JP2012018583A - Software development support device and processing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device and a method for recording an operation by using logical positional information indicating an arrangement on a GUI screen when the operation is performed for components of the GUI screen.SOLUTION: In a software development support device and processing method thereof, when a user's operation or an automatic operation is performed for components displayed on a GUI screen with an GUI application, generated is logical positional information indicating an arrangement of the components on the GUI screen. Then, the generated logical positional information is recorded as a operation record of the components operated.

Description

  The present invention relates to technology for supporting software development.

  Conventionally, as a technique for performing test automation of a GUI application, there is a technique for automatically generating a test script (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  The automatic generation technique of the test script (test description) described in Patent Document 1 is focused on performing an exhaustive test on the screen transition of the entire GUI application. In addition, it requires design information such as the source code of the GUI application program and UML.

Japanese Patent No. 4148527

  Conventionally, however, GUI application test automation systems are used for black-box regression tests without using design information such as program source code and UML.

  In particular, a recording / playback type test automation in which a user first operates on a GUI screen, stores information related to the operation as an operation record, and reproduces the operation record as a test script (automatic operation) is widely used.

  In the recording / reproducing type test automation system described above, operations on the GUI screen are recorded using a screen coordinate system (XY coordinate system). In the following, problems in the recording / reproducing type test automation using the screen coordinate system in the recording / reproducing type test automation system will be described.

  When the operation record is acquired and recorded using the screen coordinate system, if the layout of the operation target GUI component is different during reproduction (automatic operation), the GUI component does not exist at the recorded position and cannot be reproduced. Sometimes.

  Specific examples that cannot be reproduced (automatically operated) include a case where the size of the GUI component is changed and a case where the GUI component is drawn at a different coordinate position.

  Therefore, if changes in the design such as enlargement / reduction, aspect ratio, and appearance of the GUI screen occur, the operation must be re-recorded as a whole even if there is no change in the screen transition pattern or processing flow. There was a problem.

  As described above, in the recording / reproducing type test automation system using the screen coordinate system, the problem is that it is not possible to flexibly cope with a change in the screen size or design of the display device.

  In addition, with the increase in functionality and functionality of GUI applications, screen transition patterns of GUI screens have increased, and there is a problem of cost for re-recording operation records every time the screen size is changed or the design is changed.

  On the other hand, in GUI programming, a problem may occur in an object-oriented language such as Java (registered trademark). Since this object-oriented language has high reusability of a class that is one of abstract data types, an object having exactly the same size and arrangement may be erroneously generated. In such a case, since the user cannot visually verify, there is a problem that internally, resources such as CPU and memory are wasted, and further, the readability of the program is lowered and a code that induces a bug is included. there were.

  Furthermore, as the configuration of the GUI screen becomes complicated and diversified, the number of user interactive GUI components may increase, and at that time, a listener registration error for detecting an operation event may occur. A listener is a mechanism for processing various events in a GUI application. In the case of a user interactive GUI component, a listener corresponding to an operation event needs to be registered. If the listener is not registered, there will be a button that will not actually be processed even if it is clicked, and you will notice that there is an error from the source code, or you can not find it unless you operate the target GUI component there were.

  The present invention provides an apparatus and a method for recording an operation using logical position information indicating an arrangement on the GUI screen when an operation is performed on a component of the GUI screen.

The present invention is a software development support device that supports software development using operation records in which user operations or automatic operations are recorded on a plurality of components displayed on a GUI screen by a GUI application,
Generating means for generating logical position information indicating an arrangement on the GUI screen of a component on which the user operation or automatic operation has been performed;
Operation recording means for recording the logical position information generated by the generating means as an operation record of the component on which the operation has been performed;
It is characterized by having.

  According to the present invention, when an operation is performed on a component on the GUI screen, the operation can be recorded using logical position information indicating an arrangement on the GUI screen. Therefore, when changing the screen size or design, it is possible to reduce the trouble and cost of re-recording the operation record.

