Even though v3 is not a massive leap as Appium 2, it introduces a few essential breaking changes that developers and QA engineers should be aware of. This new version focuses is designed to be leaner, faster, and more secure.
What is new in Appium V3?
- Requires Node.js 20.19+ and npm 10+
- Removal of deprecated and unused endpoints
- Full W3C WebDriver Compliance, aligning with modern automation standards
- security feature flag prefix requirements (e.g. adb_shell to uiautomator2:adb_shell)
- Appium Inspector Plugin: Inspector can now be hosted directly via Appium server rather than downloading it as a separate app. appium plugin install inspector
- Clients can set the X-Appium-Is-Sensitive HTTP header on requests to direct the server to mask the data in the request in the logs, so that when you send a password into an input box, the password’s actual value is not logged in plaintext.
Breaking changes
- Node.js and npm Version Requirement. Project teams need to upgrade their development and CI/CD environments accordingly.
- Removal of Deprecated Endpoints
- Feature flag prefix
4. Session Discovery
5. Express 5 upgrade
Appium 3 upgrades the internally-used express dependency from v4 to v5. This should not affect users who use Appium directly, but developers integrating parts of Appium into their own projects may want to check the Express 5 Migration Guide.
Benefits
- reduced startup time
- reduced memory usage baseline
- improved test execution speed
- better security
Migration Strategy
- Preparation
– backup the current setup
– update nodejs and npm accordingly - Test env migration
It is important to run all the tests and make sure they pass, otherwise analyze the errors
Docs and references
- Please see the Appium 3 migration guide HERE for more details.
- Appium 3 blog HERE
- Appium 3 medium article HERE