Getting Started with the SikuliX IDE

Downloading and Installing the IDE

1. You can download all the latest releases of the setup from this link. (If you will be trying out the SikuliX IDE on a Mac use version 1.1.0 to get rid of some issues, you can find more details on the issue from the following link.)
2. Once you have downloaded the setup, place it in a dedicated folder
3. Run the downloaded jar file (A simple double click on the jar file will do) and select the Pack 1.

The sikulix setup

4. After the installation is done the directory will look like this

directory after installation

5. Run the SikuliX.app to open the SikuliX IDE

SikuliX IDE

Using SikuliX IDE to write automation scripts

Ok now we will try to automate the following flow in Sikuli IDE

1. Open the Email application
2. Click on the compose new message button
3. Fill in the receivers email
4. Fill in the subject
5. Fill the message body
6. Click on the send message button

As you see these steps would be a pain in the neck to implement in other test automation tools. In SikuliX we can do it with such simple script :

The IDE is easy to setup. But the IDE would be limited if you decide to move forward with Sikuli. A full featured programming IDE, like Eclipse, or intellij, would give you the benefit of static code analysis, auto-completion, debugging capabilities, version control tools, plugins, dependency management, etc.

All of these would be desirable if you end up integrating SikuliX with other automation frameworks or libraries.