Qunar Mobile Testing Cloud (Nebula): Architecture, Features, and Deployment

During the 2016 Qunar Tech Carnival, the Qmobile session presented the Qunar Mobile Testing Cloud, named Nebula, which provides cloud services for mobile client automation testing by implementing both device autonomy (monitoring, allocation, recycling, Wi‑Fi setup) and service autonomy (UI automation, compatibility, and monkey crash testing).

The platform’s core components include a client automation safety net and four main functions: smart distribution of devices based on test duration and required parallelism, distributed scheduling that allows multiple phones on a single slave to run tests concurrently, comprehensive device management (information collection, status monitoring, remote operations), and automated task scheduling for both automatic triggers and manual task creation.

Smart distribution automatically assigns the appropriate number of phones to meet the expected automation runtime, while distributed scheduling enables different phones on the same slave to execute UI automation or monkey tests simultaneously.

Device management gathers basic phone information (device ID, model, brand, SDK version), monitors execution states, and supports remote actions such as reboot, APK installation, and online screen interaction.

Nebula supports three test types: UI automation using the XTS framework, monkey crash testing, and installation testing. The XTS framework validates page rendering, navigation, and request correctness by comparing baseline screenshots with new client screenshots, highlighting visual regressions such as title truncation bugs.

Deployment relies on mac mini machines as slaves, each equipped with a 10‑port USB hub connecting up to ten phones; the article includes diagrams of the hardware layout and a video demonstration of Nebula in operation.

Overall, the article explains Nebula’s underlying principles, functional capabilities, and the implementation details of its UI automation framework, offering insight into building a scalable mobile testing cloud.