Server interface descriptions for automated testing of JavaScript web applications

Abstract

Automated testing of JavaScript web applications is complicated by the communication with servers. Specifically, it is difficult to test the JavaScript code in isolation from the server code and database contents. We present a practical solution to this problem. First, we demonstrate that formal server interface descriptions are useful in automated testing of JavaScript web applications for separating the concerns of the client and the server. Second, to support the construction of server interface descriptions for existing applications, we introduce an effective inference technique that learns communication patterns from sample data.