A Visual Comparison Approach to Automated Regression Testing (PDF to PDF Compare)

Regression Testing Type of software testing that seeks to uncover new bugs in existing functional areas of a system after changes have been made to them Ensure that a change has not introduced new faults and that the intended results are still being produced Visual Regression Testing 2

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The Antenna House Problem The need to regression test new releases of Antenna House Formatter At least 8 maintenance releases a year Regression Testing (Visual Method) Has been done manually by visually comparing output of old and new files Time consuming Prone to missing minor (but important) differences Can lead to delays in product releases Done only on candidate release versions Increase in support calls due to missed errors Visual Regression Testing 4

Going Automated Challenges Compare outputs visually, not the underlying code High speed performance Support for large collection of documents Method to generate meaningful reports Visual Regression Testing 5

What is AHRTS? Java application Automated visual comparison tool Precision pixel-by-pixel comparison of output documents Scalable & fast regression testing Regression testing of new releases of AH Formatter An automated system for comparing versions of rendering software or rendered output Beyond regression testing Pre-production system check Stylesheet development Installation validation System(s) certification Visual Regression Testing 6

Homogenize Properties Compare Homogenize Properties Is the content the same? PDF2PDF Select PDF documents to be compared PDF 1 PDF 2 Extract PDF code as character strings Return XML Report Page No Difference Yes How does it work? Visual Regression Testing 7

Are pages the same? Are pages the same? PDF 1PDF 2 Compare Pixel by Pixel Page by Page Convert to Bitmap Return XML Report Page Difference No Create Composite Image of Differences No Return XML Report Page No Difference Yes Format to PDF using XSL-FO Format to PDF using XSL-FO How does it work? Visual Regression Testing 8

Benefits Automates regression testing High speed performance 90%+ reduction in human effort Handles large document comparisons Significantly more accurate and reliable Able to catch more subtle differences Able to test more often, fewer problems results in overall better product Fewer support issues Visual Regression Testing 9

Conclusion Beyond regression testing, a PDF to PDF comparison tool like Antenna House Regression Testing System, can have a significant impact on improving software as it may play many roles in the development cycle for any system generating visual outputs. Visual Regression Testing 10

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