The block diagram which shows the structure of the system in this embodiment. The figure which shows the software structure of a software development assistance apparatus. The flowchart which shows the process of the operation recording system in this embodiment. The figure which shows the example of a display in the display part of a test object application. The figure which shows the arrangement | positioning order of a GUI component, and parent-child relationship as a tree structure. The figure which shows an example of the operation recording described with XML of structured language. The figure which shows the system configuration | structure of the automatic operation system in this embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing processing relating to an automatic operation program A and a test target GUI application in the device under test. The flowchart which shows the process of the automatic operation program B in a remote test apparatus. (A) is a figure which shows arrangement | positioning when the operation record of a GUI component is acquired, (B) is a figure which shows arrangement | positioning when an automatic operation program is performed. The flowchart which shows the procedure of a recording analysis program. The figure which shows the example of the GUI screen which a GUI application displays. The figure which shows the information of the operation result described by XML. The flowchart which shows the procedure of a recording analysis program. The figure which shows the information of the operation result described by XML. The figure which shows the table of the essential listener of a GUI component classification.

  Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. As a software development support apparatus according to the present invention, an operation recording system, an automatic operation system, and a record analysis system will be described as examples. The test target software will be described by taking a GUI application as an example.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a system in the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the system includes a CPU 101, a RAM 102, an external storage device 104, a display unit 105, and an operation unit 106, which are connected via a bus 103. This system is applied to an operation recording system, an automatic operation system, and a record analysis system.

  The CPU 101 controls the entire system. The RAM 102 temporarily stores a program supplied from an external device or the like, data acquired from a database, or intermediate data during program execution. The external storage device 104 is a hard disk, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, or the like, and stores a program for controlling the system and information acquired from the RAM 102. The display unit 105 displays a user interface screen and the like. The operation unit 106 receives a user operation and inputs information corresponding to the operation. A display with a touch panel in which the operation unit 106 and the display unit 105 are integrated is also conceivable.

  As an application example of the software development support apparatus, an operation recording system for recording user operations on a plurality of GUI components displayed on a GUI screen by a test target GUI application will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the software development support apparatus according to the present invention. In the operation recording system of the GUI application, attention is paid to “test target application” and “operation recording program” in FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing of the operation recording system in the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a display example on the display unit of the test target application, and is an arrangement image of GUI components configured on the display unit 105 by the test target application.

  First, in FIG. 3, when the CPU 101 starts execution of the test target application, an application GUI screen is displayed on the display unit 105 in S <b> 301. The test target application generates an event in S303 when a user operation such as a mouse click is performed in S302 or when the layout of the GUI component is changed by execution of the application.

  Hereinafter, an event generated by a user operation is expressed as an “operation event”, and an event generated due to a change in arrangement is expressed as an “arrangement event”. Then, the operation recording program shown in FIG. 2 detects this event that occurred in S303 of the test target application in S306, thereby recording various operations.

  Thereafter, in S304, it is determined whether or not the event is an end event of the test target application. If the operation is continued, the process proceeds to S302 to wait for the next user operation. If it is an end event, the test target application is ended.

  On the other hand, the operation recording program is executed simultaneously with the test target application as shown in FIG. 3, and waits for an event notification from the test target application in S305. Subsequently, an event occurring in S303 is detected in S306. The mechanism for generating an event in S303 can be included in the test target application, or the application execution environment can include the mechanism.

  Further, if the event generation mechanism is in the application execution environment, the test target application does not need to add any special mechanism to realize the present embodiment. Also, if the application execution environment to be used centrally manages events by queuing or the like, the event detection process of the operation recording program can be easily realized, but the events are not necessarily queued centrally. There is no need.

  When the application execution environment centrally manages events by a queue or the like, all events generated in S303 can be obtained by monitoring input / output of events to one queue of the application execution environment. In this case, an event monitoring process for monitoring event input / output may be placed between the event generation process in S303 and the event detection process in S306. The event monitoring process has a mechanism for outputting event information at the timing when an event for the queue is input or output. In the event detection of S306, all events are acquired by acquiring information obtained from the event monitoring process. Can be detected.

