Method and system for dynamically invoking and/or checking conditions of a computer test program

• US 7,266,808 B2
• Filed: 08/06/2002
• Issued: 09/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parasoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Parasoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kolawa, Adam, Salvador, Roman
• Primary Examiner(s): Dam; Tuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): DAO, THUY CHAN
• Application Number:
  US10/213,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20030041288A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,855 Days
• Field of Search: 717/124, 717/126, 717/118, 717/114, 717/130, 714/38
• US Class Current: 717/126
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• 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

Abstract

A method and system for dynamically invoking and/or checking conditions of a computer test program. Test cases that verify class/component functionality are automatically created from the DbC contracts. When the classes/components that contain DbC contracts are added to the system, the invention automatically verifies whether the system uses them correctly. The information in the contract continents is used to generate more comprehensive and better quality test cases.

In one embodiment, a code'"'"'s specification information is analyzed and a class with extra bytecodes that describe how the class is supposed to work and be used is generated. Next, the instrumented class is integrated into the system, and the system is run. The system is monitored as it runs and contract violations are automatically detected.

Claims

1. A method for testing a computer code including software contracts, the method comprising:

parsing the computer code;

analyzing the contracts included in the parsed computer code;

automatically combining information from the parsed code and information from analyzed contracts to create relevant inputs for unit test cases to cover different conditions that the contracts specify;

executing the unit test cases with the generated relevant inputs;

verifying proper functioning of the different conditions in the contracts; and

suppressing expected errors based on the analyzed contract information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer code comprises JAVA programming language.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer code comprises Java Server Pages programming language.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising reporting any violation in functioning of the contracts on a display monitor.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising altering the program execution if any violation in functioning of the contracts is found.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer code includes a plurality of classes and components and the verifying step comprises verifying the proper functioning of the plurality of classes and components, further comprising:

compiling the verified plurality of classes and components;

analyzing contract information of the computer code;

responsive to the analyzing contract information, generating a second plurality of classes each with extra bytecodes that describe how the respective class is expected to function;

integrating the second plurality of classes with a system under test;

running the system under test;

monitoring the system under test while it is being run; and

detecting any contract violation of the integrated plurality of classes.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating unit test cases comprising generating automatic stubs.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising regression testing of the computer code.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the regression testing step comprises:

calculating first outcomes for the generated unit test cases;

re-testing the generated unit test cases;

calculating second outcomes for the re-tested unit test cases;

checking the second outcomes against the first outcomes; and

reporting a regression error if the second outcomes do not match the first outcomes.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the generated test cases for future use.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising a graphical user interface (GUI) for accepting user'"'"'s input.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising reporting any violation in functioning of the contracts in the GUI.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the reporting step comprises reporting only the portion of the computer code that violates proper functioning of the contracts.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer code is source code.

15. A method for testing a class in a computer code including software contracts, the method comprising:

analyzing contract information of the computer code;

based on the analyzed contract information, automatically generating stubs to cover permissible branches of the contracts included in the computer code;

instrumenting the class with the generated stubs;

integrating the instrumented class with the computer code;

running the computer code with the instrumented class;

monitoring the computer code while it is being run;

detecting any contract violation of the integrated class; and

suppressing expected errors based on the analyzed contract information.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the computer code comprises JAVA programming language.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the computer code comprises Java Server Pages programming language.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising reporting any violation in functioning of the class.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising altering the computer code execution if any violation in functioning of the class is found.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the computer code is source code.

21. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a set of instructions including instructions for testing a computer code including software contracts, the instructions, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform the steps of:

parsing the computer code;

analyzing the contracts included in the parsed computer code;

automatically combining information from the parsed code and information from analyzed contracts to create relevant inputs for unit test cases to cover different conditions that the contracts specify;

executing the unit test cases with the generated relevant inputs;

verifying proper functioning of the different conditions in the contracts; and

suppressing expected errors based on the analyzed contract information.

22. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the computer code comprises JAVA programming language.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the computer code comprises Java Server Pages programming language.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 21, wherein the computer code is source code.