System and method for providing testing for a communities framework

A method for providing testing in a communities framework, said system comprising:

• a computer that provides a portal interface to access a community of users, the community including a plurality of members that share resources of the community, the portal interface being defined by a portal file stored on said computer;
• a service component executing on said computer that provides a specific set of functions to the plurality of members in the community and allows the plurality of members to access said resources;
• a dissassembler that automatically disassembles the portal file and creates an instance of the community associated with the service component;
• and
• a unit test implemented in the instance of the community, wherein the unit test automatically defines at least one member of the community having particular membership capabilities, executes the specific set of functions provided by the service component as the automatically defined member, and inspects results of execution of the specific set of functions, wherein the unit test verifies access to a first level of security for the automatically defined member by validating said member's membership capabilities and verifies access to a second level of security by validating said member's entitlements.

A computer-readable storage medium storing one or more sequences of instructions wherein said instructions, when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

• provide a portal interface to access a community of users, the community including a plurality of members that share resources of the community, the portal interface being defined by a portal file;
• maintain a plurality of service components, each service component providing a set of specific functions to the plurality of members in the community and enabling the plurality of members to access said resources;
• select at least one service component;
• disassemble the portal file to instantiate a community instance and associate the community instance with the service component;
• and
• execute a unit test in the community instance wherein the unit test automatically defines at least one member of the community having particular membership capabilities, executes the specific set of functions provided by the service component as the automatically defined member, and inspects results of execution of the specific set of functions, wherein the unit test verifies access to a first level of security for the automatically defined member by validating said member's membership capabilities and verifies access to a second level of security by validating said member's entitlements.