  Next, in S307, it is determined whether the event detected in S306 is an arrangement event indicating that the arrangement of components constituting the GUI application has changed or an operation event such as a mouse click. If it is determined that the event is an arrangement event, the process proceeds to S313. If it is an operation event, the process proceeds to S308.

  If the event detected in S306 is a placement event, placement event information is acquired from the event in S313. This placement event information is an identifier of the placed GUI component or parent component, and includes information such as whether the GUI component has been added or deleted.

  Using the information obtained in S313, the arrangement information, which is the tree structure information shown in FIG. 5, is updated in S314 from the arrangement order of the GUI components and the parent-child relationship, and the process proceeds to S305 to wait for the next event.

  On the other hand, if the event detected in S306 is an operation event, operation event information is acquired from the event in S308. The operation event information is information indicating whether an operation has been performed on the GUI, and includes click, double click, drag, key input, and the like according to the type of event or the type of operation.

  In step S309, information on a listener that is a GUI component that has received the event is acquired. In S310, the address information of the GUI component is generated using the arrangement information updated in S314 and the listener information acquired in S309.

  Here, a method of generating address information that is logical position information will be described. Specifically, first, in FIG. 5, frame 0 is a base screen of the GUI screen arranged on the display unit 105, this screen is regarded as a base point on the tree structure, and this node position is set to node level 0.

  Next, the direction corresponding to the child of the parent-child relationship of the GUI component is taken in the lower part of the figure, and these are designated as node levels 1, 2,. Also, component GUIs are assigned with positive integer values in order from 0 in the arrangement order of GUI components. In other words, button 3 shown in FIG. 5 is 3 at node level 2 origin 0 above panel 1 at node level 1 (a method of counting 0, 1, 2,... With 0 as the origin) (4th with 0 as the origin). Is a component.

  Further, panel1 is a component of 0 (originating from 0 as the origin) of 0 at node level 1 above frame0 (address information: 0.1). Frame 0 is a component of 0 at node level 0 and 0 (first with 0 as the origin) (address information: 0).

  In this way, the address information of button 3 shown in FIG. 5 is 0.1.3, combining the node level and the component ID. As an address information expression format, not only the above-described node level and component ID may be combined, but also a character string information of a component name may be added, but in the description of the present embodiment, a character string is used. Do not use information and use numerical expressions.

  Returning to FIG. 3, in S <b> 311, the above address information is associated with the arrangement information, event information, and listener registration information, and an operation record is output. In the present embodiment, the structured language XML (Extensible Markup Language) is used as the above-described operation recording format. In S312, it is determined whether or not the operation recording is continued, and the processes in S305 to S311 are repeated until the end of the recording is reached.

  Here, the operation record output in S311 of the operation record program will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation record expressed in XML of a structured language. An add element 601 and a remove element 603 shown in FIG. 6 are the arrangement information obtained in S314. The add element 601 represents information related to a GUI component added on the GUI screen. The component attribute is a class name of the GUI component, and the name attribute is a component ID. The id attribute represents the address information (logical position information) obtained in S310. A remove element 603 represents information related to a GUI component deleted from the GUI screen. The arrangement information may be visible / invisible information in addition to add / remove, but is omitted for the sake of simplicity.

  Also, 602 shown in FIG. 6 is information regarding the operation event information and listener information obtained in S308 and S309. The event element represents information related to an event that has occurred on the GUI screen on the display unit 105 operated by the operation unit 106, and the type attribute represents the type of event that has occurred.

  The component attribute is the class name of the GUI component, and the name attribute is the internal object name of the GUI component. The id attribute represents the address information (logical location information) obtained in S310, and the time attribute represents the time when the event occurred.

  Furthermore, the listener information obtained in S309 is described by a listener attribute, an ActionListener attribute, an ItemListener attribute, a FocusListener attribute, and the like. The listener attribute is address information of a GUI component registered as a listener.

