Mechanism for executing test suites written for different harnesses under one test execution harness

• US 7,543,275 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2004
• Issued: 06/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Rosenman, Victor, Kuturianu, Olga
• Primary Examiner(s): Kiss; Eric B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wang; Ben C
• Application Number:
  US10/767,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20050172268A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,951 Days
• Field of Search: 717124-135
• US Class Current: 717/124
• 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

Abstract

A mechanism has been developed for transforming different test suites, written for different test harnesses, into a common XML-type format that can be read by one test harness. Thus differences in the structure of the test suites is transparent to the test harness. To implement this mechanism, a component has been developed that parses XML descriptors and provides an API to the test harness.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

providing, on a server, a plurality of suites of test programs, each of which is executable on one or more computing devices that are coupled to said server to test the one or more computing devices, wherein each of said suites of test programs is configured to execute on the one or more computing devices using a different test harness;

converting each of the plurality of suites to a common representation that is executable using a common test harness;

said server transferring one or more converted suites of test programs to at least one of said one or more computing devices for execution thereof by said at least one computing device using said common test harness.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising controlling from said server said execution of one or more of the converted suites of test programs using the common test harness.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said converting includes converting each of said suites of test programs to a common intermediate format, and thereafter to the common representation for use during execution of the converted suites of test programs on said one or more computing devices.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein said common intermediate format is a markup language.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said markup language is XML.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of suites of test programs is configured to test different functionality.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more computing devices are mobile devices.

6. A computer readable storage medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are computer executable to:

provide, on a server, a plurality of suites of test programs, each of which is executable on one or more computing devices that are coupled to said server to test the one or more computing devices, wherein each of said suites of test programs is configured to execute on the one or more computing devices using a different test harness;

convert each of the plurality of suites to a common representation that is executable using a common test harness;

transfer from said server one or more converted suites of test programs to at least one of said one or more computing devices for execution thereof by said at least one computing device using said common test harness.

7. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 6, further comprising program instructions that are computer executable to control, from said server, said execution of one or more of the converted suites of test programs using the common test harness.

8. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein said program instructions are computer executable to convert each of the plurality of suites to a common intermediate format, and thereafter to the common representation for use during execution of the converted suites of test programs on said one or more computing devices.

9. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 8, wherein said common intermediate format is a markup language.

10. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 9, wherein said markup language is XML.

15. The computer-readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of suites of test programs is configured to test different functionality.

18. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 6, wherein the one or more computing devices are mobile devices.

11. A server apparatus for testing computing devices, comprising:

a communication interface for coupling a plurality of said computing devices therewith; and

a processor configured to;

provide a plurality of suites of test programs for execution by said computing devices that are coupled to said server apparatus to test the one or more computing devices, wherein each of said suites of test programs is configured to execute on the one or more computing devices using a different test harness;

convert each of said plurality of suites to a common representation that is executable using a common test harness;

transfer one or more converted suites of test programs to at least one of said one or more computing devices via said communication interface for execution by said at least one computing device using said common test harness; and

control execution of at least one converted suite of test program on one of said one or more computing devices.

12. The server apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said processor is configured to convert each of said plurality of suites of test programs into a common intermediate format, and thereafter to said common representation.

13. The server apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said common intermediate format is a markup language.

16. The server apparatus according to claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of suites of test programs is configured to test different functionality.

19. The server apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the one or more computing devices are mobile devices.