ViMoTest - A Low Code Approach for ViewModel-based Testing

Requirements

GHERKIN: Several requirements for the Gherkin-based style of the ViMoTest

WIDGET: The ViMoTest DSL shall provide several common GUI widgets like buttons, check-boxes, tables etc.

CMD: The ViMoTest DSL shall provide several common GUI commands.

CONTEXT: Features for the (data) context of ViewModel-based tests

ASSERT: Features for the assertion of ViewModel-based tests

DSL: Technical Features for the ViMoTest DSL itself

CHECK: Static checks for ViMoTest models

PL: Several programming languages shall be supported, to have a flexible approach.

GEN: Requirements related to the generation and extensibility of the MPS-based DSL

NONF: Describes non-functional/quality requirements for the ViMoTest solution

1 Gherkin

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
GHERKIN-001 Support scenarios with Given-When-Then Gherkin syntax As a test developer, I want to use the familiar Given-When-Then structure of the Gherkin language to write scenarios Gherkin is well established and provides a suitable style for writing behavior-oriented tests MUST HAVE Base feature of Gherking, e.g. scenario descriptions with Given-When-Then Done
GHERKIN-002 Integrated BDD As a test developer, I want to mix the Given-When-Then parts directly with the test case elements The but keyword sometimes reads more natural in scenarios SHOULD HAVE E.g.
GIVEN ...</> data
WHEN LoadView() is called
THEN assert 		Done
GHERKIN-003 Support BUT-Keyword As a test developer, I want to use the But-keyword from Gherkin The but keyword sometimes reads more natural in scenarios NICE TO HAVE   To Do
GHERKIN-004 Support scenario-outlines As a test developer, I want to provide scenario outlines which gives common context for multiple scenarios With scenario outlines, test suites might become much simpler when common context is required SHOULD HAVE   Done
GHERKIN-010 Support data lists As a test developer, I want to provide list data inputs to describe multiple cases at once   NICE TO HAVE Not data tables, but combinatorical tests To Do
GHERKIN-011 Support data tables As a test developer, I want to provide tabular data inputs to describe multiple cases at once   NICE TO HAVE   Done

2 GUI Widgets

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
WIDGET-001 Support Buttons As a view developer, I need to support buttons Buttons are needed in mostly any UI MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Enabled, Text Done
WIDGET-002 Support Check-boxes As a view developer, I need to support check-boxes   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Enabled, Text, Checked-State (tri-state?) Done
WIDGET-003 Support Radio Buttons As a view developer, I need to support radio buttons   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Enabled, Selected Done
WIDGET-004 Support Labels As a view developer, I need to support labels   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Enabled, Text Done
WIDGET-005 Support Image Views As a view developer, I need to support icons/images   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Image Done
WIDGET-006 Support Combo-boxes As a view developer, I need to support comboboxes   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Selected Text, Text Values Done
WIDGET-010 Support List Views As a view developer, I need to support list views   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Enabled, List Items Done
WIDGET-011 Support Table Views As a view developer, I need to support table views   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Enabled, Table Items Done
WIDGET-012 Support Tree Views As a view developer, I need to support tree views   MUST HAVE Properties: Visibility, Enabled, hierarchical TreeView Items Done
WIDGET-013 Support Progress Bars As a view developer, I need to support progress bars   SHOULD HAVE Properties: Visibility, Progress To Do
WIDGET-020 Support Tooltips As a view developer, I need support for tooltips Tooltips are often used in addition to widget’s primary contents SHOULD HAVE Support for Labels, Buttons, Images Done
WIDGET-021 Multiline Text As a view developer, I need support for multi-line text Multiline text is important for memo-edits or multi-line Tooltips SHOULD HAVE Support for Labels, Textboxes, Tooltips Done
WIDGET-030 Horizontal Layout As a view developer, I want to have a visual layout container to visualize view components horizontally next to each other better visualize intended layout NICE TO HAVE e.g. for a button bar To Do
WIDGET-050 Custom Component Fields As a view developer, I want to be able to define (unsupported) custom fields for any UI component, including nested elements like TableRows flexibility SHOULD HAVE e.g. for an additional boolean in a table row, if it’s text shall be highlighted in bold To Do
WIDGET-051 Color Literal Support As a view developer, I want to be able to have support for coloring by color codes/literals of text-based components   SHOULD HAVE specific foreground (done), background, selection colors Partially Done
WIDGET-052 Color Symbol Support As a view developer, I want to be able to have support for logical coloring enumerations for text-based components   SHOULD HAVE specific foreground, background, selection colors To Do

3 Commands

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
CMD-001 Support Click Command As a view developer, I need support for click commands Actions for buttons MUST HAVE   Done
CMD-002 Support Fill Text Command As a view developer, I need support for fill text commands Actions for textboxes MUST HAVE   Done
CMD-003 Support Check Command As a view developer, I need support for check commands Actions for checkboxes MUST HAVE   Done
CMD-004 Support Select Entry Command As a view developer, I need support for select entry commands Actions for comboboxes, radiobuttons MUST HAVE   Done
CMD-005 Support Select Row Command As a view developer, I need support for select row commands Actions for table, list, tree views MUST HAVE   Done
CMD-010 Support Load ViewModel Command As a view developer, I need support for loading the viewmodel with optional context parameters Actions for loading the ViewModel, optionally pass context (e.g., qualified path of the to be shown entity) MUST HAVE   Done
CMD-011 Support Custom Commands As a view developer, I need support for custom commands with flexible parameters Custom actions SHOULD HAVE   Done
CMD-020 Support Row-based Command As a view developer, I need support for calling commands in rows Actions for nested cell widgets, e.g., labels in table views MUST HAVE   Done

