An automated test oracle for XML processing programs

XML processing programs play an important role in the achievement of XML data querying, manipulation, and construction operations to compose XML data structures for very diverse purposes regarding information representation, storing and exchange on XML-based systems. Testing of XML processing programs is a challenging task since the test input and output data involved in the test executions may be complex and large in volume, which makes it difficult to determine the correctness of the execution results. However, existing approaches on XML-based testing pay scarce attention to the specification and automation of so-called test oracles in charge of judging the execution results from XML processing programs. This paper deals with the definition of an automated test oracle for XML processing programs which operates with differentiated levels of specification. The oracle automation is achieved by transforming these specification levels into program code, and the resulting oracle implementation is evaluated through an experimental study that reveals promising results.

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