Test Case Auto-Generation For Web Applications: A Model-Based Approach

Abstract

Web applications are prevalent and considered the mainstay of information systems for organizations. At the same time, web applications are getting more complex, costly for development, and testing. Employees, customers, and business partners rely on these information systems to accomplish their business processes and tasks. Accordingly, users of these web applications assume that these systems are error-free and reliable. Automation testing is imperative to assure regression testing, off-load repetitive tasks from test engineers, and keep the pace between test engineers and developers. Further, it can reveal defects to test engineers at early development stages when parts of the software are broken or changed. Automated tests save time because the case gives the ability to run test cases at night and free testers to perform other types of testing, such as exploratory tests. However, even when using a dedicated automation testing framework, building test cases can be a time-consuming task. In this paper, we provide a solution for generating test cases for web applications. We present a new model-based approach that automatically generates test cases for Selenium testing tool, utilizing Domain-Specific Visual Language (DSVL) and Domain-Specific Textual Language (DSTL). Proof of concept framework is implemented and evaluated to measure user satisfaction, efficiency, and effectiveness of our approach. Our framework, named MAJD, was evaluated through a case study, using 20 tester engineers and developers from the industry with different experience levels. The results show that our framework is efficient and usable.