Custom interface messages- Interface Message Testing

Question

4.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

, +

Hello,
I'm developing an application in windows which interacts with another application in a remote system via TCP connection or serial connection. The interaction happens with the use of custom message formats (not xml but defined as classes). There is an endian difference between the windows and the remote system, so i need to handle the endian conversion too.
My problem is with the testing. I'm finding hard to test all the messages with all the combinations of data. Building a simulator to do the same will increase the development time
Is there any automated testing tool, which can generate my message formats, which i can use to test my data interface messages.
Thanks in Advance

Posted 9-Apr-11 6:34am

pragenius

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Michel [mjbohn] · Answer 1 · 2011-04-10T20:27:00

Solution 1

It's a bit hard to guess how you implemented your protocol. I think you should have at least something like List<YourProtocolStatements> or just a simple List<String>.
Having this you can easily iterate through your list and do your tests inside a try/catch.
Same applies to your data. As long as you have a finit amount of possible data just test it inside a loop.
If not you can only test all possible data types which should be a finit list.
Hope I could help with this

Posted 10-Apr-11 20:27pm

Michel [mjbohn]

Updated 10-Apr-11 20:49pm

v2

Comments

pragenius 19-Apr-11 14:41pm

Thank You mjbohn for the suggestion
The message cannot be implemented as List<string> because i need to convert it to the corresponding number of bytes (where as each character is a byte in a string). If i use string then if i have a 5 digit number it'll be sent as five bytes where as the integer is 4 bytes.
I have about 40 messages to be sent across network. Each message has a structure, but every message is identified by a value of a byte at a known location in the byte stream.
When i get the stream i check the value of byte and match it with corresponding message and decode the message.
The Problem is that the location of the message identifier field changes from system to system and i need to modify according and also i have to implement all the message classes in order to me to decode the message. I'm just looking for a way to overcome this location.
I need a software where i can define message formats and it decodes automatically
Hope i explained the situation clearly.