[Appium] Start an appium session with a network device

This is a note to run Appium/XCUITest driver on a real device over Wi-Fi.

  1. Make sure an iOS device is available over Wi-Fi (Xcode can find the network-connected device)
  2. Build Appium/WebDriverAgent for the device, install it on the device and start it
  3. Start a port-forwarding with iproxy
  4. Start an appium session with appium:webDriverAgentUrl capability

Then, it works. I have confirmed this way worked in this issue. I haven’t tested, but port-forwarding to a network device may not work with vanilla appium-ios-device so far, so it needs another tool such as iproxy for now. For app installation, if the appium native one did not work, ios-deploy as appium:appInstallStrategy capability may help. Recent ios-deploy support network devices.

Some commands which require usbmuxd communication worked, but I confirmed py-ios-device did not. So, some combinations may not work because of their implementation.

Note: Appium has not supported network devices officially as the port-forwarding thing in appium-ios-device. This may be more unreliable thank USB connected one. Basically, I’d like to recommend using USB connected environment.

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