XCode is bundled with fairly sophisticated UI testing capabilities, but doesn’t provide the best documentation or most intuitive interface. Here, I’ll list a few tips that I’ve been saving and referencing when creating UI tests.

How-To Resources

A number of excellent write-ups and resources already exist. Many of the tips below originated in these:

Accessibility and UI Testing in iOS by Jonathan Chen
• https://medium.com/@jchen_77520/accessibility-and-ui-testing-in-ios-3eb0822a17fb
⁃ Well-written, detailed descriptions of how UI testing works in iOS and its relation to accessibility

Xcode UI Testing Cheat Sheet by Paul Hudson
• https://www.hackingwithswift.com/articles/148/xcode-ui-testing-cheat-sheet
⁃ Great list of elements and queries with concise examples. Also tips for communicating between the tests and app

UI Testing Cheat Sheet and Examples by Joe Masilotti
• http://masilotti.com/ui-testing-cheat-sheet/
⁃ Solid examples of how to manipulate trickier controls like slider and picker in testing. Slightly dated

Quick Tips

There are a number of XCUIElement selectors, but a particular subset is most common:

XCUIElement	Corresponding UIKit class
.button	UIButton, including in tab bars, navigation bars, and alert modals
.staticText	UILabel, including pretty much any text
.other	UIView
.cell	UICollectionViewCell and UITableViewCell

Queries:

.exists
.isHittable

Waiting (synchronously / blocking):

sleep(3) // wait 3 seconds
element.waitForExistence(3) // waits for at-most 3 seconds but continues as soon as true

Performing actions:

.tap()
.typeText("foo")
.rotate()

Getting elements by order:

let app = XCUIApplication()
app.buttons.element(boundBy: 0) // gets the first button on screen
app.buttons.element(boundBy: 3) // gets the fourth

View all the UITest labels and elements onscreen (the Accessibility Hierarchy):

print(app.debugDescription)

Assert a button is onscreen:

let window = app.windows.element(boundBy: 0)
let element = app.buttons.element(boundBy: 0)
XCTAssert(CGRectContainsRect(window.frame, element.frame))