The advanced way to install appium

If you want to modify Appium source code. You must take full control of the installation process. This will allow you to:

1. Modify Appium server source code
2. Understand how Appium works

For Appium to works you need:

1. Nodejs
2. Appium server
3. Mocha & Grunt modules

Install nodejs:

• Simply go to: http://nodejs.org/download/
• Download binary file for your operation system (Mac OS X is required):
  • 64Bit OS X: http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.3/node-v0.10.3-darwin-x64.tar.gz
  • 32Bit OS X: http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.4/node-v0.10.4-darwin-x86.tar.gz - Only use this if you are using 32bit OS X.
• Unzip the file you will get:

node-v0.10.3-darwin-x64/bin/node
node-v0.10.3-darwin-x64//lib/node_modules/npm

• Create bin file:

cd /usr/local/bin/
ln -s /path/to/node
ln -s /path/to/npm/bin/npm

Install appium server:

1. Option 1 - Github:
   • Git appium project: https://github.com/appium/appium
   • Create bin file:

chmod +x /path/to/appium/app/bin.js
cd /usr/local/bin/
ln -s /path/to/appium/app/bin.js appium
ln -s /path/to/appium/instruments/client_bin.js instruments_client

2. Option 2 - Node Package Module (npm):
   • npm install appium
     • This command will download and create appium project folder
   • Create bin file:

chmod +x /path/to/appium/app/bin.js
cd /usr/local/bin/
ln -s /path/to/appium/app/bin.js appium
ln -s /path/to/appium/instruments/client_bin.js instruments_client

Install mocha & grunt modules:

• npm install mocha
• npm install grunt-cli
  • This command will download and create mocha & grunt-cli modules folder
• Create bin file:

cd /usr/local/bin/
ln -s /path/to/mocha/bin/_mocha _mocha
ln -s /path/to/mocha/bin/mocha mocha
ln -s /path/to/grunt-cli/bin/grunt grunt

Congratulation, you are done! And now you can run appium server by CLI and test your script Here is the simple example for you to play:

mkdir appium-test && cd appium-test
npm install appium -g  # might have to do this with sudo
npm install wd
curl -O https://raw.github.com/appium/appium/master/sample-code/examples/node/simplest.js
appium &
node simplest.js