[HowTo] Open iPhone application using Sikuli

Since I am not familiar with iPhoneSimulator in practice:

Does the PDFViewer.app start in the simulator, if you double-click on
/Users/syntel/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/4.2/Applications/227C829B-B3B8-409D-BF6D-ACC5A8B8D589/PDFViewer.app
in the Finder?

No it doesn't gets opened on double click from finder.
So if we need to launch an iphone application then what steps do we need to take.
As suggested in your examples to open a app you had written
      def setUp(self):
      openApp("/Applications/jEdit.app")
      wait(, 20000)
     close = ()

Ok, so you cannot open an iPhone application on your simulator using openApp() (this only opens applications, that could be double-clicked to be opened on your Mac (e.g. the simulator can be opened with openApp("iPhone Simulator") or something like that ;-).

So how do you open an iPhone application on the simulator?

This has to be simulated by a Sikuli script.

If you tell me, what you are doing manually, to start the PDFviewer.app on the iPhone from outside of the simulator, I can give you more tips.

We do open any iphone application on simulator by running its source code present in Xcode, this launches the app on simulator.
and the .app gets created in the documents directory.

for example, pdfviewer applications build got created at

/Users/syntel/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/4.2/Applications/227C829B-B3B8-409D-BF6D-ACC5A8B8D589/PDFViewer.app

Ok, then you have to simulate this in Sikuli script:

switchApp("XCode")

Then you have to use some type() and paste() operations to get your app built and started on iPhone simulator.

You should simulate keyboard shortcuts using type() as often as possible instead of click(), because this is faster and usually easier to implement.

Here is how you can open an iphone app in the simulator:

Download and make the following tool:
https://github.com/landonf/iphonesim

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****Build your app with the xcodebuild command:

example (note this is not the end all be all of building an xcode project):
xcodebuild -scheme [SCHEME OPTION] -target [PROJECT TARGET] -sdk [SDK VERSION] -configuration [USUALLY Debug OR Release] clean build

****with the latest xcode 4.2, the app should be built in the following location:

/Users/[HOME DIRECOTRY]/Library/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/[NAME OF APP]-cgxlojxaxievlientprexqrbjuxt/Build/Products/Debug-iphonesimulator/myApp.app

****copy the app file to the location where the iphonesim exec file is at so that it makes it easier on you...trust me...its best...

****then you use the iphonesim tool
./iphonesim launch [ABSOLUTE PATH OF THE APP]/myApp.app

Example:
    ./iphonesim launch --device-family iPhone --sdk-version 5.0 ~/Project/build/Debug-iphonesimulator/Project.app

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you can easily do all of this in sikuli by using s.type method in the Terminal app

Actually I use java to control sikuli and have found it easier to create a bash script and just run that to build and launch my app in the ios simulator. But yeah....

This is by far the best way to get your app into the simulator and launched.

@ Raymond
Thanx for your great contribution.