Automated UML models merging for web services testing

This paper presents a method for merging Unified Modelling Language (UML) models, which takes place in a quality evaluation framework for Web Services (WSs). This framework, called iTac Tests and Certified Quality of Services (iTac-QoS), is an extended Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) server using model-based testing to assess quality. Depending on the results of the test execution, a mark is given to the WSs. Until now, our framework was limited to WSs without composition. This was justified by the fact that it is impossible for vendors to create a good model of a foreign product. Our method proposes to automatically merge the models (produced by each vendor) of the WSs involved in the composition. For each type of diagram present in the models (class, instance or statechart diagram), a method is proposed to produce a unique model. In addition to this, a solution is proposed to merge all Object Constraint Language (OCL) codes in the class modelling the WSs under study. Unfortunately, this process introduces inconsistencies in the resulting model that falsify the results of the test generation phase. We thus propose detecting such inconsistencies to distinguish inconsistent and unreachable test targets.