Overview
GraphWalker is a tool that addresses State Transitioning Model-Based Testing; in other words, it allows you to perform modeling around states and transitions between those states using directed graphs.
Starting by clarifing some key concepts, using the information provided by GraphWalker's documentation that explains them clearly:
- edge: An edge represents an action, a transition. An action could be an API call, a button click, a timeout, etc. Anything that moves your System Under Test into a new state that you want to verify. But remember, there is no verification going on in the edge. That happens only in the vertex.
- vertex: A vertex represents verification, an assertion. A verification is where you would have assertions in your code. It is here that you verify that an API call returns the correct values, that a button click actually did close a dialog, or that when the timeout should have occurred, the System Under Test triggered the expected event.
- model: A model is a graph, which is a set of vertices and edges.
From a model, GraphWalker will generate a path through it. A model has a start element, and a generator which rules how the path is generated, and associated stop condition which tells GraphWalker when to stop generating the path.
In sum, all starts with a model.
Example
In this tutorial, we'll use GraphWalker e-commerce PetClinic example which uses the well-known PetClinic sample site.
References