Development of an Improved GUI Automation Test System Based on Event-Flow Graph

Yongzhong Lu, Danping Yan, Songlin Nie, Chun Wang

Huazhong University of Science & Technology.

DOI: 10.4236/jsea.2008.11006                

Abstract

A more automated graphic user interface (GUI) test model, which is based on the event-flow graph, is proposed. In the model, a user interface automation API tool is first used to carry out reverse engineering for a GUI test sample so as to obtain the event-flow graph. Then two approaches are adopted to create GUI test sample cases. That is to say, an improved ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm is employed to establish a sequence of testing cases in the course of the daily smoke test. The sequence goes through all object event points in the event-flow graph. On the other hand, the spanning tree obtained by deep breadth-first search (BFS) approach is utilized to obtain the testing cases from goal point to outset point in the course of the deep regression test. Finally, these cases are applied to test the new GUI. Moreover, according to the above-mentioned model, a corresponding prototype system based on Microsoft UI automation framework is developed, thus giving a more effective way to improve the GUI automation test in Windows OS.

Keywords

Automated Software Testing, Graphic User Interface, Event-Flow Graph, Regression Testing, Ant Colony Optimization, UI Automation

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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