Automatic testing apparatus for embedded software and automatic testing method thereof

• US 9,323,648 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2013
• Issued: 04/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Byeong-hu, Kang, Tai-ryong, Kim, Sang-deok, Park, Yong-hee, Lee, Sang-rae, Lee, Jae-hoon
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chowdhury, Ziaul A
• Application Number:
  US14/026,042
• Publication Number:
  US 20140123111A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 17/004 for digital television systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43635 HDMI
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB

Abstract

An automatic test apparatus for embedded software and an automatic testing method thereof, the automatic testing apparatus for embedded software, includes an output detector which collects interface status information in accordance with data transmission/reception from at least one of first and second electronic devices respectively loaded with first and second embedded software and exchanging data therebetween, and extracts a keyword from the collected interface status information, a scenario composer which uses identification information about the first and second embedded software and the extracted keyword, and composes a scenario corresponding to a predetermined event status and a control command generator which generates a control command to reproduce the event status based on the composed scenario. Thus, it is possible to previously detect unpredictable and predictable problems that may occur in interaction between the plurality of embedded software, interface operation to transmit and receive data, etc., and reproduce them.

Claims

1. An automatic testing method for embedded software, comprising:

receiving interface status information from at least one of first and second electronic devices respectively loaded with first and second embedded software and exchanging data therebetween, the interface status information being output by data transmission or reception between the first electronic device and the second electronic device and received through an interface of the automatic testing apparatus connected to at least one of a first interface of the first electronic device and a second interface of the second electronic device and the interface status information being saved as a log file;

extracting a keyword from the received interface status information;

composing a scenario corresponding to a predetermined event based on identification information on the first and second embedded software, and the extracted keyword; and

generating a control command to control one of the first and second embedded software to reproduce the predetermined event based on the composed scenario,

wherein the control command comprises an execution command for the embedded software, and time information about the execution command, the time information reflecting difference in time of executing the first and second embedded software in accordance with data transmission or reception of the first electronic device and second electronic device.

2. The automatic testing method according to claim 1, wherein the control command comprises identification information about one of the first and second embedded software,

the method further comprising transmitting the control command to a electronic device loaded with an embedded software corresponding to the identification information.

3. The automatic testing method according to claim 1, wherein the composing the scenario comprises using the keyword as a condition and composing a scenario corresponding to an event satisfying the condition.

4. The automatic testing method according to claim 3, wherein the composed scenario comprises a predetermined-form programming language that uses at least one instruction included in the control command as an instruction to execute the embedded software.

5. The automatic testing method according to claim 4, further comprising storing the composed scenario.

6. The automatic testing method according to claim 1, further comprising controlling at least one of the first and second embedded software to perform a test of reproducing the predetermined event under the control command.

7. The automatic testing method according to claim 6, further comprising determining whether an error occurs or not by comparing the reproduction results with a previously composed scenario.

8. The automatic testing method according to claim 1, wherein the generating the control command comprises generating a control command to reproduce a plurality of events corresponding to a plurality of previously stored scenario in preset order or randomly.

9. The automatic testing method according to claim 1, wherein the identification information is determined using information indicating whether the extracted keyword is transmission data or reception data.

10. An automatic testing apparatus having executable instructions stored in a memory for testing embedded software, comprising:

an output detector which collects interface status information from at least one of first and second electronic devices respectively loaded with first and second embedded software and exchanging data therebetween, and extracts a keyword from the collected interface status information, the interface status information being output by data transmission or reception between the first electronic device and the second electronic device and received through an interface of the automatic testing apparatus connected to at least one of a first interface of the first electronic device and a second interface of the second electronic device and the interface status information being saved as a log file;

a scenario composer which composes a scenario corresponding to a predetermined event based on identification information on the first and second embedded software, and the extracted keyword; and

a control command generator which generates a control command to control one of the first and second embedded software to reproduce the predetermined event based on the composed scenario,

wherein the control command comprises an execution command for the first and second embedded software, and time information about the execution command, the time information reflecting difference in time of executing the first and second embedded software in accordance with data transmission or reception of the first electronic device and second electronic device.

11. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the control command comprises identification information about one of the first and second embedded software, and is transmitted to a electronic device loaded with an embedded software corresponding to the identification information.

12. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the scenario composer uses the keyword as a condition, and composes a scenario corresponding to an event status satisfying the condition.

13. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the composed scenario comprises a predetermined-form programming language that uses at least one instruction included in the control command as an instruction for executing the embedded software.

14. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a storage unit which stores the composed scenario.

15. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising first and second test processors which controls the first and second embedded software respectively to perform a test of reproducing the predetermined event under the control command.

16. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the control command generator compares the reproduction results with a previously composed scenario to determine whether an error occurs or not.

17. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the control command generator generates a control command to reproduce a plurality of events corresponding to a plurality of previously stored scenario in preset order or randomly.

18. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the output detector, the scenario composer and the control command generator are provided in a host apparatus connected to at least one of the first and second electronic devices.

19. The automatic testing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the identification information is determined using information indicating whether the extracted keyword is transmission data or reception data.