Patent Application
20150082279
Embodiments relate to a software testing system and method and more particularly a system and method for testing code for implementation in web browser software.
Software testing platforms are available to allow software developers to develop user interfaces implemented in web browsers. One such software testing platform is the Selenium™ test framework available from SAP AG of Walldorf, Germany. There are however several common types of web browsers, such as Internet Explorer™, Google Chrome™, Mozilla Firefox™, Opera™ and Safari™ Different web browsers behave differently. Tests can be written in an object oriented language such as Java™ and use code in the form of a handler to implement specific user interface elements within the browser. This hence requires a developer to write different handler classes for different browsers.
Various embodiments are presented herein in the form of at least one of systems, methods, and software to enable the testing of code to be implemented by different types of browsers without requiring near duplicate code, which performs the same general function but differs in browser code specific to implement certain browser specific functions.
In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the inventive subject matter may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice them, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural, logical, and electrical changes may be made without departing from the scope of the inventive subject matter. Such embodiments of the inventive subject matter may be referred to, individually and/or collectively, herein by the term “invention” merely for convenience and without intending to voluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single invention or inventive concept if more than one is in fact disclosed.
The following description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limited sense, and the scope of the inventive subject matter is defined by the appended claims.
The functions or algorithms described herein are implemented in hardware, software or a combination of software and hardware in one embodiment. The software comprises computer executable code stored on computer readable media such as memory or other type of storage devices. Further, described functions may correspond to modules, which may be software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. Multiple functions are performed in one or more modules as desired, and the embodiments described are merely examples. The software is executed on a digital signal processor, ASIC, microprocessor, or other type of processor operating on a system, such as a personal computer, server, a router, or other device capable of processing data including network interconnection devices.
Some embodiments implement the functions in two or more specific interconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and data signals communicated between and through the modules, or as portions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Thus, the exemplary process flow is applicable to software, firmware, and hardware implementations.
The software can be provided to a computer on a non-transient storage medium such as read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) & electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technologies, compact disc read-only memory (CD ROM), Digital Versatile Disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium capable of storing computer-readable instructions
The software can also be provided on a transient medium such as a signal. Such a signal can comprise an electrical signal, an optical signal, a magnetic signal, an electromagnetic signal or an acoustic signal for example. One specific example is a signal sending the code over a network such as a TCP/IP signal.
Before describing the embodiments in detail, one approach will be described with reference to
User interfaces for business software applications can be created using software tools such as SAPUI5™ available from SAP AG of Walldorf, Germany. Such user interfaces run within a web browser such as Internet Explorer™, Google Chrome™, Mozilla Firefox™, Opera™ and Safari™. It is often important that the operations of such user interfaces be tested prior to software being deployed. Software test environments such as Selenium™ are available in which automated test can be created and run against different browsers so that the results can be recorded to check that the user interface operates as expected. The tests in such environments or frameworks are written in an object oriented language such as Java™.
A challenge with this approach is that the Handler 102 is specific to a browser since each browser can have different methods for accessing web elements. Each web browser needs its own strategy for performing certain test function. Hence, in such an approach each browser type needs its own handler class in the worst case scenario. This will result in many classes with near similar coding. This duplication of code jeopardizes efforts to develop ‘clean code’ and increases the complexity for code maintenance.
A software testing platform 30 is provided such as Selenium™ which a developer of a user interface can utilize as a framework for to write test code 301 which performs user interface tests for web elements on web browsers 31 and 32. The tests can be written to emulate user interactions with the web browser. The results of the tests are recorded in memory as test results 302. The platform 30 can provide a user interface 303 to allow a user to write and run the test code 301 and to retrieve the test results 302.
