OVERALL TEST TOOL MIGRATION PIPELINE

• US 20180357145A1
• Filed: 06/12/2017
• Published: 12/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cigniti Technologies Ltd
• Original Assignee: M/S Cigniti Technologies Limited
• Inventors: Sarangapani, Rajesh, Kurva, Kasi Viswanath, Rallapalli, Suneel Kumar
• Granted Patent: US 10,459,829 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/42 Syntactic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/423 Preprocessors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/43 Checking; Contextual analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/433 Dependency analysis; Data or control flow analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/437 Type checking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/51 Source to source
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/76 Adapting program code to run in a different environment; Porting

Abstract

A generic Test Tool migration system that migrates test cases from one platform to another in different Languages and also incorporate best practises while migration. The system comprises of three phases, a pre-processor, an in-flight module, and a post-processor. The pre-processor scans and reads the entire Source code and passes the output to the in-flight module which converts the Source scripts to a neutral Language and generates a Target Language. The output of the process becomes the input to the post-processor that provides options for resolving the ambiguity, issues, and warnings with best practise suggestions to a user by the Smart (migration) Remedy Engine (SME). The translated code is further improved, validated, reported and logged. The output of the phase is converted Object Repositories, Test Data and Scripts.

Claims

1. A system for test tool migration between one or more Source Languages and one or more Target Languages, in automation testing with a pre-processing module, an in-flight module and a post-processing module having Source Code as input that includes an Object Repository (701), a Test Data (702) and Test Scripts (703), comprising:

a. A pre-processing module (301), which takes the Source Code (700) in a Source Language as input and is comprised of an input/output (IO) Configurator (704) and an Analyser (705), wherein;

i. the IO Configurator (704), which has an input/output (IO) Configuration Reader (22), an input/output (IO) Location Reader (23) and a Sniffer (24), is configured such that the Source files (21) are input to the IO Configuration Reader (22), which reads basic settings (20) including user-interface (UI) look and feels settings, default settings and script types from a properties file, and is configured such that the IO Location Reader (23) reads the location of Source files, Object Repositories and Target files;

ii. the Sniffer (24) is configured to get high-level information about the Source Code (700) including the first level of information about lines of code, functions, files, and complexity of the code, and is configured to scan through the entire Source code that is selected for conversion, and configured to analyze various programming artefacts selected from a group consisting of a location, a method, a condition, and a loop; and

iii. the Analyser (705) is comprising a Source Analyser (706) and a Dependency Analyser (707);

b. An in-flight module (302), which takes inputs from the pre-processing module and is comprised of a Template Generator (708) and a Converter (709) that work together to produce Tool generated raw Source (302a), the converter (709) configured to perform the parsing and lexing required to make a Source Language of the Source files (21) independent, and which simplifies the migration across to a Target platform selection, and the Template Generator (708) configured to generate an appropriate template of a Test Scripts (703) in a Target Language, based on the Target platform selection; and

c. A post-processing module (303), which reads the Tool generated raw Source (302a) and further comprises a Validator (721), a Smart (migration) Remedy Engine (SME) (722), a best practise analyser (723), a TODO resolver (724) to generate Final Scripts (735) in a Target Language, including Technical Logs (733) and Reports (734) for analysis.

2. A system for test tool migration of claim 1 wherein:

a. The Analyser (705) consists of a Source Analyser (706) and a Dependency Analyser 707 configured such that;

i. The Source Analyser (706) scans the entire Source Code (700) selected for conversion and analyses various programming artefacts selected from a group consisting of methods, conditions, and loops, based on the Source Language; and

ii. The Dependency Analyser (707) examines the Source Code (700) for dependency artefacts based on the Target Language; and

b. The module produces intermediate Analysis Reports (25).

3. A system for test tool migration of claim 2 wherein the Dependency Analyser (707) further captures important information which is useful while migrating from a non-object-oriented programming Language to an object-oriented programming Language.