  In 602 shown in FIG. 6, listener = “0.1”, so that it becomes panel 1 from FIG. 5 and it is understood that the listener is registered in panel 1. The ActionListener attribute is whether or not an action listener is registered, and the ItemListener attribute is whether or not an item listener is registered. Further, the FocusListener attribute represents whether or not a focus listener is registered.

  As described above, according to the test target application and the operation recording program in the operation recording system, it is possible to acquire a GUI component-based operation record without using the screen coordinate system.

  Next, an automatic operation system for automating GUI application testing will be described. In the automatic operation system, it is desirable to perform a remote operation in order to reduce the external influence on the GUI application to be tested. Therefore, as an example of the system configuration, as shown in FIG. 7, a case where the test target application and the automatic operation program are implemented on the remote system via the network will be described as an example.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a system configuration of the automatic operation system in the present embodiment. In this example, the automatic operation program forming the core of the automatic operation system is divided into the following two types. That is, a system in which a GUI application to be tested is executed is referred to as a device under test, and an automatic operation program on the device under test is referred to as an automatic operation program A.

  On the other hand, a remote system connected to the device under test via a network is referred to as a remote test device, and an automatic operation program on the remote test device is referred to as an automatic operation program B.

  8 and 9 are flowcharts showing processing of the automatic operation system in the present embodiment. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing relating to the automatic operation program A and the GUI application to be tested in the device under test. On the other hand, FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing of the automatic operation program B in the remote test apparatus.

  First, before executing a test, an operation record of an application recorded by the above-described operation record system is acquired in advance. The operation record does not need to be acquired every time. If it has already been acquired, it is used.

  In step S801, a GUI application to be tested is executed on the device under test. In step S802, the automatic operation program A is executed. On the other hand, in S901, the automatic operation program B is activated on the remote test apparatus, and in S902, the operation record is read. In step S903, the automatic operation program B interprets the operation record and selects one operation. In step S904, the automatic operation program B transmits the address information (logical position information) and the event type to the automatic operation program A. To do.

  In step S <b> 803, the automatic operation program A receives from the automatic operation program B address information that is operation instruction information for automatic operation and information related to an event type. Here, the automatic operation program A collects GUI component arrangement information in the GUI application being executed on the device under test, and selects a GUI component that matches the address information sent from the automatic operation program B in S804. .

  Next, in S805, the automatic operation program A checks the visible / invisible state of the selected GUI component, the overlapping state of other GUI components (arrangement order such as Z order), etc., and determines whether the operation is possible. Validate. If it is verified in S806 that the operation is possible, the process proceeds to S807, and the position of the GUI component in the screen coordinate system is calculated from the currently executing GUI application.

  Here, the arrangement of button 2 was arranged as shown in FIG. 10A when the operation record was acquired, but changed as shown in FIG. 10B when the automatic operation program was executed. Suppose that

  In the present embodiment, the actual position on the screen coordinates of the GUI component corresponding to the automatic operation is calculated based on the address information of the GUI component at the time of operation recording. Therefore, automatic operation is possible even if the position of the GUI component is changed.

  As described above, even if the GUI component is different from the position of the screen coordinate system at the time of recording, if the GUI component has the same logical position information (ID), it can be regarded as an operation target.

  Subsequently, in S808, the automatic operation program A executes the operation by issuing the event acquired in S803 for the GUI component to be operated on the screen coordinates calculated in S807. In step S809, event information generated from the GUI component is transmitted to the automatic operation program B as a result.

  The automatic operation program B receives the result sent from the automatic operation program A in S905, and compares the received event information with the information described in the operation record in S906. In step S907, it is determined whether the comparison results are the same. If the comparison results are the same, the process proceeds to step S908, and the comparison result is output. If it is not the end of the operation in S909, the process returns to S903 and the above processing is repeated. If the operation is ended, this processing is terminated. If the comparison results are different in S907, this process is terminated.

