PageFactory seems to be slow when used in Appium iOS automation - appium-ios

Question

We are automating a react-native iOS app using Appium. We are using PageFactory design pattern. For clicking a element, this is the code am using:
Waiting for element to be visible.
Clicking on the element
public Boolean waitUntilVisible(WebElement element)
{
try {
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOf(element));
return true;
}catch (Exception e)
{}
return false;
}
public boolean click(WebElement element)
{
//Click on the element and return true if successful and false if unsuccessful.
try
{
waitUntilVisible(element);
element.click();
} catch (Exception e) {}
return false;
}
The overall execution seems to be taking too much time. As per my understanding, waitUntilVisible waits until the element's isDisplayed() became true.
As we are using PageFactory, I assume that element identification occurs twice.
1. The element will be identified first before checking for visibility.
2. The same element will be identified again before click.
Since we are using xpath in many areas, the element identification usually takes longer time. For a simple click, the same element is identified twice which further increases the time.
I want to know any solution to store the identified element so that it won't spend time in identifying it again.
So I modified my code like below:
public WebElement waitUntilVisible(WebElement element)
{
try {
return wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOf(element));
}catch (Exception e)
{}
return null;
}
public boolean click(WebElement element)
{
//Click on the element and return true if successful and false if unsuccessful.
try
{
WebElement remoteElement = waitUntilVisible(element);
remoteElement.click();
} catch (Exception e) {}
return false;
}
This method doesn't seem to save time.
Is there any other way for me to reduce the execution time.
Note: We are using WebElement instead of IOSElement so that the same code which was used in Desktop automation can be used in IOS Automation as well.

Answer 1

use
mobileElement = driver.findElement(MobileBy.locator("locator"));
appiumDriverActions.moveToElement(mobileElement).click().perform();
appiumWait.until(ExpectedConditions.condition(Element/locator));
instead of
mobileElement = driver.findElement(MobileBy.locator("locator"));
mobileElement.click();
in some cases with the new default VC from iOS13, it is better to moveToElement then use action click instead of element.click();
for more details, https://medium.com/#ayman.ibrahim.mansour/appiums-best-way-to-deal-with-the-new-view-controller-presentation-in-ios-13-6d801fcc3cb