This module should serve as a BIST:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built-in_self-test

Module is being developed here:

https://github.com/pieper/Slicer/tree/1922-bist

This will be part of Project week:

http://www.na-mic.org/Wiki/index.php/2012_Summer_Project_Week:SelfTesting

One thing to consider is a mode in which the module could be invoked outside of the running slicer so that it could run tests and report on tests that lead to crashes. One option would be for to launch child slicer processes to run tests and check the return code of these. I'm not going to put this on the short term feature list but may want to add it in the future.

A discussion of using CTest/midas for data management of build-time and run-time tests is copied below for reference.

Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin jchris.fillionr@kitware.com

4:30 PM (17 minutes ago)

to pieper, James, Julien, Patrick
Hi Steve, Jim,

We meet with Patrick. Here are the conclusions:

1) Our intern Chris will probably be working with me to:

• add "caching" to the midas python library midas

• implement the cmake macros/functions allowing to configure the list of hash embedded in Slicer so that tests could download data.

  2) I will contact "Aldebaran" team to find out more about their python implementation of ctest
  See http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/documentation/qibuild/ref/python/packages/qibuild/ctest.html
  and https://github.com/aldebaran/qibuild/blob/master/python/run_tests.py

  3) On slightly different topic, Patrick will be talking with the CMake team to see how CTest could be used as a c++ header. That way, it should be possible to expose convenient testing framework in C++.

Thanks
Jc

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 3:17 PM, Steve Pieper <pieper@ibility.net> wrote:

Hi Jc, Patrick -

Sounds good - let us know your thoughts.  I'm particularly interested in having a solution that can work equally well for build time tests, for run-time self-tests (on an install tree), and for sample data downloaded at the user's request.

Best,
Steve

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 2:52 PM, Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin <jchris.fillionr@kitware.com> wrote:

    Hi Jim, Steve, 

    Just to let you know that I will be discussing with Patrick later today. 

    Thanks
    Jc

    On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 9:42 AM, Jean-Christophe Fillion-Robin <jchris.fillionr@kitware.com> wrote:

        Good morning, 

        Including Patrick, I am he will have insightful comments.

        Thanks
        Jc

        On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 9:39 AM, Miller, James V (GE Global Research) <millerjv@ge.com> wrote:

            Certainly the data can be pulled down from the External site for the sample data etc.  It is really just a website with data indexed by hash keys.  That index could just be a directory structure on a website or could be a Midas host.

            But most of the External Data mechanisms are layers of CMake magic to maintain an efficient local cache. We'd have to translate some of the logic for the cache management for the self tests (unless they get configured into the build tree….)

            Jim

            On May 18, 2012, at 10:46 PM, Steve Pieper wrote:

            That sounds great - will it also be usable at run time for sample data and self tests?

            On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 5:47 PM, Miller, James V (GE Global Research) <millerjv@ge.com> wrote:

                Hey guys, 

                I have been playing around with configuring Slicer to use the ITKv4 ExternalData mechanism for test and baseline data.  I have branches called ExternalDataWIP on my github (millerjv) repositories for both the Slicer4 and the SkullStripper extension.

                The process works by placing the real data on a server like Midas or any web server.  Files in the source repository just contain the md5 hash keys of the true files. At build time, specifically referenced files are downloaded to a local object store.  

                We should be able to set it up so that all of Slicer and all its Extensions share a single local object store.  I don't have that working yet. Some config file problem.

                I think this could make it easier for us to publish a list of available test data and have it easy for people to configure their Extensions to reference our or even their data.

                http://www.na-mic.org/Bug/view.php?id=1987

                Jim Miller
                Senior Scientist
                GE Research 
                Interventional and Therapy

                GE imagination at work

            Jim Miller
            Senior Scientist
            GE Research 
            Interventional and Therapy

            GE imagination at work

        -- 
        +1 919 869 8849

    -- 
    +1 919 869 8849

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+1 919 869 8849

A self-test module and an example test that pulls data from midas has been added:

http://viewvc.slicer.org/viewvc.cgi/Slicer4?view=revision&amp;revision=20779

Feature has been added, now it can be used and refined.