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Regress Modifications: Support Javascript-Enabled Display

Newsgroup: mozilla.dev.tech.crypto
Technical contact: Bob Relyea
Yell at the manager: Bob Lord
(Status: Draft 1.01)

Overview

The HTML output produced by Regress is currently in tabular format.  This format has the following disadvantages:

  • When entries get above 8000, the Browser will often crash due to difficulties in drawing the table for such a large number of entries.
  • When there are too many entries, it is difficult to go to a specific test and look at the results.
  • There is no mechanism in which to look at only fail entries or only pass entries given a page containing a mix of both types
The solution is to create an additional interface to the Regress output display -- Implement  an easy to use interface that uses JavaScript to dynamically page through the data.

Changes to regress usage

Regress may be set to output its test result data in either the old Table format or the new JavaScript format by specifying at the command line:

    regress specfile=[specfilename] style=table    // for the old table format
or
     regress specfile=[specfilename] style=javascript    // for the new javascript format

If style is not specified at the command line, then the default is the new javascript format
Alternatively, Regress users can specify in their regress specfile under [General] header, an additional field

style=[table|javascript]

NOTE: The value set at the command line will overwrite any style options set in the specfile.

Here is an example of the JavaScript Interface.

Notes about the Code
(You should read the following only if you intend to make changes to the JavaScript interface)

The heart of the Javascript generation code is a collection of functions which I have defined in genjs.c and genjs.h.    These two files are built by a Perl script makeGenJS.pl.    The basic idea is that the makeGenJS.pl script takes a Javascript template genjs_template.html and extracts portions of the code to generate genjs.c and genjs.h.     Using this methodology, one can easily make changes to the JavaScript template in terms of code or display layout modifications without ever looking at the C code.   Below is a list of functions created in genjs.c by makeGenJS.pl, and a brief description of their purpose/behavior:
 
Function Name Description
genJS_Top(PRFileDesc*) Every output page generated by Regress will have a general static region (actually 2) of JavaScript code which does not change depending on the test run.  This function prints out the static JavaScript portion up to the data insertion section (marked by "//data init")  (see below for template layout)
genJS_Bottom(PRFileDesc*) This function outputs the static Javascript code from after the data initialization region to the very end of the template.
genJS_Header(PRFileDesc*, char*) Generates the appropriate header <TITLE>[name of page]</TITLE> for the test being run.   The second argument is the string containing the page title 
genJS_InsertVars(....) Inserts variable initialization statements for JavaScript variables: 
mutdesc, mutversion, rundate and platform.   Takes as argument the values these four variables are to be initialized to, and outputs the following text to the output file: 

var mutdesc = <mutdesc value>; 
var mutversion = <mutversion value>; 
var platform = <platform value>; 
var rundate = <rundate value>; 
 
genJS_SummaryVars(...) The same idea as with InsertVars, but outputs initialization statements for Summary Table related variables: numPass, numFail, numKnownFail, and numMalFormed.
genJS_DeclareData(PRFileDesc*, char* length) Outputs the Data array declaration string: 
var Data = new Array(<length>);
genJS_InsertData(...) Outputs the initialization expressions for each Data element.  (This function is called for each test combination). 
Hence will produce the following for [Test-n] 

Data[<n>] = new TestData( < arguments that initializes test object n >);
genJS_PutColor(char* string, char* colorCode) A simple HTML utility that wraps a <FONT COLOR="<colorCode"> </FONT> around the given string.   Does the same thing as GENHTML_PutColor, but produces escaped quotes in the output.   For example: genJS_PutColor will generate 

<FONT COLOR=\"<colorCode>\">....</FONT> 

whereas GENHTML_PutColor will generate 

<FONT COLOR="<colorCode>"...</FONT> 

The escaped quotes around <colorCode> is necessary because what is generated by genJS_PutColor must be reinterpreted by JavaScript (in essence we are outputting code, so quotes in strings must be escaped.)
 

How the Java Script template is organized

<HTML>
<HEAD>....
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript>    <==== genJS_Header generates this portion
....

                                                      <==== All the code up to this point goes into genJS_Top
//data init                                        <==== genJS_InsertVars, genJS_SummaryVar, genJS_DeclareData, and
                                                                  genJS_InsertData are called here to initialize Java script variables

...
</SCRIPT>
</HTML>

JavaScript Data Organization:

Basically, in place of Table elements, all the data collected by Regress for each test is turned into a Data[] array element initialization statement.     Each Data[] element current contains the following Fields:

testno   // a number representing the 'n' in [Test-n].
           // The testno is not guaranteed to have one to one correspondence with
            // Data[]'s index.
passOrFail // A flag to indicate pass or fail status of a test  1 is a Pass, 0 is a Fail

// The following fields are simply strings that correspond to the original
// table columns which they belonged in
filename
description
starttime
endtime
result

Each Data[] element is initialized in the following manner:

Data[<n>] = new TestData(<testno>, <passOrFail>, "<filename>", "<description>", "<starttime>", "<endtime>", "<result>")

Each test has its own Data[] initialization statement.

Making Changes:

When making changes to the JavaScript template the following guidelines should be followed

  • Avoid escaped characters when possible.   Although I have programmed into the Perl script to check for escaped characters and replace them with escaped escaped characters (because we are generating code that generate code), there may be holes which I have not fully checked for.    If you require to print a "\n" (new line) character use the javascript function writeln instead.
  • Use the variables defined for summary and general variables (as described above for genJS_SummaryVars and genJS_InsertVars) do not invent new ones.
Where to Make Changes in the JavaScript template

The following is a brief description of JavaScript functions that generate HTML, these functions can be modified in order to change the appearance of the output interface.
 
JavaScript Function Description
generateTable() contains the code that produces the HTML (Table) in the middle frame
createControlPanel() contains the code that produces the interface in the bottom frame.
createHeader() generates the HTML in the first frame. Which has the module under test description and the Summary data.
 
A Note on Building genjs.c and genjs.h

After making modifications to either the genjs_template.html, or makeGenJS.pl (the Perl script that generates the C code).  Invoke
makeGenJS.pl (make sure you are using at least version 4 Perl).    This will rebuild the above genjs source files.   Then, simply follow general Regress building instructions.