How a Learning Project Became Our Modern Mobile Test Framework
Article Summary
What started as one engineer's Appium 1 learning project at trivago became their production mobile test framework for six years. Here's how they evolved it through Appium 2 and 3 without another ground-up rewrite.
Trivago's mobile team faced a common problem: their homegrown automation framework couldn't survive a Java upgrade. Instead of patching it, they used the crisis as a learning opportunity that evolved into a decade-long journey through three major Appium versions.
Key Takeaways
- Switched from parallel JVM forks to threads, cutting memory overhead and startup time
- Plugin architecture with lifecycle hooks isolated platform logic and cross-cutting concerns
- App developers now add accessibility IDs during feature design, not as QA afterthought
- E2E tests now pull double duty: validating features and enforcing accessibility standards
By rebuilding around Appium 2's driver model with modularity and shared ownership, trivago created a framework that absorbed Appium 3 changes without another rewrite.
About This Article
Trivago's mobile automation framework, built in-house, stopped working when they upgraded Java six years ago. They had to decide whether to patch the aging system or rebuild it from scratch.
They chose to rebuild using Appium 2's W3C WebDriver standards and driver-centric model. A plugin architecture gave them full lifecycle access, which let them separate platform-specific concerns from cross-cutting ones.
The modular approach handled Appium 3 changes without needing another complete rebuild. The framework can now evolve instead of becoming outdated.
