A Framework for Automated Testing of JavaScript Web Applications

TY - GEN

T1 - A Framework for Automated Testing of JavaScript Web Applications

AU - Artzi, Shay

AU - Dolby, Julian

AU - Jensen, Simon Holm

AU - Møller, Anders

AU - Tip, Frank

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

U2 - 10.1145/1985793.1985871

DO - 10.1145/1985793.1985871

M3 - Article in proceedings

SN - 978-1-4503-0445-0

SP - 571

EP - 580

BT - Proceeding of the 33rd International Conference on Software Engineering

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - 33rd International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2011)

Y2 - 17 December 2010

ER -