Analysis and testing of Web applications

TLDR

Web applications are economically important, new development technologies add complexity, and there is a growing demand for quality‑assurance methodologies and tools. The paper proposes a UML model for high‑level representation of Web applications. The UML model underpins static structure analysis and defines white‑box testing criteria, enabling semi‑automatic test‑case generation, and was applied to several real‑world Web applications. Automatic verification and validation support proved highly beneficial, ensuring all paths meeting a selected criterion are exercised before delivery, while high‑level automation increased test coverage and simplified regression checks.

Abstract

The economic relevance of Web applications increases the importance of controlling and improving their quality. Moreover, the newly available technologies for their development allow the insertion of sophisticated functions, but often leave the developers responsible for their organization and evolution. As a consequence, a high demand is emerging for methodologies and tools for the quality assurance of Web-based systems. In this paper, a UML model of Web applications is proposed for their high-level representation. Such a model is the starting point for several analyses, which can help in the assessment of the static site structure. Moreover, it drives Web application testing, in that it can be exploited to define white-box testing criteria and to semi-automatically generate the associated test cases. The proposed techniques were applied to several real-world Web applications. The results suggest that automatic support for verification and validation activities can be extremely beneficial. In fact, it guarantees that all paths in the site which satisfy a selected criterion are properly exercised before delivery. The high level of automation that is achieved in test case generation and execution increases the number of tests that are conducted and simplifies the regression checks.