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RAMBUTANS: automatic AOP-specific test generation tool

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Abstract

Aspect-oriented programming (AOP) is a programmatic methodology to handle better modularized code by separating crosscutting concerns from the traditional abstraction boundaries. Automated testing, as one of the most demanding needs of the software development to reduce both human effort and costs, is a delicate issue in testing aspect-oriented programs. Prior studies in the automated test generation for aspect-oriented programs have been very limited with respect to the need for both adequate tool support and capability concerning effectiveness and efficiency. This paper describes a new AOP-specific tool for testing aspect-oriented programs, called RAMBUTANS. The RAMBUTANS tool uses a directed random testing technique that is especially well suited for generating tests for aspectual features in AspectJ. The directed random aspect of the tool is parameterized by associating weights to aspects, advice, methods, and classes by controlling object and joint point creations during the test generation process. We present a comprehensive empirical evaluation of our tool against the current AOP test generation approaches on three industrial aspect-oriented projects. The results of the experimental and statistical tests showed that RAMBUTANS tool produces test suites that have higher fault-detection capability and efficiency for AspectJ-like programs.

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Acknowledgments

R. Meimandi Parizi would like to thank the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) for providing financial support. A.A. A. Ghani’s work was supported in part by Fundamental Research Grant Scheme with reference FRGS/2/2010 /SG/UPM/01/2. S. P. Lee’s work was carried out within the research project supported by High Impact Research Grant with reference UM.C/625/1/HIR/MOHE/FCSIT/13, funded by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. S.U.R. Khan would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Bright Sparks Program at University of Malaya, Malaysia under reference BSP-151(3)-11.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Computing Sciences, New York Institue of Technolgoy (NYIT), Nanjing Campus, Nanjing, China

    Reza Meimandi Parizi

  2. University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

    Abdul Azim Abdul Ghani

  3. University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    Sai Peck Lee & Saif Ur Rehman Khan

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  1. Reza Meimandi Parizi
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  2. Abdul Azim Abdul Ghani
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Correspondence to Reza Meimandi Parizi.

Appendices

Appendix A

Internal algorithms of components used in RAMBUTANS can be found at: http://goo.gl/DG0OGv.

Appendix B

The number of the final mutants was made to the programs during the experiment. The following table shows the distribution of mutants per mutation operator in relation with the three programs (Table 10).

Table 10 Details of mutants
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Parizi, R.M., Ghani, A.A.A., Lee, S.P. et al. RAMBUTANS: automatic AOP-specific test generation tool. Int J Softw Tools Technol Transfer 19, 743–761 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-016-0432-3

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