A test developer develops Test Classes 40 for performing certain test on web elements in user interface code. Test Classes are Java™ object classes. The Test Classes are code developed to provide browser independent testing of the user interface functionality. The Test Classes use a Handler Factory (SBI_HandlerFactory 41) for handler instantiation. SBI_HandlerFactory 41 wraps the standard HandlerFactory 42 to enable the identification of whether a handler instantiation used by a test is a browser dependent handler or a standard type of handler. Where it is identified that the handler used by the test is not browser dependent, the HandlerFactory 42 can provide the handler instance and allow the test case to use it as in the standard approach. If the used handler instance implements a browser dependent strategy, this is identified and the correct instance is returned to the test class in a decoupled manner, as will be described below.
In this embodiment, a new handler class (SBI_Handler 46) is decoupled from the TestClass 40 by use of the dependency inversion principle. The SBI_Handler 46 implements an interface, SBI_HandlerInterface 45 that defines the methods to be used by the TestClass 40. The SBI_Handler 46 also implements an interface, SBI_StrategySupport 43, for use by the SBI_HandlerFactory 41 to identify if there is a browser dependent strategy for the handler needed by the TestClass 40.
The class, SBI_Strategy 47 defines methods for setting and getting a strategy. It inherits from the SBI_Handler 46 and implements the SBI_Handler 46. Since the SBI_Handler 46 implements the SBIHandlerInterface 45, the SBI_Strategy 47 indirectly implements the SBI_HandlerInterface 45. The SBI_Handler 46 also implements the AbstractHandler 44 as needed in the Selenium™ framework.
In step S1 the TestClass 40 is executed and implements a Testcase (step S2), which uses the SBI_HandlerFactory 41 to ask for a valid handler for the Testcase. In step S4 the SBI_Strategy 47 inherits the SBI_Handler 46 and implements the SBI_StrategySupport interface 43 with inner classes defined as browser specific. The SBI_Handler 46 also extends the AbstractHandler 44. In step S5, the SBI_HandlerFactory 41 determines whether the handler to be used has a strategy dependent upon the browser by identifying from the SBI_Strategy Support interface 43 whether a method SetStrategy/GetStrategy is set. If a strategy is not set, the handler is not browser dependent and can be provided to the Testcase in the standard manner. Hence, the HandlerFactory 42 creates an instance of the handler to be used (step S6) and the HandlerFactory 42 returns the handler to the TestClass 40 to identify the test method and enables the TestClass 40 to execute the Testcase method and return the results (step S7). The Testcase can then display and/or store the results (step S8).
If the SBI_HandlerFactory 41 determines that the handler has a strategy set, it detects the browser type using a browser driver (step S10). This enables the correct strategy to be selected by the SBI_HandlerFactory 41 using the SBI_StrategySupport interface 43. (step S11). The SBI_Handler 46 implements the SBI_HandlerInterface 45 (step S12) and TestClass 40 receives a reference to the handler in the SBI_HandlerInterface 45 (step S13). The methods for use by the Testcase are identified by TestClass from the SBI_HandlerInterface 45 (step S14). TestClass 40 executes the Testcase method and returns the results (step S9). The Testcase can then display and/or store the results (step S10).
An example of a template in Java™ for use by a developer to develop a handler that supports different types of web browsers is shown in the code below. Such example code can be provided and the code written by a developer following this template or framework can be provided on any suitable non-transient storage medium or transmitted as a transient signal, such as a signal over the internet.
Computer-readable code stored on a computer-readable storage medium are executable by the processing unit 2 of the computer 10. A hard drive, CD-ROM, and RAM are some examples of articles including a non-transient computer-readable medium.
Various generalized embodiments will now be described.
One embodiment provides a software testing system for testing code for implementation in web browsers, the system comprising code memory storing computer code; and a processor for reading the code in the code memory and executing the code; wherein the code stored in the code memory comprises test class code defining test cases for testing operations on web applications implementable by different web browser types, and handler class code comprising class code specific to each web browser type and defining strategies to be used by test cases, wherein the handler class code is adapted to implement a handler interface and the test class code is adapted to use the handler interface to identify the methods to be used for test cases.
