Building a GUI Test Automation Framework Using the Data Model

GUI test automation is a major challenge for software testing and test automation. Most of the current GUI test automation tools are partially automated. They require the involvement of the users in several stages of the testing process. This research is about developing a framework and an application for user interface testing with the least user involvement. Fully user interface testing that does not need user supervision is not a practical solution. Users can be involved and are required to test some aspects of the user interface validation. GUI?s code has some characteristics that distinguish it from the rest of the project code. Generating test cases from the GUI code requires different algorithms from those usually applied in test-case generation. We developed several GUI test generation automated algorithms that do not need any user involvement and that ensure code or branch coverage in the generated test cases. The test cases are generated from an XML GUI model or tree that represents the GUI structure. GUI execution and verification is accomplished through simulating the user interactions and then comparing the output of the execution to the input.