  Since the automatic operation system is a GUI application test, if the process does not proceed according to the test scenario, the process is interrupted in step S907. This is because, in a GUI application test, if the subsequent processing is continued without proceeding according to the scenario, there may be a case where there is no check box or a button that should not exist. For this reason, even if only one operation fails, the continuation of the subsequent test scenario is often hindered, and the processing is interrupted in the automatic operation system.

  However, as a countermeasure against the operation failure, the operation result can be ignored and continued, or a desired result can be generated in a pseudo manner. There is also a method of interactively inquiring the user (tester) about the next process when the operation fails.

  In the present embodiment, in the automatic operation program B, one operation portion is sent from the operation record to the automatic operation program A. However, a plurality of operations may be sent as one scenario unit, or all operations may be sent. Operation records may be sent all at once.

  In addition, timing such as the time interval between operations is not explained, but if you record the time when each operation was performed when the operation record was acquired, the operation and operation from the recorded time It is also possible to automatically operate the same interval.

  Next, a description will be given of a record analysis system that detects an overlap of GUI components by statically analyzing operation records of GUI applications. This record analysis system includes the record analysis program shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the record analysis program.

  First, an application having a GUI screen as shown in FIG. 12 is started. Here, the button 3 of the GUI component is completely hidden behind the button 2 and cannot be operated. In FIG. 12, in order to make it easy to understand that button 3 is on the back side, for convenience of explanation, the button 3 is drawn to the lower right without being completely hidden on the back side.

  In order for the user to test the GUI application, all necessary operations are performed comprehensively for all user interactive GUI components on the GUI screen using the operation recording system described above. Alternatively, instead of being operated by the user, automatic operation may be performed using a tool that comprehensively clicks the entire GUI screen. In that case, the entire GUI screen can be covered by automatically performing a click operation in units of one dot, which is the minimum unit of operation.

  Here, assuming that the user operates the GUI screen, the user clicks button 0, button 1, and button 2. Since button 3 is completely hidden behind the button 2, the user cannot operate button 3 because it cannot be visually confirmed.

  As a result of the above operation, information described in XML as shown in FIG. 13 can be obtained. A GUI component generated by the application is described as an add element 1401, and a user operation is described as an event element 1402.

  In order to simplify the explanation, the add element 1401 is information when the GUI component on the user interaction side is arranged. When the add element 1401 is generated, the GUI component is arranged (added to the container) and visualized. Suppose that it is in an operable state. The event element 1402 is GUI component information at the time of user operation.

  Here, the record analysis program reads the operation record described above in S1201 and acquires address information from the add element 1401 and the event element 1402 in S1202 and S1203. In step S1204, the two pieces of address information are compared.

  As a result of the comparison, it can be seen that button 3 of the GUI component is recorded as 0.1.3 in the address information extracted from the add element 1401, and is certainly generated on the GUI screen. However, the event element 1402, which is a record of user operations, has no description of address information of 0.1.3. Therefore, it can be seen that button 3 is a GUI component that is not operated.

  The reason why the operation was not performed is an unnecessary GUI component in the first place, a necessary process is not implemented, or a user operation omission is considered. Therefore, in S1205, the result is output.

  Many user-interactive GUI components are configured to receive an operation event and execute some processing according to the type of the event. For this reason, a GUI component that does not generate an operation event even though the GUI screen is comprehensively operated may have the above-described problem.

  As described above, the operation record according to the present embodiment can also be used for analysis for detecting an overlap of GUI components.

  Next, a record analysis system (static analysis) for detecting a component that is not registered as a listener by statically analyzing an operation record of a GUI application will be described. This record analysis system (static analysis) includes the record analysis program shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the record analysis program.

  First, an application having a GUI screen as shown in FIG. 12 is started. Here, in order for the user to test the GUI application, all the necessary operations for all the user interactive GUI components on the GUI screen are comprehensively performed using the operation recording system described above. Alternatively, instead of being operated by the user, automatic operation may be performed using a tool that comprehensively clicks the entire GUI screen. In this case, the entire GUI screen can be covered by automatically performing a click operation in units of one dot, which is the minimum unit of operation.