4 Context Features

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
CONTEXT-001 Allow reuse of context As a test developer, I want to reuse context definitions of other test scenarios Reduce redundancy MUST HAVE   Done
CONTEXT-002 Allow reuse of context sub-parts As a test developer, I want to reuse sub-parts of context definitions of other test scenarios Reduce redundancy and compose smaller context parts of other test scenarios NICE TO HAVE E.g. by using the MPS’ editor component To Do
CONTEXT-004 Provide extensible Context Data mechanism (custom context DSL) As a language engineer, I want to extend the possible context types by custom DSLs For some domains, specific sub-DSLs can significantly enhance the context definitions MUST HAVE E.g. by using MPS’ generator, overridden switch rules, or weaving generator rules Done

5 Assertion Features

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
ASSERT-001 Support partial assertions (e.g. 1 Column of a given expected table) As a test developer, I want to couple my tests only on single aspects We want that tests fail only for one aspect if possible, (e.g., only for one specific column). But, to allow a good readability of a testcase, sometimes it helps to display more information (e.g. a full table). MUST HAVE This is possible since we use a projectional editor Done
ASSERT-020 Support verifying Messaging As a test developer, I want to verify that the ViewModel fired messages on a Message/Event Bus (Pub/Sub) View Navigation is sometimes integrated via Messaging (Pub/Sub) SHOULD HAVE   To Do

6 Technical DSL Features

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
DSL-001 ViewModel shall have a built-in “Updating Flag” As a view-logic developer I want to be able to temporarily disable data-binding updates For larger or complex UI updates, sometimes data-binding has to be disabled temporarily NICE TO HAVE i.e. to avoid that UIs fire events while larger updates of the ViewModel
This is only interesting if the ViewModel is generated completely for development		 Done
DSL-002 Provide Command abstraction for view inputs As a view-logic developer, I want to add UI commands and bind them with UI frameworks directly WPF provides UI commands, with an Execute() and a CanExecute() method. Command-bindings simplify the usage of such view inputs SHOULD HAVE Examples: WPF Command Bindings To Do
DSL-003 Provide virtual (domain-oriented) properties for ViewModel fields As a view-logic developer, I want to have the possibility to define more UI-component independent properties, which are the source for UI-component-specific properties Many people implement MVVM explicitly without naming/orienting ViewModel-fields “UI-component-specific”, but more domain-oriented. E.g. a textbox’s text-property for a person-name can be named “personName” (domain-oriented) or “personNameTextBoxText” (UI-component-specific). The latter is more like ViMoTest shall be designed, while the former one is more the “virtual source” for it. Also, often one “virtual property” might be the source for multiple “UI-component-specific” fields. MUST HAVE Important to be aligned to the MVVM practice which is often done. This is can be solved by “name-bindings”: annotations to the ViewModel/Widget/Feature definitions. Done
DSL-004 Support generation of two-way binding As a view-logic developer, I want to use two-way binding of my target UI framework   NICE TO HAVE This is only interesting if the ViewModel is generated completely for development To Do

7 Static Checks

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
CHECK-001 Check Naming Conventions As a view/test developer, I want to specify consistent names   SHOULD HAVE e.g. consistently set “Btn” suffix/prefix or not To Do

8 Programming Languages

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
PL-001 Support Java As a Java Developer, I want to generate Java-based ViewModels Support Java-based UI Frameworks MUST HAVE For JavaFX in first place Done
PL-002 Support C++ As a C++ Developer, I want to generate C++-based ViewModels Support C++ based UI Frameworks or native C++ core code MUST HAVE Important for industrial case studies of ViMoTest Done
PL-003 Support C# As a C# Developer, I want to generate C#-based ViewModels Support C#-based UI Frameworks SHOULD HAVE For WPF in first place To Do
PL-004 Support Typescript As a Web-Developer I want to generate Typescript-based ViewModels Support Web-UIs NICE TO HAVE More important in future To Do

9 Generation

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
GEN-001 Replacable ViewModel field in test suites As a language programmer, I want to build custom test suite DSL extensions with flexible ViewModel fields The ViewModel field in a Test suite shall be replacable, e.g. for a DSL extension which defines a special Test-Suite baseclass SHOULD HAVE See Hamster-Simulator example https://github.com/vimotest/viewmodel-testlang-prototype/tree/master/languages/HamsterViewLanguage To Do
GEN-002 Controllable output names As a test developer, I want to have optional control over generated class/field/package names For interoperability to existing solutions, the ViMoTest approach can be build up-on existing classes MUST HAVE Similar solvable as DSL-003 by name-bindings Done
GEN-003 Copy Generated Sources As a viewlogic/test developer, I want to control where generated sources of ViMoTest are copied after transformation. Reduce the need to copy generated files manually. SHOULD HAVE   To Do

10 Non-functional/Quality requirements

ID Requirement User Story Reason Importance Notes Status
NONF-001 The ViMoTest DSL shall be easy to learn As a test developer, I want to quickly learn the ViMoTest DSL We want that the DSL is easy to use, so that not only MPS-experts can use it SHOULD HAVE We will evaluate this by case studies To Do