On-The-Fly Testing
Spec Explorer supports three modes of testing: test code generation (TCG), dynamic traversal (DT), and on-the-fly (OTF) testing. This topic covers OTF testing. The differences between the three modes are discussed in detail in the Testing topic. For more information about TCG and DT testing, see Test Generation.
OTF testing is an important feature of Spec Explorer. Its goal is to provide some test capabilities that are not available through the generation of a formal test suite (done by TCG).
You can use OTF testing to test very large models, where the numbers of steps or states (including effectively infinite steps/states) is too large to allow full exploration. (OTF testing does not require that a model exploration graph be in test normal form.) You can also replay previously run OTF test cases, to allow easier reproduction of bugs, and to possibly find more bugs.
To run OTF tests on a given machine, select the machine in the Exploration Manager, and click Run On-The-Fly Tests on the Exploration Manager toolbar. Spec Explorer performs the OTF testing and places the test results (as .seexpl files) in the solutionFolder/projectFolder/Test Results/machineName/timeStamp directory. To stop a running OTF test, click Stop on the Exploration Manager toolbar.
Replaying Tests
To replay an OTF test, right-click the machine, point to Run On-The-Fly, and then select Replay Test. Select the test to replay from the Open dialog box. Results of the replay are placed into a new subdirectory in the solutionFolder/projectFolder/Test Results/machineName directory.
A replay can be either exact or best effort. An exact replay uses the same actions and parameter values as the original test case. A best effort replay uses the same starting conditions, but is allowed to vary from an exact copy of the original test case. This is set by using the appropriate value for the OnTheFlyReplayStrategy Cord switch. See SwitchClause for more details.
OTF replays can also be started from the SpecExplorer.exe command-line tool. For more details, see Running Spec Explorer from the Command Line.
See Also
Reference
Concepts
Exploration Manager
Testing
Test Results and Conformance
Test Generation