Model-driven Software Engineering

This test case generator produces test cases from plantUML diagrams.

Motivation

The implementation of user requirements often deviates from the specification of the same user requirements. Individual work, teamwork, and collaboration between teams can produce such a divergence. For example, requirements may be misinterpreted or overlooked. Teamwork, especially with multiple teams, causes interface errors. For example, subsystems of the same product may use conflicting technologies or conflicting data formats.

Our test case generator detects deviations at an early stage: The test case generator derives test cases directly from the specification. If the implementation fulfills these test cases, then the implementation fulfills the specification. If the implementation does not fulfill these test cases, the implementation deviates from the specification. With our test case generator, developers can quickly uncover inconsistencies, fix them, and save costs.

Conventions

Repository language

English

Review process

A pull request addresses a single issue.

A pull request must be approved by two reviewers.

A pull request is squashed before the merge.

Naming Conventions: Issues, branches, pull requests, squashed merge commits

Issues describe project work such as tasks, bugs, and feature requests. Example: Implement task XYZ

The branch name follows the issue name. The automatically generated issue ID is succeeded by the issue name in lowercase letters, with hyphens separating multiple words. Example: #1-implement-task-xyz

The pull request name is the issue name plus the issue id. Example: Implement task XYZ (Issue #1)

The squashed merge commit name is the issue name plus the issue id plus the pull request id. Example: Implement task XYZ (Closes #1) (PR #2)

If a pull request addresses several issues, the pull request name is a summary of the issues plus the issue ids. The squashed merge commit name is a summary of the issues plus the issue ids plus the pull request id. Example pull request: Initial Setup (Issue #1, Issue #2, Issue #3) Example squashed merge commit: Initial Setup (Closes #1, Closes #2, Closes #3) (PR #2)

Frameworks, libraries, standards

Xtext for parsing PlantUML files

We use Xtext to generate the parser and the corresponding language from a grammar to read the DSL of PlantUML.

To generate the language, you can run

./gradlew generateXtext

The generated meta-model files are located in plantuml/model/generated/Puml.ecore and plantuml/model/generated/Puml.genmodel. The language and the parser are located in plantuml/src/main/xtext-gen and plantuml/src/main/xtend-gen. This gradle task is also automatically executed when you build the project.

Eclipse Modelling Framework (EMF)

The Eclipse Modeling Framework serves modeling and code generation. From a model specification in XMI it produces an equivalent set of classes in Kotlin.
Website: https://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/

REST-assured

The Rest-assured library simplifies the verification and validation of REST APIs. As such, the test techniques of Rest-assured follow the test techniques of dynamic languages such as Ruby and Groovy. The library offers all standardized HTTP operations.
Website: http://rest-assured.io

Cucumber

The Cucumber tool tests the behavior of software. The test case that tests this behavior is defined in natural language. For this, Cucumber uses the plain language parser Gherkin.
Website: https://cucumber.io

XML Metadata Interchange (XMI)

XML Metadata Interchange is an exchange format among software development tools. For example, XML Metadata Interchange represents UML diagrams textually within the Eclipse Modeling Framework. Website: https://www.omg.org/spec/XMI/About-XMI/

Acceleo

Acceleo is for a template-based source code generation. It is a model-to-text transformation tool.
It is a Markup language with open and closing tags, which are in square brackets. Not enclosed text is directly added to the generated file.
Website: https://www.eclipse.org/acceleo/

Credits

• https://github.com/Cooperate-Project/plantuml-eclipse-xtext developed a grammar file for PlantUML. We built upon their work from their repository and marked their contributions in the repository.
• http://www.davehofmann.de/different-ways-of-parsing-with-xtext/ wrote a very useful article on how to use an Xtext parser in standalone mode.
• https://github.com/mrcalvin/qvto-cli gave us a lot of insights in how to run qvt without Eclipse.
• https://wiki.eclipse.org/QVTOML/Examples/InvokeInJava shows how to invoke qvt programmatically.