Using metaprogramming to implement a testing framework

Testing plays an important role in improving software quality. However, test preparation, execution, and report analysis are labor-intensive tasks that require different activities and methods to obtain benefit from the testing process. This poster describes an investigation into the use of metaprogramming, which can reflect the internals of a system, to implement a common test framework that can be used to reduce the burden for test preparation in unit and system testing. The framework focuses on generating instrumented Java bytecode based on several sources of input (e.g., source code or bytecode, and information provided by each test case). Both load-time and compile-time metaprograms are used within the framework to inform the testing process.