📱 How to Read Desired Capabilities from Excel and Set Them in DriverFactory – Java + Appium

In mobile test automation using Appium, it’s common to manage desired capabilities directly in the code or through .properties or .json files. But in dynamic enterprise frameworks, reading them from an external Excel file offers better scalability and flexibility.

In this blog, we’ll walk through how to:

✅ Read desired capabilities from an Excel sheet using Apache POI
✅ Map them to a DesiredCapabilities object
✅ Use them in a centralized DriverFactory class

🔧 Tools and Libraries Used

• Java

• Appium

• Apache POI (to handle Excel)

• TestNG (optional)

• Excel file (stored in src/test/resources)

🗂️ Excel File Structure

Save your Excel file as Capabilities.xlsx with the following structure:

📥 Step 1: Add Apache POI Dependencies

In your pom.xml:

<dependency>
            <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
            <artifactId>poi</artifactId>
            <version>5.4.1</version>
        </dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.apache.poi</groupId>
    <artifactId>poi-ooxml</artifactId>
    <version>5.2.3</version>
</dependency>

📄 Step 2: Excel Reader Utility

public class ExcelUtils {

    public static Map<String, String> getCapabilitiesFromExcel(String filePath, String sheetName) {
        Map<String, String> capabilities = new HashMap<>();
        try (FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream(filePath);
             Workbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(fis)) {

            Sheet sheet = workbook.getSheet(sheetName);
            boolean firstRow = true;
            for (Row row : sheet) {
                // Skip the first row (header)
                if(firstRow){
                firstRow = false;
                continue;
                }
                Cell keyCell = row.getCell(0);
                Cell valueCell = row.getCell(1);

                if (keyCell != null && valueCell != null) {
                    capabilities.put(keyCell.getStringCellValue(), valueCell.getStringCellValue());
                }
            }
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return capabilities;
    }
}

🚗 Step 3: DriverFactory Class

public class DriverFactory {

    public static AppiumDriver driver;

    public static void initializeDriver() {
        String filePath = "src/test/resources/Capabilities.xlsx";
        Map<String, String> capsMap = ExcelUtils.getCapabilitiesFromExcel(filePath, "Sheet1");

        DesiredCapabilities caps = new DesiredCapabilities();
        for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : capsMap.entrySet()) {
            caps.setCapability(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
        }

        try {
            driver = new AndroidDriver(new URL("http://127.0.0.1:4723/wd/hub"), caps);
        } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    public static AppiumDriver getDriver() {
        return driver;
    }
}

🏁 Conclusion

This approach centralizes capability management and allows QA teams or stakeholders to update device/test configurations without modifying code.

Pros:

• Easy to update for non-developers

• Supports multiple test environments

• Scalable for CI/CD integration

🔁 In upcoming posts, I’ll explore multi-device testing using data-driven capabilities and CI/CD integrations with Jenkins.