What are good tests for any well-behaved OCAP application?

One place to start is by devising tests based on specifications such as the CableLabs document "OCAP Well-Behaved Applications", issued to the public on July 22, 2008. A copy is available from the CableLabs website at the URL

http://www.cablelabs.com/specifications/OC-SP-OCAP-WBA-I01-080722.pdf

In this OEDN book the concepts in the CableLabs document are extracted and transformed into tests. In the first step we put on our system engineering hats and read the document for testable ideas. Each concept is numbered and is placed on its own page.

Next each concept is treated like a requirement - not in the legal sense but more in the sense of an guideline for the application to be well-behaved. The concept is expressed as an "assertion" which is the basic testable unit often used by professional software testers. This wording style makes it easier to evaluate if the guideline has been met or not.

Some examples of assertions are:

• The sky is blue
• When there are no clouds, then the sky is blue.

and when applied to an OCAP application:

• The default is .....
• When non-default feature is used, then the .....

Finally test procedures describe a recipe for demonstrating if the assertion is true for a particular application. Written procedures list a sequence of steps and expected results. At the end of the steps it should be clear if the application meets the guideline. Wherever it is pragmatic automated test procedures are preferred to manual ones.

Our objective is to accumulate an archive of tests for well-behaved OCAP applications. Naturally, application designers will want to virtually walk through the tests to ensure they have not missed or violated any of the assertions. And, application testers can add to their arsenal of other tests.

We invite you, the OEDN community, to contribute to these tests. Help us grow the suites.