02100+02199  Indledende Programmering        Januar 2004 Notes on GUI-testing

By Paul Fischer

Testing a GUI depends on how the whole program is structured. If you use a Model-View-Control approach (and we hope you do) then the test of correctness of the game (or other problem) itself should be done on the model.

The GUI itself should not know much about the game, e.g., if the player request a move, the GUI should ask the model whether the move is possible or legal and not check this itself.

Thus testing the GUI comes down to testing the interactive functionality. In the following S means that this is mostly structural and F mostly functional (again: the test for the game itself is performed on the model not on the GUI).

S

Is the board configuration always correctly DISPLAYED? (The model makes sure that the board configuration is correct). Make sure that you generated all essentially different configurations of the board model (e.g., empty, few pieces, middle of game, game over....).

S

Make sure that the possible events and also event sequences have been checked, like first clicking button A then button B and vice versa.

S

If you use files, check that everything works if files do not exist, have the same names, etc.

F

Is it possible to request every move?

F

Check that all types of moves are possible and correctly displayed.

F

Check that you get the expected reaction when making an illegal move.