In one embodiment the handler class code is adapted to implement a strategy support interface defining strategies to be implemented dependent upon the web browser type, and the code stored in the code memory includes handler factory class code used by the test class code to obtain an instance of a handler class code by determining the web browser type being executed and by reference to the strategy support interface.
In one embodiment the code stored in the code memory includes strategy class code adapted to implement the handler class code.
In one embodiment the handler class code comprises inner class code defining the strategies to be used for each web browser type.
In one embodiment the handler factory class code is adapted to determine the web browser type using a web browser driver.
In one embodiment the code for implementation in web browsers comprises user interface code.
In one embodiment the code stored in the code memory includes a web browser testing platform providing an environment for implementation of the test class code and the handler class code.
In one embodiment the web browser testing platform comprises SAP Selenium.
Another embodiment provides a non-transient storage medium storing computer code for controlling a computer to test code for implementation in web browsers, the code stored in the medium comprising test class code defining test cases for testing operations on web applications implementable by different web browser types, and handler class code comprising code specific to each web browser type and defining strategies to be used by test cases, wherein the handler class code is adapted to implement a handler interface and the test class code is adapted to use the handler interface to identify the methods to be used for test cases. In an alternative embodiment, the code can be provided on any form of carrier medium such as a transient medium and a non-transient storage medium.
In one embodiment the handler class code is adapted to implement a strategy support interface defining strategies to be implemented dependent upon the web browser type, and the code includes handler factory class code used by the test class code to obtain an instance of a handler class code by determining the web browser type being executed and by reference to the strategy support interface.
In one embodiment the code stored in the code memory includes strategy class code adapted to implement the handler class code.
In one embodiment the handler class code comprises inner class code defining the strategies to be used for each web browser type.
In one embodiment the handler factory class code is adapted to determine the web browser type using a web browser driver.
In one embodiment the code for implementation in web browsers comprises user interface code.
In one embodiment the code stored in the code memory includes a web browser testing platform providing an environment for implementation of the test class code and the handler class code.
In one embodiment the test environment comprises SAP Selenium.
A further embodiment provide a computer implemented method of testing code for implementation in web browsers, the method comprising implementing test class code defining test cases for testing operations on web applications implementable by different web browser types, and implementing handler class code comprising class code specific to each web browser type and defining strategies to be used by test cases, wherein the handler class code implements a handler interface and the test class code uses the handler interface to identify the methods to be used for test cases.
In one embodiment the handler class code implements a strategy support interface defining strategies to be implemented dependent upon the web browser type, the method including implementing handler factory class code used by the test class code to obtain an instance of a handler class code by determining the web browser type being executed and by reference to the strategy support interface.
In one embodiment the method includes implementing strategy class code to implement the handler class code.
In one embodiment the handler class code comprises inner class code defining the strategies to be used for each web browser type.
In one embodiment the handler factory class code determines the web browser type using a web browser driver.
In one embodiment the code for implementation in web browsers comprises user interface code.
In one embodiment the method includes implementing a web browser testing platform providing an environment for implementation of the test class code and the handler class code.
In one embodiment the test environment comprises SAP Selenium.
Another embodiment provides a non-transient storage medium storing code for a handler template supporting different web browser types for use in a test environment, code to identify browser specific strategies for implementation in the test environment; code to implement a strategy support interface for use by a handler factory to select a handler instance; and code to implement a handler interface for use by a test case to identify methods for testing web browser functions. In an alternative embodiment, the code can be provided on any form of carrier medium such as a transient medium and a non-transient storage medium.
In one embodiment the code includes code to identify that the handler extends an abstract handler used in the test environment.
In one embodiment the handler template defines a handler class, and the code to identify specific strategies comprises inner classes.
In one embodiment the test environment comprises SAP Selenium.
It will be readily understood to those skilled in the art that various other changes in the details, material, and arrangements of the parts and method stages which have been described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of the inventive subject matter may be made without departing from the principles and scope of the inventive subject matter as expressed in the subjoined claims.
