AUTOMATIC TESTING APPARATUS FOR EMBEDDED SOFTWARE AND AUTOMATIC TESTING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20140123111A1
• Filed: 09/13/2013
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kang, Tai-ryong, Lee, Sang-rae, Lee, Jae-hoon, Lee, Byeong-hu, Kim, Sang-deok, Park, Yong-hee
• Granted Patent: US 9,323,648 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/004 for digital television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43635 HDMI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB

Abstract

An automatic test apparatus for embedded software and an automatic testing method thereof, the automatic testing apparatus for embedded software, includes an output detector which collects interface status information in accordance with data transmission/reception from at least one of first and second electronic devices respectively loaded with first and second embedded software and exchanging data therebetween, and extracts a keyword from the collected interface status information, a scenario composer which uses identification information about the first and second embedded software and the extracted keyword, and composes a scenario corresponding to a predetermined event status and a control command generator which generates a control command to reproduce the event status based on the composed scenario. Thus, it is possible to previously detect unpredictable and predictable problems that may occur in interaction between the plurality of embedded software, interface operation to transmit and receive data, etc., and reproduce them.

Claims

1. An automatic testing apparatus for embedded software, comprising:

an output detector which collects interface status information in accordance with data transmission/reception from at least one of first and second electronic devices respectively loaded with first and second embedded software and exchanging data therebetween, and extracts a keyword from the collected interface status information;

a scenario composer which uses identification information about the first and second embedded software and the extracted keyword, and composes a scenario corresponding to a predetermined event status; and

a control command generator which generates a control command to control one of the first and second embedded software to reproduce the event status based on the composed scenario.

2. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control command comprises identification information about one of the first and second embedded software, and is transmitted to a electronic device loaded with an embedded software corresponding to the identification information.

3. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control command comprises an execution command for the embedded software, and time information about the execution command.

4. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the time information reflects difference in time of executing the first and second embedded software in accordance with data transmission/reception of the first and second electronic devices.

5. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the scenario composer uses the keyword as a condition, and composes a scenario corresponding to an event status satisfying the condition.

6. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the composed scenario comprises a predetermined-form programming language that uses at least one instruction included in the control command as an instruction for executing the embedded software.

7. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a storage unit which stores the composed scenario.

8. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising first and second test processors which controls the first and second embedded software respectively to perform a test of reproducing the event status under the control command.

9. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the control command generator compares the reproduction results with a previously composed scenario to determine whether an error occurs or not.

10. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control command generator generates a control command to reproduce event statuses corresponding to a plurality of previously stored scenario in preset order or randomly.

11. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output detector, the scenario composer and the control command generator are provided in a host apparatus connected to at least one of the first and second electronic devices.

22. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the interface status information is saved as a log file.

24. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification information is determined using information indicating whether the extracted keyword is transmission data or reception data.

12. An automatic testing method for embedded software, comprising:

receiving interface status information in accordance with data transmission/reception from at least one of first and second electronic devices respectively loaded with first and second embedded software and exchanging data therebetween;

extracting a keyword from the received interface status information;

composing a scenario corresponding to a predetermined event status by using identification information about the first and second embedded software and the extracted keyword; and

generating a control command to control one of the first and second embedded software to reproduce the event status based on the composed scenario.

13. The automatic testing method according to claim 12, wherein the control command comprises identification information about one of the first and second embedded software,

the method further comprising transmitting the control command to a electronic device loaded with an embedded software corresponding to the identification information.

14. The automatic testing method according to claim 12, wherein the control command comprises an execution command for the embedded software, and time information about the execution command.

15. The automatic testing method according to claim 14, wherein the time information reflects difference in time of executing the first and second embedded software in accordance with data transmission/reception of the first and second electronic devices.

16. The automatic testing method according to claim 12, wherein the composing the scenario comprises using the keyword as a condition and composing a scenario corresponding to an event status satisfying the condition.

17. The automatic testing method according to claim 16, wherein the composed scenario comprises a predetermined-form programming language that uses at least one instruction included in the control command as an instruction to execute the embedded software.

18. The automatic testing method according to claim 17, further comprising storing the composed scenario.

19. The automatic testing method according to claim 12, further comprising controlling at least one of the first and second embedded software to perform a test of reproducing the event status under the control command.

20. The automatic testing method according to claim 19, further comprising determining whether an error occurs or not by comparing the reproduction results with a previously composed scenario.

21. The automatic testing method according to claim 12, wherein the generating the control command comprises generating a control command to reproduce event statuses corresponding to a plurality of previously stored scenario in preset order or randomly.

23. The automatic testing method according to claim 12, further comprising saving the interface status information as a log file.

25. The automatic testing method according to claim 12, wherein the identification information is determined using information indicating whether the extracted keyword is transmission data or reception data.