Generating test scripts through application integration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10007596-B2
Application number	US-201615236723-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 15, 2016
Priority date	Apr 26, 2013
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

Provided are techniques for parsing a pre-existing test script for a graphical user interface (GUI) to identify a first GUI action in a first line of the pre-existing test script; parsing a model associated with the GUI to identify GUI actions and associated elements for the GUI actions in the model; identifying a corresponding element for the first GUI action in a second line, following the first line, that are identified by keywords and associated parameters that exist in the pre-existing test script and match actions in the model; identifying GUI actions in the pre-existing test script that match GUI actions in the model; and generating a new test script by adding the first GUI action and corresponding element to the pre-existing test script.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method of generating a test script from a pre-existing script for testing a graphical user interface (GUI) comprising:
parsing a pre-existing test script for a graphical user interface (GUI) to identify a first GUI action in a first line of the pre-existing test script;
parsing a model associated with the GUI to identify GUI actions and associated elements for the GUI actions in the model;
identifying a corresponding element for the first GUI action in a second line, following the first line, that are identified by keywords and associated parameters that exist in the pre-existing test script and match actions in the model;
identifying GUI actions in the pre-existing test script that match GUI actions in the model; and
generating a new test script by adding the first GUI action and corresponding element to the pre-existing test script.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein manual test scripts are further parsed using a natural language parser to highlight keywords and associated parameters.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the pre-existing script is manually generated.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:
further identifying GUI actions that contain keywords and parameters that exist in the pre-existing script;
adding the further identified actions to a candidate list; and
adding the further identified actions to the new test script if they are determined from the candidate list as possible actions.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the further identified action is flagged in the new test script.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the new test script is generated using an empty test script template.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein if no matching GUI elements are found or none of the elements in the list are suitable then the process is halted so that a user can input the appropriate action the script needs to take.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein after a generated test script is produced, any successful decisions from the candidate list or any input that the user was required to solve are added to a global set of ‘keyword <-> element’ pairs for future test script parsing so that the process is refined over time.

9. An apparatus for generating a test script from a pre-existing test script for testing a graphical user interface (GUI), said system comprising:
a plurality of processors;
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the plurality of processors;
a first parser, stored on the computer readable storage medium and executed on the plurality of processors, that parses a pre-existing test script to identify a first GUI action in a first line of the pre-existing test script;
a second parser, stored on the computer readable storage medium and executed on the plurality of processors, that parses a model associated with the GUI to identify GUI actions and associated elements for the GUI actions in the model;
a matching engine, stored on the computer readable storage medium and executed on the plurality of processors, that identifies a corresponding element for the first GUI action in a second line, following the first line, in the pre-existing test script that matches a GUI action and associated element of the GUI actions and associated elements for the GUI actions in the model; and
a generator, stored on the computer readable storage medium and executed on the plurality of processors, that generates a new test script by adding the first GUI action and corresponding element to the pre-existing test script.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein manual test scripts are further parsed using a natural language parser to highlight keywords and associated parameters.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the pre-existing script is manually generated.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the matching engine further:
identifies GUI actions that contain keywords and parameters that exist in the pre-existing script;
adds the further identified actions to a candidate list; and
adds the further identified actions to the new test script if they are determined from the candidate list as possible actions.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the further identified action is flagged in the new test script.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the new test script is generated using an empty test script template.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein if no matching GUI elements are found or none of the elements in the list are suitable then the process is halted so that a user can input the appropriate action the script needs to take.

16. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein after a generated test script is produced, any successful decisions from the candidate list or any input that the user was required to solve are added to a global set of ‘keyword <-> element’ pairs for future manual test script parsing so that the process is refined over time.

17. A computer program product for generating a test script from a pre-existing script, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith and the computer-readable program code configured to perform a method, the method comprising:
parsing a pre-existing test script for a graphical user interface (GUI) to identify a first GUI action in a first line of the pre-existing test script;
parsing a model associated with the GUI to identify GUI actions and associated elements for the GUI actions in the model;
identifying a corresponding element for the first GUI action in a second line, following the first line, that are identified by keywords and associated parameters that exist in the pre-existing test script and match actions in the model;
identifying GUI actions in the pre-existing test script that match GUI actions in the model; and
generating a new test script by adding the first GUI action and corresponding element to the pre-existing test script.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 , the method further comprising:
further identifying GUI actions that contain keywords and parameters that exist in the pre-existing script;
adding the further identified actions to a candidate list; and
adding the further identified actions to the new test script if they are determined from the candidate list as possible actions.

19. The computer program product of claim 17 , the method further comprising, wherein if no matching GUI elements are found or none of the elements in the list are suitable then the process is halted so that a user can input the appropriate action the script needs to take.

20. The computer program product of claim 17 , the method further comprising, wherein after a generated test script is produced, any successful decisions from the candidate list or any input that the user was required to solve are added to a global set of ‘keyword <-> element’ pairs for future manual test script parsing so that the process is refined over time.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Pilot Richard W
• Richards Graham

Classifications

• G06F11/3664

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F11/3688

  for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites · CPC title

• G06F11/3684 Primary

  for test design, e.g. generating new test cases · CPC title

• G06F11/3698

  Environments for analysis, debugging or testing of software · CPC title

• G06F11/368

  for test version control, e.g. updating test cases to a new software version · CPC title