System and method for testing of web services

• US 7,028,223 B1
• Filed: 08/07/2002
• Issued: 04/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Parasoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Parasoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hicken, Wendell T., Clune, James Edmond III, Kolawa, Adam, Chen, Luke Li-Ming
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHU, GABRIEL L
• Application Number:
  US10/214,209
• Time in Patent Office: 1,343 Days
• Field of Search: 714/37, 714/38
• US Class Current: 714/38.14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/22 comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

The present invention is a module testing tool for Web services. In one embodiment, the present invention automates the testing of Web services that use SOAP as a wire protocol and HTTP as a transport protocol. The invention provides an easy interface for exercising Web services and testing their functionality. The invention helps users confirm the responses to SOAP messages with such features as fault detection, textual comparisons, XML validation by DTDs or XML Schemas, and the ability to express and flag complex patterns in XML. The invention lets the users validate responses that require application-specific verification (such as business logic validation) by plugging in their own code. It also provides the capability to perform regression testing of web services. The invention can automatically creates regression test controls from SOAP Client responses, or users can create their own regression tests.

Claims

1. A method for automatic testing of a web service software including service oriented architecture protocol (SOAP), the method comprising:

identifying the web service;

creating one or more test cases for exercising behavior of the identified web service;

executing the created one or more test cases for obtaining results for the behavior of the identified web service;

automatically creating graphical user interface (GUI) elements for inputting custom, complex data types; and

analyzing the results, wherein the web service includes metadata and complex data type, and the step of automatically creating GUI elements comprises creating an internal representation of the metadata for the web service including service name, number of parameters, parameter types, and return type;

incorporating the internal representation of the types and values into the generated test case; and

generating a GUI representation of the test case.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying comprises identifying a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) related to the web service.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of identifying comprises identifying a metadata related to the web service.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising modifying the created test cases for future use.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing comprises validating conformance to specification included in the SOAP.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing comprises confirming responses to the web service.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the SOAP is implemented in Extensible Markup Language (XML).

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of analyzing comprises validating the XML.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of analyzing comprises identifying complex patterns in the XML.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing comprises comparing a received response of a test case to an expected response of the test case.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing comprises determining the response time of the web service description.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of analyzing comprises load testing of the web service.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the GUI representation includes complex components and primitive components, and the primitive components are based on a mapping of primitive XML types to primitive GUI components.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of mapping comprises:

breaking the complex components into primitive components including relationships of how the primitive components are composed into the complex components;

replacing the primitive components with their corresponding primitive GUI elements based on a predefined mapping; and

composing the GUI elements into a composite GUI element based on the relationships found in the original complex components composition.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising regression testing of the web service.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising utilizing the created test cases for load testing.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising chaining the created test cases for functional testing.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating rules to check whether a response of the service description matches certain general pattern, and enforcing the rules.