Model-based testing of breaking changes in Node.js libraries

TY - GEN

T1 - Model-based testing of breaking changes in Node.js libraries

AU - Møller, Anders

AU - Torp, Martin Toldam

PY - 2019/8

Y1 - 2019/8

N2 - Semantic versioning is widely used by library developers to indicate whether updates contain changes that may break existing clients. Especially for dynamic languages like JavaScript, using semantic versioning correctly is known to be difficult, which often causes program failures and makes client developers reluctant to switch to new library versions. The concept of type regression testing has recently been introduced as an automated mechanism to assist the JavaScript library developers. That mechanism is effective for detecting breaking changes in widely used libraries, but it suffers from scalability limitations that make it slow and also less useful for libraries that do not have many available clients. This paper presents a model-based variant of type regression testing. Instead of comparing API models of a library before and after an update, it finds breaking changes by automatically generating tests from a reusable API model. Experiments show that this new approach significantly improves scalability: it runs faster, and it can find breaking changes in more libraries.

AB - Semantic versioning is widely used by library developers to indicate whether updates contain changes that may break existing clients. Especially for dynamic languages like JavaScript, using semantic versioning correctly is known to be difficult, which often causes program failures and makes client developers reluctant to switch to new library versions. The concept of type regression testing has recently been introduced as an automated mechanism to assist the JavaScript library developers. That mechanism is effective for detecting breaking changes in widely used libraries, but it suffers from scalability limitations that make it slow and also less useful for libraries that do not have many available clients. This paper presents a model-based variant of type regression testing. Instead of comparing API models of a library before and after an update, it finds breaking changes by automatically generating tests from a reusable API model. Experiments show that this new approach significantly improves scalability: it runs faster, and it can find breaking changes in more libraries.

KW - JavaScript

KW - Semantic versioning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85071937573&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3338906.3338940

DO - 10.1145/3338906.3338940

M3 - Article in proceedings

AN - SCOPUS:85071937573

SP - 409

EP - 419

BT - ESEC/FSE 2019 - Proceedings of the 2019 27th ACM Joint Meeting European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering

A2 - Apel, Sven

A2 - Dumas, Marlon

A2 - Russo, Alessandra

A2 - Pfahl, Dietmar

PB - Association for Computing Machinery

T2 - 27th ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, ESEC/FSE 2019

Y2 - 26 August 2019 through 30 August 2019

ER -