Method of providing software testing services

• US 6,859,922 B1
• Filed: 08/24/2000
• Issued: 02/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Empirix Incorporated (Empirix Holdings I, Inc.)
• Inventors: Friedman, George, Glik, Michael V., Baker, Caren H., Vahey, Walter G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen-BA, Antony
• Assistant Examiner(s): Steelman, Mary J.
• Application Number:
  US09/645,279
• Time in Patent Office: 1,643 Days
• Field of Search: 717/120, 717/121, 717124-127, 705/51, 702/186
• US Class Current: 717/125
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3414 Workload generation, e.g. scripts, playback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3419 by assessing time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

A system that provides easy testing of software objects and reduces the burden on a program developer for maintaining a test system is presented. The system accepts as an input objects and automatically creates test drivers for these objects. The test objects are provided to a test bed comprising an application server where the objects are tested by application of the test drivers.

In a preferred embodiment, the test bed comprises a collection of application servers. An application service provider provides the system test driver and the test bed. Access to the test system is provided by passing a representing of the object under test to the application service provided through a network interface. The application service provider provides test services on a fee for service basis.

Claims

1. A method of providing a software testing service comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a service provider, at least one reusable object oriented software component to be tested from a customer, wherein the at least one reusable object oriented software component includes software instructions;

providing, by said service provider, test code for testing said at least one reusable object oriented software component and wherein said step of providing further comprises the step of determining the parameters of the data sets to test a reusable object oriented software component by examining the interface of each method in the reusable object oriented software component and determining what inputs and outputs must be specified for that reusable object oriented software component;

testing with said test code said at least one reusable object oriented software component;

monitoring, by said service provider, results of said testing; and

providing, by said service provider, the results of said testing of said reusable object oriented software component to said customer.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of charging said customer for providing said reusable object oriented software component testing service.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said step of charging is performed on a per session basis.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said step of charging is performed on a periodic basis.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of receiving the at least one reusable object oriented software component to be tested is done over a network.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of receiving the at least one reusable object oriented software component to be tested is done over a TCP/IP network.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein said step of receiving the at least one reusable object oriented software component to be tested is done over the Internet.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of receiving the at least one reusable object oriented software component to be tested further comprises the step of receiving directions regarding the type of testing to be done on said at least one reusable object oriented software component.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said step of receiving directions regarding the type of testing to be done is selected from the group consisting of functional testing, regression testing, load testing and compliance testing.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of receiving the at least one reusable object oriented software component to be tested further comprises the step of receiving directions regarding how to process results from said testing.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the results from said testing is provided in a pass/fail format.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the results from said load testing are provided in a graphical format.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said at least one reusable object oriented software component to be tested comprises a reusable object oriented software component which can be interpreted by a web browser.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein said software testing service is provided as a web site.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of providing further comprises the step of providing access to multiple containers for testing the performance of said reusable object oriented software component in different ones of said multiple containers, wherein each of the multiple containers comprises one or more portions of software code associated with one or more respective application servers.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of testing further comprises the step of testing selected ones of the at least one reusable object oriented software components typically used through a graphical user interface by building test drivers for the selected ones of the at least one reusable object oriented software components and testing without the graphical user interface.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of using a test warehouse to store test data for customers for later use by the customers.