Patent ID: 7313564

Claim:
A method of web-interface mediated testing of the functionality of a graphical user interface (GUI) object comprising: (a) selecting an XML encoded test case for execution on a host machine using a web-interface provided by an application server, wherein said test case comprises one or more GUI object test steps; (b) selecting the host machine on which to run said test case using said web-interface provided by said application server, said host machine comprising an automation tool and a whole or partial copy of the computer readable code of the software GUI object being tested; (c) encoding a test case file comprising the one or more GUI object test steps of said selected test case and the name of an automation tool GUI environment file; (d) transmitting said. XML encoded test case file from said application server to said selected host machine; (e) receiving said XML encoded test case file; (f) decoding said XML encoded test case file; wherein said decoding comprises generating a test script by parsing GUI object functionality syntax recognized by said automation tool from said XML encoded test case file; (g) receiving a copy of the automation tool GUI environment file; (h) loading said test script, said automation tool GUI environment file, and said whole or partial copy of the computer readable code of the GUI being tested into said automation too; (i) executing said loaded, test script using said automation tool; and (j) storing a result in a database, thereby testing the functionality of said GUI.