“…For instance, efficient guided strategies [22] try to discover relevant states in the shortest amount of time. Feedback-directed exploration algorithms [23] try to guide the crawler towards maximizing JavaScript code coverage, page diversity and path diversity at runtime. Research in guided crawling of web applications has just started and results indicate this to be a promising direction to pursue.…”
In this paper we review five years of research in the field of automated crawling and testing of web applications.We describe the open source Crawljax tool, and the various extensions that have been proposed in order to address such issues as cross-browser compatibility testing, web application regression testing, and style sheet usage analysis.Based on that we identify the main challenges and future directions of crawl-based testing of web applications. In particular, we explore ways to reduce the exponential growth of the state space, as well as ways to involve the human tester in the loop, thus reconciling manual exploratory testing and automated test input generation. Finally, we sketch the future of crawl-based testing in the light of upcoming developments, such as the pervasive use of touch devices and mobile computing, and the increasing importance of cyber-security.
“…For instance, efficient guided strategies [22] try to discover relevant states in the shortest amount of time. Feedback-directed exploration algorithms [23] try to guide the crawler towards maximizing JavaScript code coverage, page diversity and path diversity at runtime. Research in guided crawling of web applications has just started and results indicate this to be a promising direction to pursue.…”
In this paper we review five years of research in the field of automated crawling and testing of web applications.We describe the open source Crawljax tool, and the various extensions that have been proposed in order to address such issues as cross-browser compatibility testing, web application regression testing, and style sheet usage analysis.Based on that we identify the main challenges and future directions of crawl-based testing of web applications. In particular, we explore ways to reduce the exponential growth of the state space, as well as ways to involve the human tester in the loop, thus reconciling manual exploratory testing and automated test input generation. Finally, we sketch the future of crawl-based testing in the light of upcoming developments, such as the pervasive use of touch devices and mobile computing, and the increasing importance of cyber-security.
“…Since exploring the whole state space of large web applications can be infeasible (due to state explosion) and undesirable (e.g., time constrains), the challenge to targets is to automatically derive an incomplete test model but with adequate functionality coverage, in a timely manner. FeedEx [38] is a technique that is designed to address this challenge. It has a feedback-directed web application exploration algorithm to derive test models.…”
“…There has been performed some previous research utilizing event handlers as evidenced by tools such as ARTEMIS from [3] and FEEDEX from [12]. These tools seem to analyze event handler registrations by using a modified version of the Rhino JavaScript interpreter.…”
Abstract-Crawling JavaScript heavy Rich Internet Applications has been a hot topic in recent years, giving us automated tools for indexing content, test generation, and security-and accessibility evaluation to mention a few examples. However, existing crawling techniques tend to ignore user interactions beyond mouse clicking, and therefore often fail to consider potential mouse, keyboard and touch interactions. We propose a new technique for finding and exercising mouse, keyboard, and touch interactions when crawling highly interactive JavaScript-based websites by analyzing and exercising event handlers registered in the DOM. A basic form of gesture emulation is employed to find states accessible via swiping and tapping. Testing the tool against 6 well-known gesture libraries and 5 actual RIA's, we find that the technique discovers many states and transitions resulting from such interactions. Our findings indicate the technique could be useful for automatic test generation, error discovery, and accessibility evaluation, especially for mobile web applications with advanced interaction options.
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