Getting Brominet to work with YOUR app

How to go about integrating Brominet into your own applications.

by Noah Sussman

It is recommended to look at JustPlayed in order to better understand how to use Ian's Encumber module.

Download Dependencies

  cd MY_PROJECT

  git clone git://github.com/textarcana/brominet brominet
  git clone git://github.com/undees/cocoahttpserver server
  git clone git://github.com/undees/asi-http-request asi-http-request

Create a Brominet build target

1. In XCode, duplicate your application's main target. By convention the target is named "Brominet."

2. Add a new group named Brominet to your project. Link the Brominet group only with Brominet target.

3. Drag the needed objective-c files from MY_PROJECT/brominet (in the Finder), into the Brominet group. Use the list below as a guide as to which files are needed. Or just put Ian's project side by side with yours, and then make sure to copy over the same files. (list of which files TK). Make sure the path for all the files is "relative to project."

4. Add a new CocoaHTTPServer group. Link the CocoaHTTPServer group, only with the Brominet target.

5. Drag the needed objective-c files from MY_PROJECT/server, into the CocoaHTTPServer group.

6. Add a new ASIHTTPRequest group. Link the ASIHTTPRequest group, only with the Brominet target.

7. Drag the needed objective-c files from MY_PROJECT/server, into the ASIHTTPRequest group.

Configure the Brominet target

Do a "Get Info" on the brominet Brominet target, and in Build section, do the following:

1. add this to the Header Search Path:

   /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/SDKs/iPhoneOS3.0.sdk/usr/include/libxml2;

2. link the libxml2 library to your Frameworks folder

3. add the preprocessor macro (GCC_PREPROCESSOR_DEFINITIONS) with value BROMINET_ENABLED;

4. make sure GCC_C_LANGUAGE_STANDARD is c99 or gnu99

Include the dependencies in project

Now update the app delegate with some ifdefs. The easiest way to see which files are required, may be to look at the app delegate in Ian Dees' JustPlayed example app,.

At a minimum, do the following.

1. add the ifdefs HTTP server include, and invocation to AppDelegate.h

2. add the ifdef for headers to AppDelegate.m

3. add the ifdef to launch the server to AppDelegate.m

4. add the ifdef stop the server and garbage collect, to AppDelegate.m

Troubleshooting your Brominet installation

Because Brominet is integrated with your app, it's important to be aware of all the dependencies for both Brominet and your own code.

ASIHTTPRequest and Reachability.h versions

Note that in Ian's JustPlayed example, ASIHTTPRequest uses the Reachability 1.5 API. Apple has since upgraded the Reachability library to 2.0, and ASIHTTPRequest now supports both versions of the Reachability API. Although the new version is backward compatible, be aware that newer applications may already be including Reachability 2.0.

Driving Brominet from a Ruby process

First, to see Brominet in action, take a look at the Cucumber functional tests for iPhone that Ian Dees presented at OSCON 2009.

Instant gratification: test drive the JustPlayed example app

If you just want to test drive Brominet, you can follow the instructions in my fork.

I'm using my fork of the JustPlayed example application as an example. The procedure outline here is the same for any app into which you've installed Brominet.

If you build and start the simulator with my fork of the JustPlayed example application, then you should notice a new service running on port 50000. You can then control the app in the simulator, by sending chunks of XML over HTTP. This is all handled by Ian's encumber.rb library.

Remote-controlled iPhone apps

If you build the Brominet-enabled app onto an iPhone, then you can control the iPhone over a wi-fi network.

To find your iPhone's IP address, follow these instructions.

1. Assuming you are already connected to a wi-fi network, go to Settings > Wi-Fi.

2. Tap the name of the network to which you are currently connected (the one with a check mark next to it).

3. In the DHCP tab, note the IP address of your device.

4. Assuming your computer is connected to the same wi-fi network, you can now connect to the Brominet Web service on your iPhone, on port

Test-driving Brominet from the IRB

Here is how to use the IRB to call the app directly and dump the XML of the GUI. Type or paste the following 3 commands into the IRB.

load 'lib/encumber.rb'

@gui = Encumber::GUI.new 'localhost'
 
File.open('encumber_gui.xml', 'w') {|f| f.write(@gui.dump) }

Then open encumber_gui.xml in an XML editor like Firefox or XML Spy. Once you work out which XPaths correspond to the buttons in your app, you can start tapping buttons using Encumber::GUI#press

@gui.press '//xpath/to/button'

If you have deployed a Brominet-enabled app on an iPhone, then you can use the same procedure to connect to it.

@gui = Encumber::GUI.new '10.0.1.23'

Finally, if you start the the IRB in the root of my fork of JustPlayed, then you can use the convenience methods that are implemented in my .irbc file.

Sources

1. http://code.google.com/p/bromine/wiki/UsingBromine

2. http://forums.pragprog.com/forums/134/topics/3166

3. http://github.com/textarcana/justplayed/tree/master/doc/install/

4. http://allseeing-i.com/ASIHTTPRequest

See also http://delicious.com/thefangmonster/brominet