JavaEE Training Note - Day 09
Test is always one of the major steps in software engineering. which is today’s topic. Some basic concepts is introduced several days ago when introducing the unit test supporting in Spring MVC framework. Today’s point is related to the management and theory approach of the test.
Importance of Testing
The goal of testing is to find out as much as faults and errors of program in order to improve the quality of the program. From the unit testing targeting at each section of code to integrated testing targeting the whole project, the testing is progressed in parallel with the development progress. For a large program, each module of it can execute into unexpected when the input of the program is not fully considered.
The ultimate aim of testing is to assert and prove the correctness given program. However, the input of of software are unbounded that can never be either enumerated or unified. Therefore, in current stage, testing is mainly to create the typical or suspicious use case as a present to a set of input. Some other attempts are undergoing about the find and prove equivalent subset of input.
Black-Box Testing
The black box testing approach is to treat the program as a sealed box which generate output as a response to given input without consideration about the detail of its inner implementation detail.
From the process of software development, the software is development to provide a solution to satisfy the requirement proposed in advance. The black test is also design test case from the same perspective. Each test case is defined to create a set of certain input as a simulation to a practical scenario of usage, then the expected result is based on the requirement.
Black is usually used to test the functionality of a program when sub-modules of the project is integrated.
White-Box Testing
The white box testing is on the opposite of the black-box testing, in which the program is not treated as a sealed box. In the white box testing, test case are designed based on the internal view and detail of implementation of program. The test target of white box testing is usually the API, the method (or procedure) or the class. Testing engineer can trace the source code of target program, and follow the execution path of program, make assertion at certain decision point.
Traditionally, white box testing use the following approach to systematically manage test cases. The API testing is to design test cases from the declare method/procedure of program. The Code coverage approach is to design test cases to let each line of code to be executed at least once.