System, method, apparatus and computer program for automatic evaluation of user interfaces in software programs

A computer program product comprised of software instructions on a computer-readable medium, where execution of the software instructions in a data processing system results in performing operations comprising:

• inputting an application program to be tested to the data processing system;
• creating an augmented application program by injecting, into native application logic of the application program, additional application logic;
• linking the augmented application program to a software library comprising analysis algorithms configured to analyze a user interface of the application program;
• performing, in cooperation with the additional application logic and with calls made to the analysis algorithms in the software library, a static analysis of the user interface of the application program without executing the application program to generate a set of static analysis results;
• performing, in cooperation with the additional application logic and with calls made to the analysis algorithms in the software library, a dynamic analysis of the user interface of the application program while executing the application program to generate a set of dynamic analysis results;
• and
• based on the set of static analysis results and the set of dynamic analysis results, determining if the user interface of the application program violates one or more user interface policy rules.

A system, comprised of at least one data processor connected with at least one memory that stores software instructions, where execution of the software instructions by the at least one data processor causes the system to:

• input an application program to be tested;
• create an augmented application program by injecting, into native application logic of the application program, additional application logic;
• link the augmented application program to a software library comprising analysis algorithms configured to analyze a user interface of the application program;
• perform, in cooperation with the additional application logic and with calls made to the analysis algorithms in the software library, a static analysis of the user interface of the application program without executing the application program to generate a set of static analysis results;
• perform, in cooperation with the additional application logic and with calls made to the analysis algorithms in the software library, a dynamic analysis of the user interface of the application program while executing the application program to generate a set of dynamic analysis results;
• and
• based on the set of static analysis results and the set of dynamic analysis results, to determine if the user interface of the application program violates one or more user interface policy rules.