Testing approach for mobile applications through reverse engineering of UI Patterns

Abstract

It is increasingly important to assess and ensure the correct behaviour of mobile applications as their importance in everyday life keeps increasing. This paper presents an automatic testing approach combining reverse engineering with testing. The algorithm tries to identify existing User Interface (UI) patterns on a mobile application under test through a reverse engineering process and then tests them using generic test strategies called Test Patterns. The overall testing approach was implemented in the iMPAcT (Mobile PAttern Testing) tool and is illustrated in a case study performed over some mobile applications as a proof-of-concept.