Computer aided bug reporting system for GUI applications
A computer aided bug reporting system for GUI-based apps extracts and stores static and dynamic data from an app's source code. Using the extracted/stored data, a sequence of prompts is generated on a bug reporter's display device. The prompts are ordered in accordance with one of the app's execution paths associated with an encountered bug wherein each of the prompts is associated with one of the path's execution steps. Each prompt presents the GUI components and attributes of the GUI components associated with the one of the execution steps wherein selected ones of the GUI components and selected ones of the attributes of the GUI components are defined. The selected ones of the GUI components and the selected ones of the attributes of the GUI components for the execution steps associated with the one of the execution paths are presented for review by a software developer.
1. A computer aided method for generating a hug report for a GUI application, comprising the steps of:
extracting static data indicative of GUI components and attributes of said GUI components from source code for a GUI-based application having execution paths that generate a plurality of screen displays according to user interactions during run-time execution of said source code, each of said screen displays using said GUI components defined by said source code, said attributes including one of more of: possible actions on said GUI components, types of said GUI components, activities said GUI components are contained within, and class files where said GUI components are instantiated;
storing said static data in a database;
executing said source code in a run-time environment through said execution paths according to automatically-generated user inputs, wherein each of said execution paths is defined by execution steps and wherein each of said execution steps generates a run-time screen display using, at least one of said GUI components;
storing, in said database, dynamic data indicative of each said run-time screen display;
generating, using said static data and said dynamic data, a sequence of prompts on a first electronic display device, said sequence of prompts being ordered in accordance with one of said execution paths subject to a software bug Wherein each of said prompts is associated with one of said execution steps leading to said software bug, each of said prompts presenting said GUI components associated with said one of said execution steps, said attributes of said GUI components associated with said one of said execution steps and user action options associated with said one of said execution steps, wherein said user action options are suggestions generated using said static data and said dynamic data to provide a user with a selection of said possible actions the user can perform at said one of said execution steps and a selection of attributes of said GUI components associated with said possible actions the user can perform at said one of said execution steps: and
generating a report for presentation on a second electronic display device, said report listing ones of said execution steps leading to said software bug and presenting said run-time screen display associated with each of said ones of said execution steps leading to said software bug based on said user action options selected by a user.
2. A computer aided method for generating a bug report as in claim 1 , further comprising the step of displaying a screen shot on said first electronic display device for selected ones of said execution steps having duplicate ones of said GUI components appearing thereon.
3. A computer aided method for generating a bug report as in claim 1 , wherein said step of generating said report further comprises the steps of:
generating a natural language description related to each of said ones of said execution steps leading to said software bug using a natural language template; and
displaying said natural language description in said report.