State Model Inference Through the GUI Using Run-Time Test Generation

Ad Mulders, Olivia Rodriguez Valdes, Fernando Pastor Ricós, Pekka Aho*, Beatriz Marín, Tanja E. J. Vos

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference Article in proceedingAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Software testing is an important part of engineering trustworthy information systems. End-to-end testing through Graphical User Interface (GUI) can be done manually, but it is a very time consuming and costly process. There are tools to capture or manually define scripts for automating regression testing through a GUI, but the main challenge is the high maintenance cost of the scripts when the GUI changes. In addition, GUIs tend to have a large state space, so creating scripts to cover all the possible paths and defining test oracles to check all the elements of all the states would be an enormous effort. This paper presents an approach to automatically explore a GUI while inferring state models that are used for action selection in run-time GUI test generation, implemented as an extension to the open source TESTAR tool. As an initial validation, we experiment on the impact of using various state abstraction mechanisms on the model inference and the performance of the implemented action selection algorithm based on the inferred model. Later, we analyse the challenges and provide future research directions on model inference and scriptless GUI testing.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationResearch Challenges in Information Science
Subtitle of host publication16th International Conference, RCIS 2022, Barcelona, Spain, May 17–20, 2022, Proceedings
EditorsRenata Guizzardi, Jolita Ralyté, Xavier Franch
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer
Pages546-563
Number of pages18
Edition1
ISBN (Print)9783031057595
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 May 2022
Event16th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science - Barcelona, Spain
Duration: 17 May 202220 May 2022
https://www.rcis-conf.com/rcis2022/

Publication series

SeriesLecture Notes in Business Information Processing
Volume446
ISSN1865-1348

Conference

Conference16th International Conference on Research Challenges in Information Science
Abbreviated titleRCIS 2022
Country/TerritorySpain
CityBarcelona
Period17/05/2220/05/22
Internet address

Keywords

  • Automated GUI testing
  • Model inference
  • TESTAR tool

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