Clarke, P.J. and Babich, Djuradj and King, T.M and Power, James F. (2007) Intra-Class Testing of Abstract Class Features. In: Proceedings 18th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering ISSRE 2007, 5–9 November 2007, Trollhättan, Sweden .

Download (527kB)

Abstract

One of the characteristics of the increasingly widespread use of object-oriented libraries and the resulting intensive use of inheritance is the proliferation of dependencies on abstract classes. Such classes defer the implementation of some features, and are typically used as a specification or design tool. However, since their features are not fully implemented,abstract classes cannot be instantiated, and thus pose challenges for execution-based testing strategies. This paper presents a structured approach that supports the testing of features in abstract classes. Core to the approach is a series of static analysis steps that build a comprehensive view of the inter-class dependencies in the system under test. We then leveraged this information to define a test order for the methods in an abstract class that minimizes the number of stubs required during testing, and clearly identifies the required functionality of these stubs. Our approach is based on a comprehensive taxonomy of object-oriented classes that provides a framework for our analysis. First we describe the algorithms to calculate the inter-class dependencies and the test-order that minimizes stub creation. Then we give an overview of our tool, AbstractTestJ that implements our approach by generating a test order for the methods in an abstract Java class. Finally, we harness this tool to provide an analysis of 12 substantial Java applications that demonstrates both the feasibility of our approach and the importance of this technique.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Additional Information:	©2007 IEEE. Reprinted from Proceedings 18th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering ISSRE 2007. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE." http://www.ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=4402210&isnumber=4402181
Keywords:	Software engineering; Object oriented; Inheritance;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Computer Science
Item ID:	1326
Depositing User:	Dr. James Power
Date Deposited:	14 Apr 2009 16:08
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

Repository Staff Only(login required)

Item control page

Downloads

Origin of downloads