State driven test editor
View Patent ↗A test script editor that easily can be used by anybody in the development team, including non-programmer business analyst testers. The test script editor enables building maintainable and stable test scripts by simple selecting from a set of accessible actions (a combination of the test object and the associated test method). The accessible actions can be calculated by application state engine by calculating all state transitions of preceding actions and subsequent actions in the script. The test script editor can provide context sensitive navigation help for appending steps at the end of the script, inserting steps within the script, changing existing steps and deleting steps.
1. A method for editing a test script for testing software comprising:
a processor in communication with a database, the processor configured for:
providing an application state stack that includes a plurality of consecutive states, each application state includes at least one test object;
providing a test script that lists actions that the software under test is to execute, the test script including test methods, the test methods being associated with state transitions;
receiving a request to modify the test script;
creating a modified application state stack portion based on the modified test script;
checking the integrity of the modified test script by ensuring that the modified application state stack portion can be integrated with at least a portion of the application state stack subsequent to the modified portion by analyzing the state transitions associated with test methods; and
if the modified test script maintains integrity, allowing the modified test script to replace the test script and updating the application state stack with the application state stack integrated with the modified portion of the application state stack.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test script is modified by appending an action to the end of the test script.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test script is modified by inserting an action within the test script.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test script is modified by deleting an action from the test script.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test script is modified by deleting a consecutive sequence of actions from the test script.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test script is modified by altering an action in the test script.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the test script includes test objects.
8. A method for editing a test script for testing software comprising:
a processor in communication with a database, the processor configured for:
providing a application state stack that includes a plurality of consecutive states, each state includes at least one test object;
providing a test script that lists actions that the software under test is to execute, the test script including test methods;
receiving a request to modify the test script;
creating a modified application state stack based on the modified test script;
checking the integrity of the modified test script by ensuring that the modified application state stack can be integrated with at least a portion of the application state stack subsequent to the modified portion; and
if the modified test script maintains integrity, allowing the test script to be edited.
9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the test methods are each associated with a state transition and checking the integrity of the modified test script is accomplished with the state transitions.
10. A computer program product embodied in a computer readable medium in communication with a computer and a database and comprising computer instructions for:
providing a state stack that includes a plurality of consecutive states, each state includes a at least one test object;
providing a test script that lists actions that the software under test is to execute, the test script including test methods;
receiving a request to modify the test script;
creating a modified state stack based on the modified test script;
checking the integrity of the modified test script by ensuring that the modified state stack can be integrated with at least a portion of the state stack subsequent to the modified portion; and
if the modified test script maintains integrity, allowing the test script to be edited.
11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein the test methods are each associated with a state transition and checking the integrity of the modified test script is accomplished with the state transitions.
12. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the subset of available actions that is dependent on the current state is also dependant on the selected aspect.
13. The computer program product of claim 10 , further comprising maintaining a state stack of consecutive states.
14. A system comprising:
a memory configured to store application states, test objects and test methods and their relationships; and
a processor configured to check the integrity of a modification to the test script, the integrity being determined by the relationship between the test methods, the test objects and the application states.
15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the processor is further configured to maintain a state stack and create a modified state stack.