Run the installed application on the attached iPhone

Question

I am working on an attempt to run an automated test solution for some iOS applications. I use fruitstrap to transfer and install the compiled application to the connected iPhone, but I'm struggling to find a way to automatically launch the application after the installation is complete.

Fruitstrap has the ability to run the application in the GDB debugger, which works. Unfortunately, there are some test cases that require the application to start without a debugger application (special accident handling). I spent a lot of time confusing through the resources available in the MobileDevice library, which Fruitstrap uses, but I could not activate something when the application started.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Creating a bootstrap program and using URL schemes may be an option for some people, and, of course, it should be taken into account, but this does not meet my requirements.

What I ended up with was launching the application using the debugger using the fruit utility. I reassembled the fruit tray to include the following preparation commands (in the GDB_PREP_CMDS definition):

handle all noprint pass nostop continue 

The descriptor will transmit the signal to the program, so that the signal handler (accident handler in this case) will process the signal. The sequel was something I needed for the application to really start after the debugger started.

There is one unfortunate drawback in this, unfortunately, I do not know a workaround. The GDB version for ARM7 does not have the command 'set dont_handle_bad_access', as does the darwin version. For some reason, passing EXC_BAD_ACCESS signals to the program does not work, and the application freezes. This is important because it is the signal for most failures. But since it stands now, this is the best I can do, and at least its handling of exceptions thrown.

Answer 2

You can do what you want using fruitstrap or Xcode to run the bootstrap program, which causes your target application to run through a custom URL, as described by Michael.

As long as the bootstrap program is started under the debugger, the program launched by the URL will work fine.

Answer 3

I believe you can find some kind of custom URL scheme.

Take a look at the following document and scroll down to: Implement custom URL schemes

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#DOCUMENTATION/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/AdvancedAppTricks/AdvancedAppTricks.html

You can also google URL Schemas in iOS to find out if you come across something similar to what you are trying to do.

Let me know if this helped you. It would be interesting to hear if you had any success.

Greetings.