  As a result of the operation, information described in XML as shown in FIG. 15 is obtained. The add element 1601 is the same as the add element 1401 shown in FIG. Here, the listener information is described as an ActionListener attribute, an ItemListener attribute, and a FocusListener attribute in the event element 1602. The content of the ActionListener attribute becomes true if the listener is to receive the content. If it is not received, it becomes false. Similarly, an ItemListener attribute and a FocusListener attribute are recorded.

  In S1501, the record analysis program reads the operation record, acquires component attribute information from the event element 1602 in S1502, and acquires listener information from the event element 1602 in S1503. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a table of essential listeners of the GUI component type. Here, the listener is a mechanism for processing various events in the GUI application, and a listener corresponding to the operation event needs to be registered in the user interactive GUI component.

  The essential listener is a listener that is required at least in order to realize each function for each type, particularly in a user interactive GUI component. The GUI application can detect an operation event by registering a corresponding listener.

  Next, in S1504, the component attribute information acquired in S1502 is searched from the Component Class column of the table shown in FIG. 16, and the corresponding Listener Name is acquired. In step S1505, it is determined whether the acquired Listener Name is true in the event element 1602 acquired in step S1503.

  A GUI component for which an essential listener is not registered does not have any operation event listener, so no processing is performed even if operated. In S1506, the result is output. For example, button 1 shown in FIG. awt. It can be seen that the component is a type of Button. Furthermore, referring to FIG. 16, it can be seen that the ActionListener must be registered as a corresponding listener.

  However, the content of the ActionListener attribute shown in FIG. 15 is false (1603), and it can be seen that the listener is not registered. Therefore, it is possible that the GUI component is unnecessary in the first place, or the necessary processing is not implemented, and the result is output.

  Thereby, based on the output result, the user can delete an unnecessary GUI component from the program, and can implement the process if the necessary process is not implemented.

  According to the operation recording system (static analysis), it can also be used for analysis for detecting a component that is not registered as a GUI component listener.

  According to the present embodiment, in the GUI application test automation system, by using a recording method based on a GUI component instead of a screen coordinate system, it is possible to obtain an operation record that can flexibly cope with a screen size and a design change. For this reason, when changing the screen size or the design, it is possible to reduce the trouble and cost of re-recording the operation record. In addition, the GUI program can be easily analyzed by the information acquired by the recording method. Furthermore, it is possible to find a defect in the GUI program by analyzing the operation record.

[Other Embodiments]
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed.

Claims (6)

A software development support apparatus that supports software development using operation records in which user operations or automatic operations are recorded on a plurality of components displayed on a GUI screen by a GUI application,
Generating means for generating logical position information indicating an arrangement on the GUI screen of a component on which the user operation or automatic operation has been performed;
Operation recording means for recording the logical position information generated by the generating means as an operation record of the component on which the operation has been performed;
A software development support apparatus characterized by comprising:   2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising verification means for verifying whether or not the component arranged in the logical position information recorded by the operation recording means can be operated based on the degree of overlap with other components. The software development support apparatus described in 1.   The generation unit generates logical position information of a component on which the operation has been performed as tree structure information based on an arrangement order and a parent-child relationship of the plurality of components on the GUI screen. The software development support apparatus described in 1.   The operation record further includes information indicating a time interval at which each operation is performed and a time of each operation, and the plurality of components are verified using the operation record. 2. The software development support apparatus according to 2. A processing method of a software development support apparatus that supports software development using an operation record that records user operations or automatic operations on a plurality of components displayed on a GUI screen by a GUI application,
A generating step in which generating means generates logical position information indicating an arrangement of the component on which the user operation or automatic operation has been performed on the GUI screen;
An operation recording step, wherein the operation recording means records the logical position information generated in the generation step as an operation record of the component on which the operation has been performed;
A processing method for a software development support apparatus, comprising:   The program for functioning a computer as each means of the software development assistance apparatus of any one of Claims 1 thru | or 4.

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