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Testing Challenges: Hardware Integration with Mobile App
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By [x]cube LABS
Published: May 04 2015
Mobile app hardware integration has opened up new possibilities in enterprise mobility. A hardware can be integrated with the app by connecting to audio jack, pairing with bluetooth and WiFi.
Our main approach while using the app is simple: to collect the data that we want to pick up from the hardware and display it on the mobile app. Based on this logic, we build an application and the communication is established between hardware and the application via protocols depending on the type of integration such as bluetooth, audio jack and WiFi. It is also equally important to notice and overcome challenges we encounter while integrating the hardware and the software. Here are a few testing challenges commonly encountered in hardware integration with mobile apps:
Hardware and software compatibility with various devices and OS: The most complex is integrating the hardware with an array of handsets and versions of the mobile platform available. It’s important to test the application in possible devices which are mostly used by end user. Hence we need to make sure that the hardware integrated with a particular handset with one OS is working well with another handset with a different OS.
Verifying audio file compatibility: It is very difficult to identify that the integrated audio file in the mobile application for hardware is working fine with all mobile devices including iOS and Android devices with different OS versions. So the tester has to verify that the hardware is responding well and the data displaying in the mobile application in different mobile devices is correct/ accurate.
Verifying battery status of hardware: It is most important to verify the battery status of the hardware which is displaying in the mobile application. So the battery should get tested first – how much voltage it has – using the multimeter and make sure that
- The same data gets reflected in the mobile application as the battery status.
- While using the same battery in different hardware components, it should display the same battery status in the mobile application and should not fluctuate.
- When the battery is about to die, the hardware response to the mobile application is very poor.
Verifying data bits using protocol document: To ensure proper functionality and data response from the hardware to the application, the tester needs to take the help of a hardware engineer to collect the data bits response of the application when the hardware is connected to the device. And those data bits should be compared with the protocol document to check whether values displayed in the app are correct or not.
Another way to verify the data is — the tester should go through the original hardware components and play with those to see how the hardware is working, the display of values and functionality, etc., so that the tester can easily understand the application and test it thoroughly with all possible scenarios.
(Devi durga Potluri works as a Module Lead QA at [x]cubeLABS. She has over 6 years of experience in Mobile handsets(MRSF), Mobile and Web application testing and Hardware integration testing.)