4. A system for test tool migration of claim 1 wherein the in-flight module (302) further comprises:

a. A Template Generator (708) which has a Target Project or Solution File (710), a Pre-built Library (711), and a Reference Architecture (712) wherein;

i. The Template Generator (708) creates a template based on a Target Project or Solution File (710);

ii. The Pre-built Library (711) adds some pre-built functions including reporting Library, Excel Reader, and Writer; and

iii. The Reference Architecture (712) that consists of inbuilt features including Object Repository migration, Test Data migration from any Source to any Target type, and standardisation, optimization, re-usability and maintainability aspects are taken from the Reference Architecture (712) which are created over time and is used as a basis to modernize the current automation, in such a way for easy maintenance and re-use when providing the deliverables and enabling Test Data migration from any Source to any Target type; and

b. The Converter (709) further comprising (i) an Object Repository Convertor (713), (ii) a Test Data Convertor (714) (iii) a Script Convertor (715) (iv) an Extractor (716) and (v) a rule-based linker (717) that completes generation of the converted Object Repository (718), Test Data (719) and Scripts (720) in a Target Language and forwards this to the post-processor (303) as Tool generated Source (302a), such that;

i. The Extractor (716) is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the test framework by referencing the generated files and has a Utility Library Extractor that generates appropriate and supported Library functions based on the Target Language selection; and

ii. The rule-based linker (717) links them appropriately based on inputs from the Reference Architecture (712).

5. A system for test tool migration of claim 2 wherein the in-flight module (31) takes inputs from the pre-processor module (26) from the Sniffer (24) and the Dependency Analyser (707) such that the Converter (709) does parsing and lexing wherein:

a. A Lexer consists of a Lexical Analyser (101) and Syntax Analyser (102);

b. A Parser includes Semantic Analyser (103) and Intermediate Code Generator (104) and works to make Source file Language independent and simplifies migration; and

c. The Converter (709) reads Language independent code and Language independent Object Repositories and converts them to a neutral Language and then to a Target platform, such that the neutral Language is an intermediate low-level Language which can connect to both the Source Language and the Target Language.

6. A system for test tool migration of claim 1 wherein:

a. The Lexical Analyser (101) reads input (100), which is then grouped into meaningful tokens as output;

b. The output from step ‘

a’

is then sent to the Syntax Analyser (102) wherein a Parser uses the first component of the tokens produced by the Lexical Analyser (101) to create a tree-like intermediate representation that depicts the grammatical structure of token stream;

c. The Semantic Analyser (103) makes the use of the syntax tree and the symbol table'"'"'s information to check for semantic consistency with Language definition of the Source program and does type checking, where it checks if the operator has matching operands;

d. Post the analysis of step ‘

c’

, the Intermediate Code Generator (104) generates the intermediate code in the process of translating from the Source Language to the Target Language; and

e. The Extractor (105) generates the Target Language code from the neutral Language.

7. A system for test tool migration of claim 1 wherein the post-processing module further comprises (a) one or more users (725), (b) Tool generated raw Source (302a), (c) a Validator (721), (d) a best practise analyser (723) (e) a Smart (migration) Remedy Engine (722), (f) a TODO Resolver (724), and (g) one or more Final Scripts (735) wherein:

(i) The Tool generated raw Source (302a) comprises an Object Repository (718), Test Data (719) and Scripts (720);

(ii) The Validator (721) validates the Tool generated raw Source (302a) for syntax and semantic errors through a Target Language Compiler (726), checking the lines of the Source for Target Language Syntax and Target Language Semantics and lists warnings (727), stack traces and errors (728);

(iii) The best practise analyser (723) comprises a Suggestion Library (729) and Training Data (730) that provide inputs on remedying the Tool generated raw Source (302a) based on historical Data;

(iv) The Smart (migration) Remedy Engine (722) consists of a Log Engine (733) and a Report Engine (734) that take inputs from the Training module (730) and produce Technical Logs (733) and Reports (734) to aid (autocorrect) remediation process;

(v) The TODO Resolver (724) consists of a user interface and provides options to the user (725) for resolving the ambiguity, issues, and warnings with best practise suggestions; and

(vi) The Final Scripts (735) are generated based on the inputs given by the user (725) in the TODO Resolver (724).

