Tap Studio: inspect and record

Experimental

tap-studio, its page and the tap-recording/1 format are experimental: they may change in any release, including after 1.0, until this notice goes away.

Tap Studio shows a device's screen in your browser with its elements overlaid. It records what you do there as steps you can edit, replay and export. Every step targets an element through a selector, the same one you would write in a test (res("search"), text("Log in")), and never a screen coordinate. It runs through the same tap server your tests use.

A three-step recording in the Settings app, just replayed. Click any screenshot to enlarge it.

Install

It needs the tap server (The tap server), Python 3.10+ and a browser. Install the Python client first, then the studio:

pip install https://github.com/NoamCohen48/tap/releases/download/client-python/v0.0.2/tap_e2e-0.0.2-py3-none-any.whl
pip install https://github.com/NoamCohen48/tap/releases/download/client-studio/v0.0.1/tap_studio-0.0.1-py3-none-any.whl

Or install it from a checkout of the repository. The page is built with Bun. Run these from the repository root:

(cd clients/studio/web && bun install && bun run build)
pip install -e clients/python -e clients/studio

Run

tap start                    # once; the studio never starts the server
tap-studio                   # serves on a free loopback port and opens the page

Option	Effect
--no-open	Print the link instead of opening a browser (open it yourself).
--serial S	Attach device S at start instead of picking it in the page.
--port N	Serve on loopback port N instead of a free one.

The printed link carries a one-time token: the page signs in with it and the studio refuses anything else. It listens on 127.0.0.1 only. Ctrl-C stops it and frees the device.

Without --serial, the page lists the server's devices: pick one and attach it. Attaching names no app. Enter the package of the app you work on in the composer's App tab (it suggests the packages on screen): it is what the panel launches, stops, clears and waits for, and the app a replay offers to cold launch first (the page remembers it). Selectors are not limited to it, so a recording can go through a system dialog or a second app. The studio holds the device exclusively, as a test does, so another client cannot attach it until the studio releases it.

Next

• A first recording: record, check, replay and export a search in the Settings app, step by step.
• The page: the screen, the composer and its tabs, and how steps are recorded.
• Steps and export: editing and replaying steps, the tap-recording/1 file, and turning a recording into a test.