Adaptation of automated test scripts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9767009-B2
Application number	US-201414537512-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 10, 2014
Priority date	Nov 10, 2014
Publication date	Sep 19, 2017
Grant date	Sep 19, 2017

Abstract

Embodiments provide a computerized method for adapting automating test scripts, said method including: utilizing at least one processor to execute computer code that performs the steps of: receiving, at an input device, an original test script created to test an application; utilizing the original test script to test, using the processor, a variant of the application; identifying, using the processor, failures in the original test script when the variant of the application is being tested; and modifying, using the processor, the original test script to overcome the identified failures.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computerized method for adapting automating test scripts, said method comprising:
utilizing at least one processor to execute computer code that performs the steps of:
receiving, at an input device, an original test script created to test an application, wherein the input device comprises a different execution environment than the original test script environment;
utilizing the original test script to test, using the processor, a variant of the application;
identifying, using the processor, failures in the original test script when the variant of the application is being tested, wherein the identifying failures comprises capturing a status of the screen after execution of a step in the original test script;
comparing the captured status of a screen to a status of a screen of the variant application;
executing, upon failure to identify an exact match of an element causing one of the failures of the original test script, a k-limited local crawl of the status of a screen and a previous status of the screen to perform an action selected from the group consisting of: locating missing elements of the original test script, deleting an existing step in the original test script, and replacing a step in the original test script with an alternative sequence of steps, wherein executing a k-limited local crawl of the previous status of the screen comprises executing a backtrack to a previous status of the screen of the original test script;
the k-limited local crawl having a maximum depth corresponding to a number of statuses of the screen to access and comprising a heuristic-guided search to search for a missing element to generate a repair sequence for the element causing one of the failures;
creating metrics to weight a plurality of alternate elements to the element causing one of the failures, wherein the metrics are determined based on characteristics selected from the group consisting of: term overlap, synonyms, image similarity, image-label association, and prior success; and
modifying, using the processor, the original test script to overcome the identified failures for the different execution environment.

2. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
executing the original test script on the application; and
wherein the capturing the status of the screen comprises creating a dynamic trace.

3. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
determining one of the plurality of elements to be tested;
wherein the alternate element is selected based on the weight assigned to the alternate element by the metrics.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising: creating a repair model upon successfully modifying the original test script.

5. The method of claim 4 , comprising: storing the test script step and corresponding status of the screen of each step utilized in creating the repair model.

6. The method of claim 5 , comprising: testing additional variants of the application utilizing the repair model.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the testing is carried out on variant applications with differing characteristics selected from a group consisting of operating system platforms, varying devices, varying browsers, varying versions of the application.

8. An apparatus for adapting automating test scripts comprising:
at least one processor;
an input device; and
a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code comprising:
computer readable program code configured to receive, at an input device, an original test script created to test an application, wherein the input device comprises a different execution environment than the original test script environment;
computer readable program code configured to utilize the original test script to test, using the processor, a variant of the application;
computer readable program code configured to identify, using the processor, failures in the original test script when the variant of the application is being tested, wherein the identifying failures comprises capturing a status of the screen after execution of a step in the original test script;
computer readable program code configured to compare the captured status of a screen to a status of a screen of the variant application;
computer readable program code configured to execute, upon failure to identify an exact match of an element causing one of the failures of the original test script, a k-limited local crawl of the status of a screen and a previous status of the screen to perform an action selected from the group consisting of: locating missing elements of the original test script, deleting an existing step in the original test script, and replacing a step in the original test script with an alternative sequence of steps, wherein executing a k-limited local crawl of the previous status of the screen comprises executing a backtrack to a previous status of the screen of the original test script;
the k-limited local crawl having a maximum depth corresponding to a number of statuses of the screen to access and comprising a heuristic-guided search to search for a missing element to generate a repair sequence for the element causing one of the failures;
computer readable program code configured to create metrics to weight a plurality of alternate elements to the element causing one of the failures, wherein the metrics are determined based on characteristics selected from the group consisting of: term overlap, synonyms, image similarity, image-label association, and prior success; and
computer readable program code configured to modify, using the processor, the original test script to overcome the identified failures for the different execution environment.

9. A non-transitory computer program product for adapting automating test scripts, said computer program product comprising:
computer readable program code configured to receive, at an input device, an original test script created to test an application, wherein the input device comprises a different execution environment than the original test script environment;
computer readable program code configured to utilize the original test script to test, using the processor, a variant of the application;
computer readable program code configured to identify, using the processor, failures in the original test script when the variant of the application is being tested, wherein the identifying failures comprises capturing a status of the screen after execution of a step in the original test script;
computer readable program code configured to compare the captured status of a screen to a status of a screen of the variant application;
computer readable program code configured to execute, upon failure to identify an exact match of an element causing one of the failures of the original test script, a k-limited local crawl of the status of a screen and a previous status of the screen to perform an action selected from the group consisting of: locating missing elements of the original test script, deleting an existing step in the original test script, and replacing a step in the original test script with an alternative sequence of steps, wherein executing a k-limited local crawl of the previous status of the screen comprises executing a backtrack to a previous status of the screen of the original test script;
the k-limited local crawl having a maximum depth corresponding to a number of statuses of the screen to access and comprising a heuristic-guided search to search for a missing element to generate a repair sequence for the element causing one of the failures;
computer readable program code configured to create metrics to weight a plurality of alternate eleme

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Cobb Jr William Jacob
• Rahulkrishna Yandrapally
• Sinha Saurabh
• Thummalapenta Suresh

Classifications

• G06F11/368

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

• G06F11/3668

  Testing of software · CPC title

• G06F11/3604

  Analysis of software for verifying properties of programs (testing of software G06F11/3668) · CPC title

• G06F11/3664

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F11/3688 Primary

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