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AskUI on macOS

Prerequisites​

Check if you have the following requirements, before you start the process.

  • You need an AskUI account. Don't have one? Sign up for a free trial here!
  • Make sure you have Administrator privileges on the computer, where you want to use AskUI.
  • Consider using an IDE. We recommend Visual Studio Code.

Setup​

Step 0: Create an AskUI Account​

warning

As we need to prevent misuse of our API, we need you to create some credentials through our AskUI Studio.

Please sign up for a free trial.

Step 1: Download Installer​

# Download installer into /tmp folder
curl -o /tmp/AskUI-Suite-24.9.1-User-Installer-MacOS-ARM64-Full.run https://files.askui.com/releases/Installer/24.9.1/AskUI-Suite-24.9.1-User-Installer-MacOS-ARM64-Full.run

It will install the following components:

Step 2: Setup AskUI on Your Computer​

Run the installer:

bash /tmp/AskUI-Suite-24.9.1-User-Installer-MacOS-ARM64-Full.run
  • Press Enter to review the license agreement. Then press and hold Enter to scroll.
  • Accept the license agreement.

Answer the questions:

  • Do you use a proxy?
  • Do you want to make AskUI Command globally available?
tip

Close and re-open your terminal window for the installation to take effect.

Step 3: Activate the AskUI Development Environment (ADE)​

Open a terminal and run the following command:

askui-shell

Activating the ADE may take a few seconds.

info

If you are not sure what an ADE command does, you can run Get-Help <command> to get more information about it.

Step 4: Connect Your AskUI Account​

info

As we need to prevent misuse of our API, we need you to create some credentials through our AskUI Studio.

Please sign up for a free trial.

Run the following command to authenticate and connect your ADE to your AskUI account. Replace <access token> and <workspace id> with your real credentials from AskUI Studio.

AskUI-SetSettings -WorkspaceId <workspace id> -Token <access token>

How do I get credentials?

  • Access Token You can create a new access token inside AskUI Studio. Go to any Workspace and navigate to Access Tokens in the left sidebar.
  • Workspace ID Navigate to your workspace settings. You can find the workspace ID under General below the workspace name.

Validate the settings with the following command:

AskUI-ShowSettings

Step 5: Start the Controller​

info

You have to disable mouse acceleration for the AskUI Controller to work properly!

Start the AskUI Controller with:

AskUI-StartController -RunInBackground
warning

The AskUI Controller needs permission to screen recording and accessibility features. On first run it will prompt you to grant these permissions in your Privacy settings.

Step 6: Create a New Project​

Switch to a directory where you want to create the new AskUI project and run:

AskUI-NewProject -ProjectName askui_first -TestFramework jest -TypeScriptConfig true

Step 7: Open Your Project​

Your new AskUI project has now been created inside the folder you specified and its path is set as your current working directory: <path you ran AskUI-NewProject>/<your_askui_project_name>.

Now open this folder with your IDE of choice.

Details of the AskUI project setup

If you are using Visual Studio Code, you can run the following command in the same command prompt:

code .

On the left, in your file explorer, you should see the files that make up your AskUI project.

  1. .askui\Settings - Global Project Settings
  2. allure-results - AskUI reporter files will be generated here
  3. askui_example - Workflow Files
    a. helpers - Helper functions for your project
    b. jest.config.ts - Jest Automation Framework Settings
    c. my-first-askui-test-suite.ts - An example workflow file
  4. node_modules - Packages needed to make AskUI work
  5. report - Annotations will be generated here

AskUI Project Visual Studio Code

Step 8: Open a Workflow File​

The workflow files are where you will write your automation scripts. To find them, navigate to the askui_example folder.

The project comes with one template workflow, which is called my-first-askui-test-suite.ts.

On the next page, you will dive deeper into how to write instructions in the AskUI automation framework.

Next Steps​

You are now ready to create your first workflow with AskUI! Please go to the next page Write Your First Instruction.