SCRIPTING TOOLS

15.2 SCRIPTING TOOLS

15.2.1 CppTest

CppUnit is a unit-testing framework for the C++ programming language, described as

a C++ port for JUnit. The library can be compiled for a variety of portable operating systems interface (POSIX) platforms, allowing unit testing of “C” sources as well as C++ with minimal source modifications.

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CppTest

Source Freeware Web page

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/cppunit/index.php? title=Main_Page

Access Open source Target language(s)

C++ Life cycle phase

Unit testing Test phase

Test driver design and execution

Test scripts are written in the syntax of a C++ class and include specialized test_add() statements, where each test_add() statement refers to separately defined routines that invoke tests in the form of logical assertions. Each such a routine

is declared as a void C++ method that includes assertions of the form TEST_

ASSERT(), which takes logical assertions as parameters. Using these statements and structures, the tester can define arbitrarily complex test scripts.

In order to run a test script, the user has to define an output handler, which records and organizes the output produced by the TEST_ASSERT() statements; a number of

formats are available, including a text format, that may be shipped to the stdout

stream and an html format, among others. Among the strengths of CppTest, we cite that it puts the power of C++ at the dis- posal of the tester, to define arbitrarily sophisticated test scripts; in particular, the tester may use the exception-handling mechanisms of C++ in conjunction with the assert statements of CppUnit to handle any exceptions that may arise during the test in a controlled manner.

15.2.2 SilkTest

SilkTest is a suite of related test tools that offer a range of interrelated functionalities, including the following:

• SilkTest Classic, which uses a domain-specific scripting language inspired from

C to support the development of test scripts. • Silk4J, which uses Java as a scripting language to support the derivation of test scripts in Eclipse. • Silk4Net, which uses Visual Basic or C# as a scripting language to support the derivation of test scripts in Visual Studio. • SilkTest Workbench, which uses VB.NET as a scripting language to support test automation.

336 SOFTWARE TESTING TOOLS

SilkTest

Source Borland Software Web page

http://www.borland.com/products/silktest/ Access

Commercial

Target language(s) Java, visual basic (VB), C# Life cycle phase

System-level

Test phase Test management

In order to operate SilkTest, we open a new project, give it a name, associate the project name to the application we want to test (possibly a web-based application), con- figure SilkTest to a particular browser, then record the sequence of tests we want to run. This sequence of tests defines the test script; once this script is saved, it can be run by merely calling the project name and invoking its execution, possibly unattended.

Among the strengths of this tool, we cite its ability to support integrated testing of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, its ease of use (notably that it does not require any programming knowledge, hence can be operated by the end user of the application), and the availability of test templates that provide standard test frameworks. Silk has two drawbacks: first, it can only support two browsers, namely, Internet Explorer (© Microsoft) and Firefox (© Mozilla). Also, it does not support migration between the two browsers, that is, a script composed on one browser cannot be run on the other.

SilkTest can be seen as a scripting tool but can also be seen as a save-and-replay tool, to the extent that it stores tests by recording an interactive session on the web- based application. The tools of the next section fall exclusively in the latter category.