Specification-Based Unit Testing of Publish/Subscribe Applications

Abstract

Testing remains the most applied verification method for software systems. Typically, the behavior of such systems is evaluated against their informal or formal specifications. In this paper, we consider an architecture-driven approach to software testing. We support the argument that, in many cases, the difficulties in testing can be alleviated by optimizing the test methodology to leverage the architecture of the application under test. To support this claim, we present a test framework for publish/subscribe applications. This paper evaluates our initial steps in this regard. We focus on the design of our framework, and illustrate how to accomplish unit testing of publish/subscribe applications against LTL specifications, considering a real-world application as example.