Automated testing of an application system

• US 9,424,167 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2015
• Issued: 08/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CGI Technologies and Solutions Incorporated (CGI Group)
• Original Assignee: CGI Technologies and Solutions Incorporated (CGI Group)
• Inventors: Lee, Christopher Stephen, Monark, Michael William, Thomas, Karen Lynn, Murphree, Wesley Edsel, Baca, Kristin Leigh
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu, Daxin
• Application Number:
  US14/719,137
• Publication Number:
  US 20150339213A1
• Time in Patent Office: 460 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3672 Test management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning

Abstract

A system for automatically testing an application system graphical user interface (GUI) includes first and second application servers communicatively connected across a communication network. The second application server retrieves a GUI page provided by the first application server as part of the application system, and identifies text elements and user input objects in an image of the retrieved GUI page. Each user input object is then associated with a text element. Test parameter values are retrieved from a database storing test parameter data, and the application system is tested. In particular, for each user input object of the GUI page, a respective test parameter value is provided that is associated in the database with a same text element as is associated with the user input object. A response of the application system is then monitored.

Claims

1. A method for automatically testing an application system graphical user interface (GUI), the method comprising:

retrieving, in a computer communicatively connected to an application server providing the application system, a GUI page provided by the application server as part of the application system;

automatically identifying, based on image-analysis of an image of the retrieved GUI page, a plurality of text elements of the GUI page;

automatically identifying, based on image-analysis of the image of the retrieved GUI page, a plurality of user input objects of the GUI page;

automatically associating with each of the plurality of automatically identified user input objects a text element of the plurality of automatically identified text elements;

retrieving, based on the text elements associated with each of the plurality of user input objects, a plurality of test parameter values from a database storing test parameter data, wherein each test parameter value of the plurality of test parameter values is associated in the database storing test parameter data with a corresponding text element associated with one of the plurality of user input objects;

testing the application system provided by the application server by, for each respective user input object identified in the GUI page, performing a function to;

provide, in the respective user input object of the GUI page, the respective test parameter value that is associated in the database storing test parameter data with a same text element as is associated with the respective user input object of the GUI page; and

monitoring a response of the application system to the providing of the respective test parameter value to each user input object identified in the GUI page.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user input objects on the GUI includes at least one of a button, a text input field, a list or combo box, a checkbox, and a radio button.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the plurality of test parameter values include at least one of a click command to activate a button user input object, a text string for input into a text input field user input object, identification of an item to select in a list or combo box user input object, a check or uncheck command for input into a checkbox user input object, and identification of an item to select in a radio button selection user input object.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the associating a text element of the plurality of identified text elements with an identified user input object comprises associating with the identified user input object a text element that is located proximate to or is overlapped with the identified user input object in the GUI page.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a type of a user input object of the plurality of user input objects of the GUI,

wherein the retrieving comprises retrieving, based on the text elements associated with each of the plurality of user input objects and based on the determined types of the each user input object, the plurality of test parameter values from the database storing test parameter data, wherein each test parameter value of the plurality of test parameter values is associated in the database storing test parameter data with the corresponding text element associated with one of the plurality of user input objects and associated in the database storing test parameter data with the type of the one user input object.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the test parameter values “

M”

, “

male”

, “

F”

, and “

female”

are associated with a text element “

Gender” and

with a radio button type of user input object in the database storing test data,

wherein the test parameter value “

[e-mail]”

is associated with a text element “

E-Mail Address” and

with a text input field type of user input object in the database storing test data, and

wherein the test parameter values ‘

check’ and

‘

uncheck’

are associated with a checkbox type of user input object in the database storing test data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a test developer, test parameter values to associate with one text element of the plurality of identified text elements; and

storing the received test parameter values in the database storing test parameter data in association with the one text element.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the test parameter values are received from the test developer in response to prompting the test developer for test parameter values to associate with the one text element identified in the GUI page, and

wherein the test developer is prompted for the test parameter values following the identifying of the pluralities of text elements and user input objects and prior to the testing of the application system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring of the response of the application system comprises storing a log of monitored responses of the application system including stored screenshots of the GUI page following the providing of the respective test parameter values in the respective user input objects of the GUI page.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the testing of the application system comprises:

executing a test case comprising an ordered sequence of actions to be performed on the application system providing the application system,

wherein the ordered sequence of actions include actions to provide the respective test parameter values in the respective user input objects of the GUI page.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the retrieving the plurality of test parameter values comprises retrieving different pluralities of test parameter values for each of the plurality of identified user input objects, and

wherein the testing of the application system comprises repeatedly executing the test case on the application system by providing different combinations of test parameter values in the user input objects of the GUI page during each execution of the test case, and monitoring the response of the application system to each different combination of test parameters.

