Software system and methods for testing the functionality of a transactional server

• US 6,360,332 B1
• Filed: 06/21/1999
• Issued: 03/19/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus LLC (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Mercury Interactive Corp. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Weinberg, Amir, Kholmyansky, Maxim, Garri, Amos, Tapiro, Nisim, Leshem, Eran, Hillel, Meni
• Primary Examiner(s): Ray, Gopal C.
• Application Number:
  US09/337,082
• Time in Patent Office: 1,002 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/38, 714/33, 714/46, 714/712, 345/968, 717/1, 717/4, 707/1, 707/200, 707/503, 707/509, 702/122, 702/183, 709/203, 709/224, 709/252
• US Class Current: 714/4.1
• 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

A testing tool automatically records a series of user steps taken during a user session with a transactional server and generates a test for testing the functionality of server. Through a user interface of the testing tool, the user can define verification steps to automatically test for expected server responses during test execution. The testing tool displays the test to the user as a tree having nodes (displayed as icons) which represent steps of the test. Via the user interface, the user can modify node properties and perform other types of tree edit operations to edit the test, without the need to know a scripting or other programming language. When the user selects a node that corresponds to a particular field or other object of the server screen, the testing tool automatically displays the screen with the object highlighted. The testing tool also allows the test author to use a spreadsheet to conveniently specify data sets for running multiple iterations of a test; thus, the user can record a single transaction and then automatically test the transaction with other data sets.

Claims

1. A method for testing a transactional server, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

generating a test which is adapted to be run to test functionality of the transactional server, the step of generating the test comprising (a) recording data input steps by a user as the user interacts with the transactional server to perform a transaction, and (b) recording verification steps specified by the user to test for expected responses from the server;

presenting a data table to the user to permit the user to specify multiple data sets to be used to test the transaction;

recording a plurality of data sets specified by the user with the data table, the data sets including data values for executing at least some of the data input steps and verification steps; and

running multiple iterations of the test using different data sets of the plurality for different iterations.

2. The method as in claim 1, wherein the data table is a spreadsheet.

3. The method as in claim 2, wherein the spreadsheet is a standard-format spreadsheet.

4. The method as in claim 2, wherein each row of the spreadsheet corresponds to a respective iteration of the test.

5. The method as in claim 2, wherein each column of the spreadsheet corresponds to a parameterized step of the test.

6. The method as in claim 5, further comprising presenting the user an option to specify a subset of steps to be parameterized.

7. The method as in claim 2, further comprising presenting the user an option to insert markers within the spreadsheet to define data set boundaries, to thereby permit the user to define variable-length data sets.

8. The method as in claim 1, further comprising representing the test to the user as a hierarchical node structure in which nodes represent corresponding steps of the test.

9. The method as in claim 1, wherein running multiple iterations of the test comprises storing data values returned by the transactional server in a results spreadsheet.

10. The method as in claim 9, further comprising storing results of at least one verification step within the results spreadsheet.

11. A method for testing a transactional server, comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

generating a test which is adapted to be run to test functionality of the transactional server, the test including data input steps and data verification steps, the verification steps specifying expected responses from the transactional server;

reading a plurality of data sets from a spreadsheet, the data sets including data values for executing at least some of the data input and data verification steps; and

running multiple iterations of the test using different data sets of the plurality for different iterations.

12. The method as in claim 11, wherein each row of the spreadsheet corresponds to a respective iteration of the test.

13. The method as in claim 12, wherein each column of the spreadsheet corresponds to a parameterized step of the test.

14. The method as in claim 11, further comprising providing user access to the spreadsheet through a user interface of a testing tool used to generate and run the test.

15. The method as in claim 11, wherein the spreadsheet is a standard-format spreadsheet.

16. The method as in claim 11, wherein running multiple iterations of the test comprises storing data values returned by the transactional server in a results spreadsheet.

17. A software system for testing the functionality of a transactional server, comprising, stored on a computer-readable medium:

a first program module which records user interactions with a transactional server, including data values entered into screens of the transactional server, to generate a test that is adapted to be played to test the transactional server;

a second program module which provides a data table for specifying multiple data sets to be used for running multiple iterations of the test, wherein the data sets include values to be entered into the screens of the transactional server during execution of the test, and different data sets correspond to different test iterations; and

a third program module which uses the data sets specified within the data table to run multiple iterations of the test.

18. The software system as in claim 17, wherein the first program module further records verification steps defined by the user to test data values returned by the transactional server, and data table stores data values for executing the verification steps.

19. The software system as in claim 17, wherein the data table is a spreadsheet.

20. The software system as in claim 19, wherein the second program module stores each data set in a separate row of the spreadsheet.

21. The software system as in claim 17, wherein the third program module stores results of test execution in a results spreadsheet.

22. The software system as in claim 17, wherein the first program module displays the test to the user as a hierarchical node structure in which steps of the test are represented by corresponding nodes.

23. The software system as in claim 22, wherein the first program module responds to user selection of a node that corresponds to a data input field by displaying a captured screen with the data input field highlighted.