安卓移动应用兼容性测试综述

State-of-the-Art Survey of Compatibility Test for Android Mobile Application

安卓移动应用兼容性故障是指应用程序在不同的环境或内部状态发生变化时,实际结果与预期结果不相符合而导致的一类软件缺陷.安卓平台的高度开源的特性,使得安卓平台下移动应用的兼容性故障频繁发生.这类软件故障在最严重的时候,甚至可以导致程序崩溃,程序崩溃一方面会影响到用户体验,另一方面因其突发性也会对用户带来难以估量的损失.因不同设备型号和安卓操作系统版本所组成的大量组合,使得开发人员无法对其应用程序进行充分的测试.在安卓生态系统碎片化异常严重的开发背景下,如何有效地应对兼容性问题成为当前软件质量保障领域的一个热门研究问题.从安卓移动应用兼容性故障的分析、检测、定位和修复3个方面出发,简要介绍了安卓移动应用兼容性故障的发展历程及该领域所面临的主要挑战,并回顾和总结了近些年来该综述主题的实践探索和理论成果.最后,对该领域的未来工作进行了展望,以期为兼容性测试研究人员提供有价值的参考.

Mobile application compatibility failure refers to a kind of software defect caused by application running results inconsistent with expected results in different environments or internal changes.Due to the highly open-source nature of the Android platform,mobile application compatibility failures frequently occur on the Android platform.In the most serious cases,this kind of failure can lead to program crashes.On the one hand,it will affect the user experience.On the other hand,its sudden occurrence will bring huge losses to users.The combinations of different device models and versions of the Android OS make it impossible for developers to test their applications thoroughly.In the context of the extremely serious fragmentation of the Android ecosystem,how to effectively deal with the compatibility faults has become a hot research issue in software quality assurance.Starting from the three aspects of Android mobile application compatibility fault(i.e.,fault analysis,fault detection,fault location,and repair),we briefly introduce the development history of Android mobile application compatibility test and the main challenges faced in this field.In addition,we also review and summarize the practical exploration and theoretical achievements in recent years.Finally,we discuss future work,which can provide guidelines for other researchers to study compatibility testing for Android mobile application.