process was stopped. So, it seems ‘activate the app process’ seems broken or changed the behavior from Apple’s documentation. current master: https://github.com/appium/WebDriverAgent/blob/master/WebDriverAgentLib/Routing/FBSession.m#L202 A bit old one: https://github.com/appium/WebDriverAgent/blob/a1824895274c60798b506f31054e4ce1e0400c71/WebDriverAgentLib/Routing/FBSession.m#L213 I also tried WDA in 1.17.0.

Anothe thisng. When i called the below activateAppInfo command when I manually bring WDA app forward by tapping the app icon, it returned the spring board instead of the WDA bundle id.

> @driver.execute_script 'mobile:activeAppInfo'
=> {"processArguments"=>{"env"=>{}, "args"=>[]}, "name"=>"", "pid"=>49, "bundleId"=>"com.apple.springboard"}

I installed another WDA as different bundle id. Let assume this another one is WDA B. The former is WDA A. When I launched an appium session with the WDA A, the A was able to activate the WDA B. But WDA A was not able to activate the WDA A itself.

So, not sure since, but it seems XCTest framework itself behaved differently… For now, the blow steps are probably solid way.

1. launch spring board: @driver.activate_app 'com.apple.springboard'
2. Open WDA: @driver.find_element :accessibility_id, 'WebDriverAgentRunner-Runner' and click it

I’ll add this way in the documentation

[nikoskyr]

@KazuCocoa thanks a lot for the detailed description of the problem. It is now understandable how the “problem” introduced at first place.

So at the time being the only solution-workaround is to launch the springboard and then open the WDA. I think we can close this issue!!