Unit test automation for business rules and applications

• US 9,606,903 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2014
• Issued: 03/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Murugesan, Ilangovan
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhen, Wei
• Assistant Examiner(s): MORSHED, HOSSAIN M
• Application Number:
  US14/451,244
• Publication Number:
  US 20150356001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 967 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

There are provided systems and method for unit test automation for business rules and applications. A service provider, such as a payment provider, may wish to integrate software and platforms offered by Pegasystems, Inc., in particular Pega RULES Process (“PRPC), which offers a business process management system. PRPC allows the service provider to create and manage business rules and build business applications and platforms, such as a customer support platform. In order to provide a more flexible and comprehensive automated unit testing mechanism, a Java framework may be utilized that runs test cases in PRPC for the business rules. The Java framework may feed data into test cases and may enable dynamic data to be entered for the test cases. Additionally, the Java framework may allow for editing of data for the PRPC test cases and may allow the test cases to be reused and deleted.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory memory having stored thereon instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the system to perform operations comprising;

loading an automated unit test for at least one business rule corresponding to a business process generated by a business application creation process;

accessing initial test input data for a test case, the initial test input data comprising one or more parameters to test the at least one business rule, and the test case including a rule type, name, class, release number, and parameter information for the business rule;

executing the automated unit test using the initial test input data as an input to the automated unit test;

based on receiving dynamic test input data from a user prior to completion of the automated unit test, the dynamic test data including at least one altered data input value for at least a first parameter of the one or more parameters that is different from a corresponding data input value in the initial test input data for the first parameter, updating the automated unit test to execute a test case using the at least one altered data input value for at least the first parameter, the dynamic test input data including clipboard information for the test case;

continuing the executing of the automated unit test using the at least one altered data input value;

providing a comparison of expected test results to test results from the continuing the executing the automated unit test using the at least one altered data input value; and

using the comparison of the expected test results to the test results and business rule information for the test case, determining if the business rule can be integrated into a business application corresponding to the business process.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein receiving the dynamic test input data comprises receiving a clipboard value.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the automated unit test comprises a Java API configured to communicate with the business application creation process.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the business process comprises a customer support platform, and wherein the at least one business rule comprises a declarative rule for customer support within the customer support platform.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise determining whether the at least one business rule is implemented for the business process based on the comparison of expected test results to the test results from the automated unit test.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the automated unit test is executed automatically using the initial test data according to a schedule.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise logging the dynamic test input data received from the user.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein continuing execution of the automated unit test using the at least one altered data input value comprises executing a test scenario in which the at least one altered data value is used as a substitute user-submitted data value from an online web page submission form.

9. A method, comprising:

accessing, by a computer system, an automated unit test to test a platform comprising a business rule generated by a business application creation process;

receiving, by the computer system, a test suite comprising initial test data for testing the business rule for use in the platform, the test suite including a test case having a corresponding rule type, name, class, release number, and parameter information for the business rule;

processing, by the computer system, the initial test data in the test suite using the automated unit test;

receiving, by the computer system, updates to the initial test data comprising a plurality of dynamic data items entered by a user as input data for the automated unit test prior to completion of the automated unit test, wherein the plurality of dynamic data items comprise a plurality of values for a plurality of test parameters, wherein the plurality of values differ from a plurality of different values present in the initial test data for the plurality of test parameters, and wherein at least one of the plurality of dynamic data items comprises clipboard information for the test case;

executing, by the computer system, the automated unit test using the initial test data and the updates comprising the plurality of dynamic data items entered as input data for the automated unit test;

providing, by the computer system, a comparison of expected test results to test results based on the plurality of dynamic data items; and

using the comparison of the expected test results to the test results and business rule information for the test case, determining if the business rule can be integrated into a business application corresponding to a business process created via the business application creation process.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the updates comprising the plurality of dynamic data items appear as statically bound data, rather than dynamic data, to the an automated unit test.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein at least one of the plurality of dynamic data items corresponds to a different scenario specified in the test suite.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the platform comprises a customer service platform for a payment provider, and is generated at least in part by the business application creation process.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein executing the automated unit test using the initial test data causes one logical branch of the business rule to be tested and executing the automated unit test using the updates comprising the plurality of dynamic data items causes at least one different logical branch of the business rule to be tested.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising authenticating a user device from which the plurality of dynamic data items are received prior to the executing.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the initial test data appears as statically bound to the automated unit test.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising receiving one of the dynamic data items based on new data that was previously unavailable becoming available during execution of the test suite.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable to cause a machine to perform operations comprising:

loading an automated unit test for at least one business rule corresponding to a business process generated by a business application creation process;

accessing initial test input data for a test case, the initial test input data comprising one or more parameters to test the at least one business rule and the test case including a rule type, name, class, release number, and parameter information for the business rule;

executing the automated unit test using the initial test input data as an input to the automated unit test;

based on receiving dynamic test input data from a user prior to completion of the automated unit test, the dynamic test data including at least one altered data input value for at least a first parameter of the one or more parameters that is different from a corresponding data input value in the initial test data for the first parameter, updating the automated unit test to execute a test case using the at least one altered data input value for at least the first parameter, the dynamic test input data including clipboard information for the test case;

continuing the executing of the automated unit test using the at least one altered data value;

providing a comparison of expected test results to test results from the continuing the executing the automated unit test using the at least one altered data input value; and

using the comparison of the expected test results to the test results and business rule information for the test case, determining if the business rule can be integrated into a business application corresponding to the business process.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein executing the automated unit test comprises executing one or more test scenarios against a web-based server application.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 17, wherein updating the automated unit test causes execution of a test branch not executable based on the initial test data.