AUTOMATIC VERIFICATION BY COMPARING USER INTERFACE IMAGES

• US 20150082280A1
• Filed: 09/18/2013
• Published: 03/19/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Betak, George, Abualrob, Mohammed
• Granted Patent: US 9,135,151 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/368 for test version control, e.g. updating test cases to a new software version
• 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: G06F 11/3692 for test results analysis

Abstract

A method, apparatus and software related product (e.g., a computer readable memory) are presented for automatic testing of software products such as front-ends of computing devices. Various embodiments described herein can simplify the delivery and verification of software products and services across computing devices and screens by comparing user interface images using image analysis. For example, a screen buffer or visual representation of a new version of a software application can be compared with those representations generated using one or more previously released (positively tested) software versions of that application. This can broaden the reach of the solution and facilitate automation of workflows, which previously required human interaction.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

automatically testing, by a computer test system, a latest version of software under test and one or more previous versions of the software, results of the automatic testing being generated using a data feed identical to both the latest version of software under test and to the one or more previous versions of the software, the one or more previous versions of software having been positively tested before the present automatic testing;

comparing, using a predetermined criterion, the results of the automatic testing of the latest version of the software under test with further results of the automatic testing of the one or more previous versions of the software; and

determining whether the latest version of software under test is positively tested based on said comparison.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatic testing is performed using an image based test.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data feed for performing the automatic testing is provided by the computer test system or by a further computer system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein automatic testing of the latest version of software under test and one or more previous versions of the software is performed using one computing device comprising one or more processors.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer test system comprises the one computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein automatic testing of the latest version of software under test is performed using a first computing device and automatic testing of the one or more previous versions of the software is performed using one or more further computing devices each having at least one processor.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a number of the one or more further computing devices is a finite odd integer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data feed for performing the automatic testing automatic testing is a variable data feed.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the variable data feed is performed at least in part to provide image based testing of the latest version of software.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data feed for performing the automatic testing automatic testing is a predefined static data feed.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the further results of the automatic testing of the one or more previous versions of the software are pre-recorded.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatic testing is performed using both an image based test and an object based test.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the image based test and the object based test are performed using one framework with an integrated development environment.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the one framework is a Robot Framework, which is configured to integrate libraries for the object based and the image based test.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the object based test is performed using a Selenium web test automation framework, and the image based test is performed using a Sikuli test library.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein automatic testing of the latest version of software under test and one or more previous versions of the software are performed in real time or near real time.

17. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a storage medium for tangibly storing thereon program logic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising;

logic to automatically test a latest version of software under test and one or more previous versions of the software, results of the automatic testing being generated using a data feed identical to both the latest version of software under test and to the one or more previous versions of the software, the one or more previous versions of software having been positively tested before the present automatic testing;

logic to comparing, using a predetermined criterion, the results of the automatic testing of the latest version of the software under test with further results of the automatic testing of the one or more previous versions of the software; and

logic to determine whether the latest version of software under test is positively tested based on said comparison.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the automatic test is performed using an image based test.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly storing computer program instructions capable of being executed by a computer processor, the computer program instructions defining code for:

automatically testing, by a computer test system, a latest version of software under test and one or more previous versions of the software, results of the automatic testing being generated using a data feed identical to both the latest version of software under test and to the one or more previous versions of the software, the one or more previous versions of software having been positively tested before the present automatic testing;

comparing, using a predetermined criterion, the results of the automatic testing of the latest version of the software under test with further results of the automatic testing of the one or more previous versions of the software; and

determining whether the latest version of software under test is positively tested based on said comparison.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the automatic testing is performed using an image based test.