Automatic test case generation

• US 9,767,008 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2015
• Issued: 09/19/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2014
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Harden, Arron J., Nusbickel, Wendi L.
• Primary Examiner(s): COYER, RYAN D
• Application Number:
  US14/643,835
• Publication Number:
  US 20150254171A1
• Time in Patent Office: 924 Days
• Field of Search: 717124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3684 for test design, e.g. generating new test cases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/254 Extract, transform and load [ETL] procedures, e.g. ETL data flows in data warehouses

Abstract

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a system for generating one or more test cases for a service of a server system comprises at least one processor. The system analyzes metadata associated with the service to generate a schema definition for inputs and outputs of the service. A description of the service is generated in an application description language that refers to the schema definition. The system processes the generated description of the service to produce the one or more test cases. Embodiments of the present invention further include a method and computer program product for generating one or more test cases for a service in substantially the same manner described above.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of generating one or more test cases for a service of a server system comprising:

analyzing, by the server system, metadata associated with the service to automatically generate, by the server system, a schema definition for inputs and outputs of the service, the metadata including an input schema of Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) job metadata produced by a first Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) application and an output schema of Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) job metadata produced by a second Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) application;

generating a description of the service in an application description language that refers to the schema definition; and

processing the generated description of the service to produce the one or more test cases for the service, wherein processing the generated description comprises;

identifying a process from among a plurality of processes of the service within the generated description, wherein a data restriction specifies acceptable data for an input parameter and an output of the process; and

generating one or more test cases for the process based on the data restriction to determine compliance of the process with the data restriction, the one or more test cases including a test case for at least one test selected from a group of tests consisting of a string length test and a numeric range test, wherein;

the string length test is configured to set a character string input parameter with data having a character length in excess of a restricted length, and

the numeric range test is configured to set a numeric input parameter with a value outside of a prescribed range.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the service includes an Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) job.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the schema definition includes an Extensible Markup Language Schema Definition (XSD) grammar, and the application description language includes Web Application Descriptor Language (WADL).

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more test cases for the service include at least one of a test script and a Java application.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the service is of a third party server system, and the one or more test cases for the service are produced by one or more clients of the service.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more test cases for the process include a test case omitting one or more input parameters for the process.