Enable remote content debugging of Android apps

OpenText Functional Testing Lab supports testing non-packaged hybrid Android apps, provided that remote content debugging has been enabled in the app. Before testing a non-packaged hybrid Android app, inspect your app to see if remote content debugging is enabled. For more details on remote debugging of WebViews, see the Chrome Developers documentation.

If remote content debugging is not already enabled, you can set up OpenText Functional Testing Lab to automatically enable this, after an app is uploaded to the server. Alternatively, use the Android Enabler tool to manually enable remote content debugging.

In this topic:

Automatically enable remote content debugging

Setting up OpenText Functional Testing Lab to automatically enable remote debugging in Android hybrid apps uses OpenText Functional Testing Lab's app packaging mechanism, and requires you to configure several settings.

Although the app packaging mechanism is used, unlike packaged apps, no record and replay libraries are added to the app.

To enable automatic remote content debugging:

1. On the OpenText Functional Testing Lab Server machine, open the server properties file:
   

OS	Location
Linux:	<Path to your server installation folder>/server/conf/server.properties
Windows	<Path to your server installation folder>\server\conf\server.properties

2. To active remote debugging, add the following line:
   APP_UPLOAD_ENABLE_REMOTE_DEBUGGING=true
3. In the OpenText Functional Testing Lab console, open Administration > Settings. In the packaging service section for Android, set the following:
   • IP address and port of the machine that is used by the packaging service. By default, the Android package service machine is set to localhost.
   • Set the protocol type to http or https, depending on whether the connection is secure.
4. Restart the OpenText Functional Testing Lab server.
   

For Android apps that use services requiring a private key you also need to set up app signing services.

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Manually enable remote content debugging

You can manually enable remote content debugging in your app from the command line using the Android Enabler tool.

Prerequisites:

The packaging process should be run on a machine that meets the following requirements:

• The Java Runtime Environment (v7.X or higher) is installed
• The JRE_HOME environment variable is defined
• 1.5 GB free RAM (Recommended)

To enable remote content debugging:

1. Copy the following to the testing tool machine:
   

   • AndroidTools folder. This folder is located in the server folder on the OpenText Functional Testing Lab server machine.

   • Your app (.apk file)

2. Run the enabler on your app.

   To sign the app with your own Android certificate

   Run the following from the command line:

   Windows

   <Path to AndroidTools folder>\MCAndroidEnabler.bat –keystore <Android key store path> –alias <Android alias name> –storepass <Android store password> -keypass <Android key password> –webdriver <path to your application>

   Linux

   <Path to AndroidTools folder>/MCAndroidEnabler.sh –keystore <Android key store path> –alias <Android alias name> –storepass <Android store password> -keypass <Android key password> –webdriver <path to your application>

   –keystore	The path to keystore file containing your set of private keys.
   –alias	The name used to identify the private key entry in the key store.
   -storepass	The password for the key store.
   -keypass	The password for the private key used to sign your apps.
   -webdriver	Enable remote content debugging.
   -removeSecuredLayout	Removes the LayoutParams.FLAG_SECURE flag, when set, from any detected Window.setFlag() invocations.

   The process consists of a number of steps. Wait for the steps to be completed successfully.

   The result is an APK file signed with your android certificate. For example, running the above command on my-android-app.apk generates the file: my-android-app.apk.signed.apk in the same folder as the original APK file.

   Upload the generated *.signed.apk file to OpenText Functional Testing Lab.
   

   To sign the app with the default debug certificate:

   Run the following from the command line:

   Windows

   <Path to AndroidTools folder>\MCAndroidEnabler.bat –webdriver –signdebug <path to your application>
   

   Linux

   <Path to AndroidTools folder>/MCAndroidEnabler.sh –webdriver –signdebug <path to your application>
   

   –webdriver	Enable remote content debugging.
   -signdebug	Sign the app with the debug certificate.
   -removeSecuredLayout	Removes the LayoutParams.FLAG_SECURE flag, when set, from any detected Window.setFlag() invocations.

   The process consists of a number of steps. Wait for the steps to be completed successfully.

   The result is an APK file signed with the default debug certificate. For example, running the above command on my-android-app.apk generates the file my-android-app.apk.signed.debug.apk in the same folder as the original APK file.
   

   Upload the generated *.signed.debug.apk file to OpenText Functional Testing Lab .

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Troubleshooting

Remote debugging may not succeed when: