Open Source Automated Testing for iPhone Apps

If you have ever been involved with any software development you know that testing your code can sometimes take even longer than actually writing it. If you can afford an automated testing tool, you can really cut that time down. In the traditional computer world there is a healthy ecosystem of tools that are available to test applications, some automated, some not. 

Today there is no hotter market than app development for smartphones.  With literally hundreds of thousands of apps available for the iOS that runs on the iPhone and iPad, an automated testing solution was sorely needed.  Into this breach stepped a Boulder, Co based company called Gorilla Logic and their open source FoneMonkey tool. With the slogan that one Gorilla beats 10 monkeys, Gorilla Logic has helped some of the largest companies in the world develop great software. What’s great about their mobile tools is that it is free, open source software that brings state-of-the-art automated software testing to everyone.

I had a chance to sit down with Ed Schwarz, co-founder and VP of engineering of Gorilla Logic to talk about the company and the newest version of FoneMonkey that they just announced. This latest version features some key new features including:

Robust script recording and playback – more comprehensive recording and playback for user interactions, including taps, keyboard input, dragging and scrolling for all Cocoa Touch    components.

Code generation options – FoneMonkey can now generate ready-to-run test scripts in Objective-C that can be run under OCUnit, or JavaScript that can be run with Apple’s UI Automation tools.

Optimized for both iPhone and iPad platforms and user interfaces.

FoneMonkey now works on both simulators and real devices.

Test playbacks can be completely automated.

Schwarz says the company makes money by offering services and support for the open source FoneMonkey tool. But the folks at Gorilla Logic actually developed FoneMonkey for their own development projects. When they saw that FoneMonkey was so valuable they decided to offer it to everyone to fill this gap in the development ecosystem for mobile development.

Gorilla Logic has been developing software for over 10 years. Made up of ex-Sun engineers the founding team formed the core of Suns Java professional services team. With Java such a popular choice for mobile development, Gorilla Logic finds itself in high demand.  Giving the community the FoneMonkey tool has helped establish them as a leader in the mobile development scene.

In the meantime all mobile developers get the benefit of an automated testing tool.  Sounds like a win-win to me. In addition to FoneMonkey for iPhone and iPad, Gorilla Logic has also released open source testing tools for the Adobe Flex platform. As the company develops on other mobile platforms, you can probably expect to see more open source testing apps come from Gorilla Logic.

Part of the hot Boulder tech scene, Gorilla Logic is not venture backed. It has taken them 10 years to get where they are today, but looking back they wouldn’t have it any other way! In the meantime, hopefully we will all see better quality apps delivered because FoneMonkey is available as a free and opens source tool for everyone to use.