12. The method of claim 1,

wherein the identifying of the plurality of text elements of the GUI page comprises performing optical character recognition (OCR) of the GUI page to obtain text information of each text element of the GUI page and to obtain location information of each text element on the GUI page, and

wherein the identifying of the plurality of user input objects of the GUI page comprises performing contour analysis of the GUI page to identify the presence, type, and location of each user input object of the GUI page.

13. The method of claim 12,

wherein the identification of the pluralities of text elements and user input objects of the GUI page comprises:

automatically scrolling through the GUI page to obtain a plurality of images of different scrolled portions of the GUI page; and

identifying text elements and user input objects in each image of the plurality of images of different scrolled portions of the GUI page; and

wherein the identifying of the plurality of user input objects comprises;

automatically expanding list or combo boxes of the GUI page and obtaining text information from the expanded list or combo boxes; and

storing the obtained text information from each expanded list or combo box with the information on the presence, type, and location of the list or combo box.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the providing of the respective parameter values in the respective user input objects of the GUI page is performed at least in part based on the identified location of each user input object on the GUI page.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically associating comprises automatically associating with each of the plurality of automatically identified user input objects a text element of the plurality of automatically identified text elements based on relative positions of the text elements and user input objects in the image of the retrieved GUI page.

16. A system comprising:

a communication network;

a first application server connected to the communication network and providing across the communication network an application system having a graphical user interface (GUI); and

a second application server communicatively connected to first application server across the communication network, and configured to access the application system provided by the first application server across the communication network,

wherein the second application server is configured to perform functions to;

retrieve a GUI page provided by the first application server as part of the application system;

automatically identify, based on image-analysis of an image of the retrieved GUI page, a plurality of text elements of the GUI page;

automatically identify, based on image-analysis of the image of the retrieved GUI page, a plurality of user input objects of the GUI page;

automatically associate with each of the plurality of automatically identified user input objects a text element of the plurality of automatically identified text elements;

retrieve, based on the text elements associated with each of the plurality of user input objects, a plurality of test parameter values from a database storing test parameter data, wherein each test parameter value of the plurality of test parameter values is associated in the database storing test parameter data with a corresponding text element associated with one of the plurality of user input objects;

test the application system provided by the first application server by, for each respective user input object identified in the GUI page, performing a function to;

provide, in the respective user input object of the GUI page, the respective test parameter value that is associated in the database storing test parameter data with a same text element as is associated with the respective user input object of the GUI page; and

monitor a response of the application system to the providing of the respective test parameter value to each user input object identified in the GUI page.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations for automatically testing an application system graphical user interface (GUI) comprising operations to:

retrieve, in a computer communicatively connected to an application server providing the application system, a GUI page provided by the application server as part of the application system;

automatically identify, based on image-analysis of an image of the retrieved GUI page, a plurality of text elements of the GUI page;

automatically identify, based on image-analysis of the image of the retrieved GUI page, a plurality of user input objects of the GUI page;

automatically associate with each of the plurality of automatically identified user input objects a text element of the plurality of automatically identified text elements;

retrieve, based on the text elements associated with each of the plurality of user input objects, a plurality of test parameter values from a database storing test parameter data, wherein each test parameter value of the plurality of test parameter values is associated in the database storing test parameter data with a corresponding text element associated with one of the plurality of user input objects;

test the application system provided by the application server by, for each respective user input object identified in the GUI page, performing a function to;

provide, in the respective user input object of the GUI page, the respective test parameter value that is associated in the database storing test parameter data with a same text element as is associated with the respective user input object of the GUI page; and

monitor a response of the application system to the providing of the respective test parameter value to each user input object identified in the GUI page.