9. A system for test tool migration of claim 2, wherein the in-flight module (31) takes inputs from the pre-processor module (26) from the Sniffer (24) and the Dependency Analyser (707), such that the Converter (709) does parsing and lexing wherein:

a. A Lexer consists of a Lexical Analyser (101) and Syntax Analyser (102);

b. A Parser includes Semantic Analyser (103) and Intermediate Code Generator (104) and works to make Source file Language independent and simplifies migration; and

c. The Converter (709) reads Language independent code and Language independent Object Repositories and converts them to a neutral Language and then to a Target platform, such that the neutral Language is an intermediate low-level Language which can connect to both the Source Language and the Target Language; and

wherein the post-processing module further comprises (a) one or more users (725), (b) Tool generated raw Source (302a), (c) a Validator (721), (d) a best practise analyser (723) (e) a Smart (migration) Remedy Engine (722), (f) a TODO Resolver (724), and (g) one or more Final Scripts (735) wherein;

d. The Tool generated raw Source (302a) comprises an Object Repository (718), Test Data (719) and Scripts (720);

e. The Validator (721) validates the Tool generated raw Source (302a) for syntax and semantic errors through a Target Language Compiler (726), checking the lines of the Source for Target Language Syntax and Target Language Semantics and lists warnings (727), stack traces and errors (728);

f. The best practise analyser (723) comprises a Suggestion Library (729) and Training Data (730) that provide inputs on remedying the Tool generated raw Source (302a) based on historical Data;

g. The Smart (migration) Remedy Engine (722) consists of a Log Engine (733) and a Report Engine (734) that take inputs from the Training module (730) and produce Technical Logs (733) and Reports (734) to aid (autocorrect) remediation process;

h. The TODO Resolver (724) consists of a user interface and provides options to the user (725) for resolving the ambiguity, issues, and warnings with best practise suggestions; and

i. The Final Scripts (735) are generated based on the inputs given by the user (725) in the TODO Resolver (724).

10. A system for test tool migration of claim 9 wherein the in-flight module (302) further comprises:

a. A Template Generator (708) which has a Target Project or Solution File (710), a Pre-built Library (711), and a Reference Architecture (712) wherein;

i. The Template Generator (708) creates a template based on a Target Project or Solution File (710);

ii. The Pre-built Library (711) adds some pre-built functions including reporting Library, Excel Reader, and Writer; and

iii. The Reference Architecture (712) that consists of inbuilt features including Object Repository migration, Test Data migration from any Source to any Target type, and standardisation, optimization, re-usability and maintainability aspects are taken from the Reference Architecture (712) which are created over time and is used as a basis to modernize the current automation, in such a way for easy maintenance and re-use when providing the deliverables and enabling Test Data migration from any Source to any Target type; and

b. The Converter (709) further comprising (i) an Object Repository Convertor (713), (ii) a Test Data Convertor (714) (iii) a Script Convertor (715) (iv) an Extractor (716) and (v) a rule-based linker (717) that completes generation of the converted Object Repository (718), Test Data (719) and Scripts (720) in a Target Language and forwards this to the post-processor (303) as Tool generated Source (302a), such that;

i. The Extractor (716) is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the test framework by referencing the generated files and has a Utility Library Extractor that generates appropriate and supported Library functions based on the Target Language selection; and

ii. The rule-based linker (717) links them appropriately based on inputs from the Reference Architecture (712).

11. A system for test tool migration of claim 10 wherein the Dependency Analyser (707) further captures important information which is useful while migrating from a non-object-oriented programming Language to an object-oriented programming Language.

8. (canceled)