Testing web applications through layout constraints : tools and applications

With businesses trying to minimize cost, web applications are becoming increasingly useful by providing cross-platform applications that can be easily ported to desktop and mobile. However, testing these applications is much more arduous than testing desktop applications due to the lack of tools. In this thesis, we aim to describe a web application testing tool called Cornipickle which uses an expressive layout specification. The specification language for Cornipickle makes statements on applications’ layouts but we show that it can also test behaviours. With it, we effectively achieve to detect the bugs found with our survey of 35 real-world web applications. We also show Cornipickle’s versatility by using it in multiple applications and tools, notably pairing it with a crawler. Puisque les entreprises tentent de minimiser leurs coûts, les applications web deviennent de plus en plus utiles en fournissant des applications multiplateformes qui peuvent être facilement portées aux appareils mobiles et environnements de bureau. Par contre, tester ces applications est beaucoup plus ardu que de tester des applications de bureau en raison du manque d’outils. Dans ce mémoire, nous décrivons un outil de test d’applications web, Cornipickle, qui utilise une spécification expressive sur la mise en page. Le langage de spécification de Cornipickle fait des affirmations sur la mise en page des applications mais nous montrons qu’il permet aussi de tester des comportements. Grâce à lui, nous réussissons à détecter efficacement les bogues identifiés dans une étude de 35 applications webs. Nous montrons aussi la polyvalence de Cornipickle en l’utilisant dans une multitude d’applications et outils, notamment en l’associant à un robot d’indexation

SmartMirror: A Glance into the Future

In todays society, information is available to us at a glance through our phones, our laptops, our desktops, and more. But an extra level of interaction is required in order to access the information. As technology grows, technology should grow further and further away from the traditional style of interaction with devices. In the past, information was relayed through paper, then through computers, and in todays day and age, through our phones and multiple other mediums. Technology should become more integrated into our lives - more seamless and more invisible. We hope to push the envelope further, into the future. We propose a new simple way of connecting with your morning newspaper. We present our idea, the SmartMirror, information at a glance. Our system aims to deliver your information quickly and comfortably, with a new modern aesthetic. While modern appliances require input through modules such as keyboards or touch screen, we hope to follow a model that can function purely on voice and gesture. We seek to deliver your information during your morning routine and throughout the day, when taking out your phone is not always possible. This will cater to a larger audience base, as the average consumer nowadays hopes to accomplish tasks with minimal active interaction with their adopted technology. This idea has many future applications, such as integration with new virtual or augmented reality devices, or simplifying consumer personal media sources

Virtual Museum for NACHA

Our team worked with the Nso’ Arts and Cultural Heritage Association and created a virtual museum in order to increase awareness of the unique culture of the Nso’ people in Cameroon, Africa. A lot of information from this region is in danger of being lost due to political tension and poor artifact conservation, and many people, including the Cameroonian youth, are not prioritizing the preservation of their culture and history. Creating a website where individuals can view the art, history, and culture found in Cameroon is the best way to increase the availability of knowledge of the Nso’ people. Such a system will not only allow individuals to become more familiar with Cameroon, but it will also allow researchers to update the site and add new information as they go deeper into their research. Since anyone with a web-enabled device will be able to access the virtual museum, it has the potential to get people from around the world, including the youth in Cameroon, interested in learning more about the art, history, and traditions native to that region

Pro-Resume: The Infographic Resume Builder

Scoring an interview is a challenge for any job seeker these days, thus having a unique and well-organized resume is crucial to grab a recruiter’s attention. Online resume builders such as ResumeNow and VisualizeMe have been created to help users build resumes; however, their templates are lacking in quantity, customizability, and in some instances, even legibility. Thus, our team set out to create an infographic online resume builder, a web application that allows its users to build, organize, and beautify their resumes to aid them in their job search. Our system allows for easy integration with their LinkedIn profiles so that their work history can be easily duplicated without typing everything out. There is also a large scope of infographic template options that users can choose from and, most importantly, users will have the ability to further customize their content and organization by using the system’s editing mode

SpotMe Emergency Location Service

This document delves into our disaster relief application that allows people who are helpless due to a natural disaster to find a way out and get help. The purpose of this document is to explain how the application works, but more specifically the design of the application, use cases, and conceptual models. Starting with a brief introduction, this paper will dive into the necessary requirements needed to build an application at this scale while presenting several use cases. To help the reader understand the application at a finer detail, activity diagrams will be shown along with models. Lastly, the document will cover what technologies will need to be used as well as a test plan and risk analysis

Ontology based Scene Creation for the Development of Automated Vehicles

The introduction of automated vehicles without permanent human supervision demands a functional system description, including functional system boundaries and a comprehensive safety analysis. These inputs to the technical development can be identified and analyzed by a scenario-based approach. Furthermore, to establish an economical test and release process, a large number of scenarios must be identified to obtain meaningful test results. Experts are doing well to identify scenarios that are difficult to handle or unlikely to happen. However, experts are unlikely to identify all scenarios possible based on the knowledge they have on hand. Expert knowledge modeled for computer aided processing may help for the purpose of providing a wide range of scenarios. This contribution reviews ontologies as knowledge-based systems in the field of automated vehicles, and proposes a generation of traffic scenes in natural language as a basis for a scenario creation.Comment: Accepted at the 2018 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 8 pages, 10 figure

User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time

Pervasive Parallel And Distributed Computing In A Liberal Arts College Curriculum

We present a model for incorporating parallel and distributed computing (PDC) throughout an undergraduate CS curriculum. Our curriculum is designed to introduce students early to parallel and distributed computing topics and to expose students to these topics repeatedly in the context of a wide variety of CS courses. The key to our approach is the development of a required intermediate-level course that serves as a introduction to computer systems and parallel computing. It serves as a requirement for every CS major and minor and is a prerequisite to upper-level courses that expand on parallel and distributed computing topics in different contexts. With the addition of this new course, we are able to easily make room in upper-level courses to add and expand parallel and distributed computing topics. The goal of our curricular design is to ensure that every graduating CS major has exposure to parallel and distributed computing, with both a breadth and depth of coverage. Our curriculum is particularly designed for the constraints of a small liberal arts college, however, much of its ideas and its design are applicable to any undergraduate CS curriculum