Communications of the ACM
Automated Stress Testing for Web 2.0 Applications Helps Web Developers Find Programming Errors
Saarland University researchers are developing methods for automating and systematically testing Web applications for malfunctions and security vulnerabilities.
Saarland's Valentin Dallmeier and Martin Burger have developed Webmate, software that autonomously checks Web applications such as Google Mail, Facebook, and Amazon. "This is still done manually and therefore causes not only very high costs, but also high levels of risk for companies and the community," Burger says.
After businesses and their Web administrators type in their Web address, the software will assess how the various components of the Web 2.0 application are connected to each other and via which menus, buttons, and other control panels users are interacting with the application. Webmate will generate and conduct test scenarios, and immediately notify developers of issues such as incompatibility with a version of a browser, a nonexistent control panel, a disconnected database, a non-responding server, or dead links.
Dallmeier and Burger say Webmate is a low-cost solution for finding programming errors and security holes.
From Saarland University
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