What's New in Mobile Center 2.50

Mobile Center 2.50 includes a number of new features, enhancements, and fixes.

Cross platform code-signing of Agent and Launcher apps – sign iOS apps without macOS

You no longer require a system running with macOS to code-sign the Agent and Launcher apps. Using the HPMC Enabler utility on Linux, you can now re-sign iOS apps without a Macintosh. For details, see Re-sign the Agent apps.

Enhanced Network Virtualization

Network Virtualization (NV) enables you to easily emulate different real life mobile network conditions. Unlock the value of Mobile Center network virtualization capabilities with our latest enhancements:

‘Network Virtualization in the cloud’ option (available in Administration Settings) allows you to experiment with Mobile Center's network virtualization capabilities with the click of a button, without the need to install anything.
Network Virtualization is available for manual exploratory testing through the Mobile Center Lab Management console:
- Supports network virtualization transactions and analysis reports.
- Supports downloading an NV HAR file at the end of session, so load tests can be generated easily and accurately.
Network Virtualization is available when running Appium scripts.

Centralized connector management

A new Connectors view in the Mobile Center Lab console provides complete visibility of connectors for easier lab management. Information such as IP address, connector name, version installed, status, and connected devices is displayed. Click the Devices link to view the devices connected to a specific connector. For details, see View and manage connectors.

Installation streamlining

We've introduced the following enhancements to the installation process:

Windows

New installation wizard for improved usability:
- Simplified installation flow, with less information to input. Automatic discovery of Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and IP address, and setting of values for server, internal and database ports.
- On completion of the installation, the user is automatically directed to the Mobile Center Lab console. Links to the console and to the Mobile Center Help are automatically added to the Start menu, and as a shortcut to the desktop.

Linux

The installer can now be launched with a non-root (sudo) user
When uninstalling Mobile Center, you can now save the existing user ("hpmc") initially created during the installation of Mobile Center as a default user for the next installation.

Device control panel enhancements

The device control panel includes the following new functionalities:

Copy text to device. The Send text to device option enables you to paste text to an input field on the device. This is particularly useful when you need to input a long line of text, for example a long URL, as part of your test.
Option to automatically uninstall the app from the device at end of an ad-hoc testing session.
Download device logs during ad-hoc testing session.
Use Network Virtualization (NV) as part of your ad-hoc testing session. You can easily switch between different network emulation modes. NV transactions are also supported for producing analytics reports. You can download analysis reports from Mobile Center, or download a HAR file for creating load tests based on your network emulation session.
Image quality control lets you adjust the resolution of the images displayed on the device, in favor of an improved response time of device interactions when the network latency is high.

Embedded user assistance

Wizards have been introduced to make it easier for you to perform some of Mobile Center's more complex tasks. The wizards guide you step-by-step, from within the Mobile Center user interface, through the following processes:

Connect a device to Mobile Center
Network Virtualization device configuration

iOS provisioning improvements

Provisioning is the process of preparing an app to launch on devices. As part of this process, a match is required between the provisioning profile embedded in the app and the one installed on the device. You can now easily know if your iOS app is signed with an Enterprise or Development certificate, and on which devices it can be installed:

From the Apps tab in the Lab console, view the certificate an app is signed with, and which devices are listed in the provisioning profile.
Non-provisioned device alert. If you try to install an app on a device that is not included in the provisioning profile of the app, a warning icon is displayed.

Appium

Appium 1.6 compatible
iOS. We've added a new capability automationName so that you can switch between using XCUITest (the Appium default for iOS 10 and above) and UIAutomation as the automation type. This eliminates the need for a Mac connector for iOS 10.0 and above.
The Appium integration now supports network virtualization.

Amazon Device Farm

The Mobile Center administrator can now specify in the ADF integration settings, the Amazon S3 bucket name that Mobile Center should use. This allows you to set up an AWS policy for reading and writing to a specific bucket only.

Software integrations

We've added support for the following:

UFT 12.54
Mobile Center extension for ALM 12.53 Patch 2 and 12.21 Patch 4

API

We've enhanced our Mobile Center API to support the following:

Uninstall application from a mobile device
Close (force stop) application on a device
Start and stop the collection of device logs
Manage the Mobile Center connectors list

Stabilization and support

Support for latest iOS releases 10.3.1 and 10.3.2 inclusive.
Certification of additional devices. See supported devices for a complete list of supported and certified devices.
Customer enhancement requests, including record and replay quality enhancements, and various other fixes.