Combinatorial testing of software for multi-level data structures

摘要

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for efficient combinatorial testing of multi-level datatypes and data objects. A multi-level datatype associated with a software library has a plurality of linked levels with corresponding metadata attributes. A sparse set of metadata combinations is generated, providing full coverage of identified tuples of the metadata. Multi-level test datatypes are defined, with metadata attributes following the generated metadata combinations, and used to execute a test suite and validate the software library. A user interface of the software library can be tested and validated directly using the defined test datatypes. Alternatively, functions of the software library can be tested with test objects that are instances of the test datatypes. In variations, the software library can be tested for combinations of data values, or a mix of data and metadata. The software library can be a rules framework providing configuration and implementation of if-then rules for client applications.