FTEXT: Functional testing of e-commerce systems with extreme programming and TTCN-3

Abstract

Today's e-commerce systems have evolved from traditional middleware technologies such as CORBA and DCOM to a multi-tiered infrastructure. Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Microsoft .NET are two main competitors building on such architecture. Usually a multi-tiered architecture involves distinct architecture layers, components, distributed applications and enterprise resources. This complexity poses considerable risks to e-commerce systems building on such infrastructure. To address the current problems of high testing cost and non-formal test specification, we propose a new process called FTEXT (Functional Testing of E-commerce systems with eXtreme programming and TTCN-3). FTEXT combines an agile software development process, cost-effective test tools and a formal test specification language that serve a common purpose and work together to support a cost-effective approach to test J2EE based e-commerce systems. To facilitate TTCN-3 test execution, we have designed and implemented a parser that translates TTCN-3 test script to Java source code that conforms to the selected open source test tool. The source code is then compiled into executable test code. In the context of J2EE based system development and testing, this thesis offers the following contributions: (1) Methodology: Proposed a new cost-effective model (FTEXT) for testing J2EE based e-commerce systems. (2) Parser: Designed and implemented a parser to translate TTCN-3 test script and generate Java test code that conforms to the selected open source test tool for functional testing of Web-based applications. (3) Case Study: Implemented our approach in a case study that tests a typical J2EE ecommerce application. The case study demonstrates the working mechanism of the FTEXT method, relevant open source tools (e.g. HttpUnit and Apache Ant) and the capability of our TTCN-3 to Java parser.