Re: [boost] [test] Using boost.test for GUI testing?

From: Markus Schöpflin (markus.schoepflin_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-02-15 04:26:51

Jamie Allsop wrote:

> I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind but I have used boost.test to 
> help test UIs using the approach outlined in the Taligent MVP paper.
> <http://www.wildcrest.com/Potel/Portfolio/mvp.pdf>
> I'd recommend having a read of that to help with ideas. Follow-up 
> searches should reveal more interesting examples.

Thank you for your answer.

I can see how you would go about testing the model and the controller 
classes, but how about the views? Did you do automatic testing of these as 
well?

If yes, how did you integrate the event loop of the GUI framework in 
boost.test, or vice versa?

In my case, I have a legacy application based on Motif/X11 for which I 
would like to come up with a unit test suite. Unfortunately, it doesn't 
follow any clear MVC or MVP pattern, it's a jumble of model, view, and 
behavior all mixed together in a bunch of classes. These classes have a 
method for creating the needed widgets, loading data into these widgets, 
getting data out of those widgets, and a lot of behind-the-scenery magic 
for the behavior. (Like handling OK and Cancel, modifying the view when the 
user  makes some input, and so on.)

What I had in mind was creating instances of such classes, sending events 
to the resulting dialogs and checking that the resulting object state is 
consistent. But I don't yet have a clear idea on how these tests might 
exactly look.

Markus