Distributed state model inference for scriptless GUI testing

Abstract

State model inference of software applications through the Graphical User Interface (GUI) is a technique that identifies GUI states and transitions, and maps them into a model. Scriptless GUI testing tools can benefit substantially from the availability of these state models, for example, to improve the exploration, or have sophisticated test oracles. However, inferring models for large systems requires a long execution time. Our goal is to improve the speed of the state model inference process. To achieve this goal, this paper presents a distributed state model inference approach with an open source scriptless GUI testing tool. Moreover, in order to be able to infer a suitable model, we design a set of strategies to deal with abstraction challenges and to distinguish GUI states and transitions in the model. To validate it, we conduct an experiment with two open source web applications that have been tested with the distributed architecture using one to six Docker containers sharing the same state model. With the obtained results, we can conclude that it is feasible to infer a model with a distributed approach and that using the distributed approach reduces the time required for inferring a state model.