Computer aided bug reporting system for gui applications

A computer aided bug reporting system for GUI-based applications, comprising:

• at least one processor configured to
• extract first data indicative of GUI components and attributes of said GUI components from source code for a GUI-based application having execution paths that generate a plurality of screen displays according to user interactions during run-time execution of said source code, each of said screen displays using said GUI components defined by said source code;
• store said first data in a database;
• execute said source code in a run-time environment through said execution paths according to automatically-generated user inputs, wherein each of said execution paths is defined by execution steps and wherein each of said execution steps generates a run-time screen display using at least one of said GUI components;
• store, in said database, second data indicative of each said run-time screen display;
• generate, using said first data and said second data, a sequence of prompts on a first remote display device, said sequence of prompts being ordered in accordance with one of said execution paths wherein each of said prompts is associated with one of said execution steps, each of said prompts presenting said GUI components and said attributes of said GUI components associated with said one of said execution steps wherein selected ones of said GUI components and selected ones of said attributes of said GUI components are defined;
• and
• cause said selected ones of said GUI components and said selected ones of said attributes of said GUI components for said execution steps associated with said one of said execution paths to be displayed on a second remote display device.

A computer aided method for reporting bugs in GUI applications, comprising the steps of:

• extracting first data indicative of GUI components and attributes of said GUI components from source code for a GUI-based application having execution paths that generate a plurality of screen displays according to user interactions during run-time execution of said source code, each of said screen displays using said GUI components defined by said source code;
• storing said first data in a database;
• executing said source code in a run-time environment through said execution paths according to automatically-generated user inputs, wherein each of said execution paths is defined by execution steps and wherein each of said execution steps generates a run-time screen display using at least one of said GUI components;
• storing, in said database, second data indicative of each said run-time screen display;
• generating, using said first data and said second data, a sequence of prompts on a first electronic display device, said sequence of prompts being ordered in accordance with one of said execution paths subject to a software bug wherein each of said prompts is associated with one of said execution steps, each of said prompts presenting said GUI components and said attributes of said GUI components associated with said one of said execution steps wherein selected ones of said GUI components and selected ones of said attributes of said GUI components are defined;
• and
• displaying said selected ones of said GUI components and said selected ones of said attributes of said GUI components for said execution steps associated with said one of said execution paths subject to a software bug on a second electronic display device.