Enterprise test system having program flow recording and playback

• US 20020053043A1
• Filed: 06/04/2001
• Published: 05/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Empirix Incorporated (Empirix Holdings I, Inc.)
• Inventors: Friedman, George E., Glik, Michael V.
• Granted Patent: US 6,865,692 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/25
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites

Abstract

An enterprise test system includes a plurality of probes inserted at various locations in the enterprise system for recording data from system components during teach mode. During playback mode, the recorded data is used to exercise the system as probes collect actual data for comparison to expected data. In one embodiment, data from actual user transactions is recorded by the probes. The recorded data can be expanded to load test a component using recorded transaction data. In one embodiment, the recorded data can be used to load test a component under test without compiling test code.

Claims

1. A system for testing an enterprise system, comprising:

an aggregator for interfacing with an application under test that forms a part of an enterprise application system;

a signal generator/database coupled to the aggregator for storing and retrieving data; and

a plurality of probes each of which can be inserted between the aggregator and a respective component of the application under test, the plurality of probes for recording component data during a teach mode in the signal generator/database and injecting the data stored in the signal generator/database into the enterprise system during a playback mode to test the components.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the aggregator includes a graphical interface for enabling a user to selectively insert the plurality of probes at various locations in the application under test.

3. The system according to claim 2, wherein the graphical interface includes a mechanism for selecting a breakpoint for playback mode.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of probes includes probes for interfacing to components selected from the group consisting of databases, networks, message queues, servlets, EJBs, legacy systems, and web servers.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of probes is an EJB probe transparently inserted between an EJB client and an EJB.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein a name proxy of the inserted EJB probe and the EJB are manipulated to transparently insert the EJB probe.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the signal generator/database can store component data selected from the group consisting of bean names, methods, arguments, method ordering, transaction number, elapsed time, and object information.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the aggregator includes a graphical interface having a mechanism to expand data associated with a component under test.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the graphical interface further includes a mechanism to create a plurality of instances of the component under test and exercise the component under test using data expanded from the data stored in the signal generator/database.

10. A method for testing an enterprise system, comprising:

inserting a plurality of probes between an aggregator and respective components of an application under test;

recording data received by the plurality of probes during a teach mode;

storing the recorded data in a database;

injecting the recorded data into the enterprise system during a playback mode;

recording data received by the plurality of probes during the playback mode; and

comparing actual and expected data.

11. The method according to claim 10, further including selecting a breakpoint corresponding to a point associated with a component under test.

12. The method according to claim 11, further including running the application under test until reaching the breakpoint and retrieving recorded data associated with the component under test.

13. The method according to claim 12, further including expanding the data associated with the component under test and creating a plurality of instances of the component under test.

14. The method according to claim 13, further including load testing the component under test with the expanded data.

15. The method according to claim 14, further including load testing the component under test without compiling test code.

16. The method according to claim 11, further including selecting the component under test from the group consisting of EJBs, web pages, web queues, databases, legacy systems, and message queues.

17. The method according to claim 10, further including testing at least one of the plurality of components in a transactional context.

18. The method according to claim 17, further including retrieving methods associated with the at least one of the plurality of components in an order in which the methods were called during the teach mode.

19. The method according to claim 10, further including transparently inserting an EJB probe as one of the plurality of probes between an EJB client and an EJB component.

20. The method according to claim 19, further including transparently inserting the EJB probe by replacing a name proxy of the EJB component with that of the EJB probe.

21. The method according to claim 19, further including using Java reflection to generate the EJB probe from the EJB component.

22. The method according to claim 10, further including extracting execution time associated with the plurality of probes.

24. The computer program product according to claim 23, further including code for selecting a breakpoint corresponding to a point associated with a component under test.

25. The computer program product according to claim 24, further including code for running the application under test until reaching the breakpoint and retrieving recorded data associated with the component under test.

26. The computer program product according to claim 25, further including code for expanding the data associated with the component under test and creating a plurality of instances of the component under test.

27. The computer program product according to claim 26, further including code for load testing the component under test with the expanded data.

28. The computer program product according to claim 23, further including code for selecting the component under test from the group consisting of EJBs, web pages, EJBs, web pages, web queues, databases, legacy systems, and message queues.

29. The computer program product according to claim 23, further including code for load testing the component under test without compiling test code.

30. The computer program product according to claim 23, further including code for testing at least one of the plurality of components in transactional context.

31. The computer program product according to claim 30, further including code for retrieving methods associated with the at least one of the plurality of components in an order in which the method were called during the teach mode.

32. The computer program product according to claim 23, further including code for transparently inserting an EJB probe as one of the plurality of probes between an EJB client and an EJB component.

33. The computer program product according to claim 32, further including code for transparently inserting the EJB probe by replacing a proxy of the EJB component with that of the EJB probe.

34. The computer program product according to claim 33, further including code for using Java reflection to generate the EJB probe from the EJB component.

35. The computer program product according to claim 23, further including code for extracting execution time associated with the plurality of probes.

23. A computer program product for testing an enterprise system comprising code for:

inserting a plurality of probes between an aggregator and respective components of an application under test;

recording data received by the plurality of probes during a teach mode;

storing the recorded data in a database;

injecting the recorded data into the enterprise system during a playback mode;

recording data received by the plurality of probes during the playback mode; and

comparing actual and expected data.