Manage Appium Sessions - Amazon Vega Docs

The Appium Vega Driver uses a session-based model to manage the connection between your test automation scripts and the Appium Server. Create and configure an Appium session with appropriate capabilities to automate your apps.

Understand the capabilities for Appium session

Before you create your first session, it’s important to understand the capabilities for each Appium session. The Appium session is the fundamental unit of interaction between your test code and the Appium Server. When you create a new session, you’re establishing a connection to the server and defining the target device, platform, and the app you want to automate.

Required capabilities

The following table lists the specific device, platform, and app you want to automate to establish a successful connection.

Capability	Type	Required?	Description	Values
`platformName`	string	yes	Specifies the platform type that hosts your app or browser. Set the `platformName` to `Kepler` when using Appium Vega Driver.	`Kepler`
`appium:automationName`	string	yes	Specifies the Appium driver name. Set `appium:automationName` to automation-toolkit/JSON-RPC when using Appium Vega Driver.	`automation-toolkit/JSON-RPC`
`kepler:device`	string	yes	Specifies the device for test automation using the format . The system supports only the `vda` bridge. If you connected only one device to the machine using Appium Vega Driver, you can use `default` as the device serial number.	`vda://default` or `vda://GXXXXXXXXXX`

Optional capability

You can add appURL as an optional capability to specify which app to launch during a test run. Example values:

com.amazon.frenchpress.main
com.amazon.youtube.main

Create an Appium session

To create an Appium session for a Fire TV Stick, complete the following steps.

Get your device serial number.
kepler exec vda devices
The command lists connected devices and their serial numbers. Copy the serial number for the device you want to automate.

Set up capabilities.

device_serial = "<Your device serial>"

desired_caps = {
     "platformName": "Kepler",
     "appium:automationName": "automation-toolkit/JSON-RPC",
     "kepler:device": f"vda://{device_serial}"
}

Call the driver.createSession() method and pass the desired capabilities. Example:

def appium_session():
    appium_options = AppiumOptions()
    appium_options.load_capabilities(desired_caps)
    driver = webdriver.Remote('http://127.0.0.1:4723', options=appium_options)

A session is established and the driver object is ready to send automation commands to the target device.

Example Appium session

Here’s how an Appium session looks:

device_serial = "<Your device serial>"

desired_caps = {
    "platformName": "Kepler",
    "appium:automationName": "automation-toolkit/JSON-RPC",
    "kepler:device": f"vda://{device_serial}"
  }

  def appium_session():
      appium_options = AppiumOptions()
      appium_options.load_capabilities(desired_caps)
      driver = webdriver.Remote('http://127.0.0.1:4723', options=appium_options)

End your Appium session

To end an Appium session and release any associated resources, call the driver.quit(). To avoid resource leaks and issues with later test runs, end your session properly.

Next steps

Write Tests with Appium Vega Driver

​Understand the capabilities for Appium session

​Required capabilities

​Optional capability

​Create an Appium session

​Example Appium session

​End your Appium session

​Next steps