A framework for automated testing of javascript web applications

Abstract

Current practice in testing JavaScript web applications requires manual construction of test cases, which is difficult and tedious. We present a framework for feedback-directed automated test generation for JavaScript in which execution is monitored to collect information that directs the test generator towards inputs that yield increased coverage. We implemented several instantiations of the framework, corresponding to variations on feedback-directed random testing, in a tool called Artemis. Experiments on a suite of JavaScript applications demonstrate that a simple instantiation of the framework that uses event handler registrations as feedback information produces surprisingly good coverage if enough tests are generated. By also using coverage information and read-write sets as feedback information, a slightly better level of coverage can be achieved, and sometimes with many fewer tests. The generated tests can be used for detecting HTML validity problems and other programming errors.

Practice and Evaluation of Pagelet-Based Client-Side Rendering Mechanism

“…There are three characteristics distinguishing pageletbased applications from traditional Web applications in testing: event driven, communications between pagelets and DOM/XML manipulation. Mutation analysis [40] based on component [49] and automated test data generation [2] is suitable for pagelet oriented testing. Each developed pagelet is tested individually.…”

Finding and Emulating Keyboard, Mouse, and Touch Interactions and Gestures while Crawling RIA’s

“…There has been performed some previous research utilizing event handlers as evidenced by tools such as ARTEMIS from [3] and FEEDEX from [12]. These tools seem to analyze event handler registrations by using a modified version of the Rhino JavaScript interpreter.…”

Generating Test Cases With High Branch Coverage for Web Applications

“…In [8] a framework for automated testing of JavaScript web applications is proposed. The goal of that research is to develop scalable and effective algorithms for automated testing of JavaScript applications to discover common programming errors of various kinds, including uncaught exceptions, improper type coercions or misuses of the browsers built-in libraries, invalid HTML, AJAX HTTP errors, and violation of assertions.…”

“…Other existing tools for testing JavaScript of the web application are mentioned in [8]. The Crawljax/Atusa [9] project uses dynamic analysis to construct a model of an applications state space, from which a set of test cases is generated.…”