GADS

<!-- Title: GADS - Open Source Device Farm Description: Self-hosted device farm and test automation platform for iOS, Android, and Smart TVs (Samsung Tizen OS, LG WebOS). Open source alternative to AWS Device Farm and Firebase Test Lab with Appium integration. Author: shamanec Tags: device-farm, mobile-testing, ios-testing, android-testing, appium, test-automation, qa-tools, continuous-testing, mobile-device-management, selenium-grid --> <div align="center"> <picture> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="/docs/gads-logo-light.png" alt="GADS - Open Source Mobile Device Farm Platform - Dark Theme Logo"> <img src="/docs/gads-logo.png" width="256" alt="GADS - Open Source Mobile Device Farm Platform for iOS and Android Automated Testing"/> </picture> <h1>GADS - Device Farm for Mobile & Smart TV Testing</h1>

🚀 Self-Hosted Device Farm & Test Automation Platform - Alternative to AWS Device Farm and Firebase Test Lab for Mobile & Smart TV Testing

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🎯 What is GADS?

GADS is a free, open-source device farm platform that enables remote device control and Appium test execution on mobile devices (iOS/Android) and smart TVs (currently supporting Samsung Tizen OS and LG WebOS). Perfect for QA teams, mobile developers, and organizations looking for a self-hosted alternative to expensive cloud testing services like AWS Device Farm and Firebase Test Lab.

The platform architecture consists of two main components:

• Hub: A web interface for remote device control and provider management.
• Provider: Handles device setup and makes them available for remote access.

Why Choose GADS?

• 💰 Free: Self-hosted alternative to AWS Device Farm and Firebase Test Lab
• 📱 Cross-Platform: Full support for iOS and Android devices, plus automated testing for Smart TVs (Samsung Tizen OS, LG WebOS)
• 🎮 Remote Control: Real-time device control and testing capabilities
• 🔌 Appium Compatible: Works with industry-standard Appium testing framework
• 🔑 Flexible Authentication: Support for multiple JWT issuers with origin-based keys
• 🛠 Easy Setup: Simple installation and configuration process

✨ Key Features

Hub Features 🎯

• 🔐 Authentication System
  • User login with session management
  • Admin user management
  • Origin-based secret key management
  • Multiple JWT provider support
  • OAuth2 client credentials for Appium (requires gads:clientSecret capability)
  • Detailed Secret Keys Documentation
  • Appium Credentials Documentation
• 📱 Device Control
  • Real-time video streaming (MJPEG/WebRTC)
  • Remote interactions: tap, swipe, text input, get clipboard
  • Keyboard typing
  • App installation/uninstallation
  • High-quality screenshots
  • Device reservation system
• 🔄 Backend Capabilities
  • Web interface serving
  • Provider communication proxy
  • Experimental Selenium Grid replacement
• 👥 Workspace Management
  • User access control per workspace
  • Default workspace for legacy support
  • Detailed Workspace Documentation

Provider Features 🔌

• 🛠️ Easy Setup
  • UI-based device management
• 🤖 Automated Device Provisioning
  • Per-device Appium server configuration (optional)
• 📡 Remote Control
  • iOS streaming via WebDriverAgent
  • iOS WebRTC video stream via WebDriverAgent through a ffmpeg pipeline (Experimental)- ffmpeg should be installed and available in PATH
  • iOS WebRTC video stream via Broadcast Extension (Experimental) - notes
  • Android MJPEG video streaming
  • Android WebRTC video stream (Experimental) - notes
  • Non-Appium based interaction
  • Keyboard typing (highly performant on Android, usable on iOS)
• 🧪 Testing Integration
  • Individual Appium server endpoints (optional)
  • Optional Selenium Grid 4 node registration
  • Automated testing for Smart TVs - currently supports Samsung Tizen OS and LG WebOS (no remote control, testing only)

💻 Platform Support

| OS | Android Support | iOS Support | Smart TV Support | Notes | |------------|----------------|-------------|---------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | macOS | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (automation only) | Full support for mobile, Smart TVs support only automated testing | | Linux | ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ (automation only) | Limited iOS support due to Xcode dependency. Currently supports Tizen & WebOS | | Windows| ✅ | ⚠️ | ✅ (automation only) | Limited iOS support due to Xcode dependency. Currently supports Tizen & WebOS |

Important: Smart TV support (Tizen OS and WebOS) is focused on automated testing only. Manual interaction and real-time device control available for mobile devices are not supported for smart TVs.

License

This repository is dual-licensed:

• Open Source Components (AGPL-3.0): All source code in this repository, excluding explicitly listed proprietary components, is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 (AGPL-3.0).

• Proprietary Components: The hub-ui directory is licensed under a separate proprietary license. See PROPRIETARY-LICENSE.txt for more information.

Please refer to the LICENSE-OVERVIEW file for a detailed overview.

Using GADS

GADS, including both open source and obfuscated proprietary components, is freely available for use under the terms specified in the license. Users can utilize all functionalities provided by GADS, including those powered by the proprietary components.

Important Notes on Proprietary Components

• While the proprietary components are included in the distribution, their source code is not available for viewing, modification, or redistribution.
• These components are provided in an obfuscated form to protect our intellectual property.
• Users are granted the right to use these components as part of GADS, but not to decompile, reverse engineer, or attempt to extract the original source code.

Contributions and Modifications

• Contributions and modifications to the open-source portions of GADS are welcome.
• Please note that it is not possible to contribute to or modify the proprietary components due to their obfuscated nature.

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Before getting started, make sure you have the following:

• A MongoDB instance (v6.0 recommended)
• Network connectivity between Hub, Providers, MongoDB, and Selenium Grid

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⚡ Quick Start

Option 1: Download the latest binary

1. Go to the releases page and download the latest binary for your platform.

Option 2: Build from source for non-UI related development

IMPORTANT You can freely use the Go code to your ends or provide new features/bug fixes on mainstream project but any changes to the UI should be requested from the core team.

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/shamanec/GADS

# Build the application without UI
cd ../..
go build .

Option 3: Build from source for UI related development

IMPORTANT You can freely use the Go code to your ends or provide new features/bug fixes on mainstream project but any changes to the UI should be requested from the core team.

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/shamanec/GADS

2. Download the prebuilt UI files zip from the latest release
3. Unzip the file from step into your GADS folder in a new folder named hub-ui, your folder structure should look like ../GADS/hub-ui/build/*
4. Build the application

cd ../..
go build -tags ui .

Note: Optionally before building you can update the docs.go (OpenAPI spec) by running swag init -g hub/hub.go -o docs

🛠️ Common setup

🌱 MongoDB

The project uses MongoDB for storing logs and for synchronization of some data between hub and providers. You can either run MongoDB in a docker container:

• You need to have Docker(Docker Desktop on macOS, Windows) installed.
• Execute docker run -d --restart=always --name mongodb -p 27017:27017 mongo:6.0. This will pull the official MongoDB 6.0 image from Docker Hub and start a container binding ports 27017 for the MongoDB instance.
• You can use MongoDB Compass or another tool to access the db if needed.

or

• Start MongoDB instance in the way you prefer

⚙️ Hub setup

For detailed instructions on setting up the Hub, refer to the Hub Setup Docs

📱 Provider setup

For detailed instructions on setting up the Provider, refer to the Provider Setup Docs.

Running GADS as a System Service

To ensure that GADS runs continuously and can be managed easily, it is