Adding the Appium Java Client to Maven and Gradle

The Appium Java client is the bridge between your test code and the Appium server. It wraps the W3C WebDriver HTTP protocol in a typed Java API, providing AndroidDriver, IOSDriver, and all the mobile-specific gestures and commands you'll use throughout this course.

Maven setup

Add the dependency to your pom.xml:

<dependencies>
  <dependency>
    <groupId>io.appium</groupId>
    <artifactId>java-client</artifactId>
    <version>9.3.0</version>
  </dependency>
</dependencies>

The java-client pulls in Selenium transitively. You don't need to declare Selenium separately unless you need a specific version that differs from what java-client bundles. Check the java-client release notes to confirm the bundled Selenium version before overriding it.

Gradle setup

dependencies {
    testImplementation 'io.appium:java-client:9.3.0'
}

Or in Kotlin DSL:

dependencies {
    testImplementation("io.appium:java-client:9.3.0")
}

Verifying the setup

Create a minimal test class that imports the driver:

import io.appium.java_client.android.AndroidDriver;
import io.appium.java_client.android.options.UiAutomator2Options;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
 
public class SmokeTest {
    @Test
    public void verifyImports() {
        // If this compiles, the dependency is correctly wired
        UiAutomator2Options options = new UiAutomator2Options();
        System.out.println("Appium Java Client loaded: " + options.getClass().getSimpleName());
    }
}

Run mvn compile (or gradle compileTestJava). A successful build confirms the client is on the classpath.

Common setup mistakes

Wrong scope. If you declare the dependency with <scope>test</scope> in Maven, it won't be available in src/main/java. For pure test projects, test scope is fine — just keep page objects in src/test/java.

Version conflicts. If your project already uses Selenium directly, adding java-client may pull a second Selenium version into the dependency tree. Run mvn dependency:tree | grep selenium to inspect what's resolved. If versions conflict, exclude Selenium from java-client and declare the shared version explicitly.

JDK mismatch. Java-client 9.x requires Java 11+. Verify your project's <source> and <target> settings match.