WEB SERVICES TESTING IN QTP

How to send a SOAP XML message using the SendRequest method

The user wants to write a test that sends a SOAP XML message to his Web Services gateway.

Example:
Set ssr0XML = XMLUtil.CreateXMLFromFile("D:\temp\XML\ServiceStatus\SSR0.xml")
WebService("XOAService_2").SendRequest("ServiceStatus", "ssr0XML")

The first line of the script reads the contents of a valid XML file into a variable named ssr0XML. The second line attempts to send this message to the Web Services application server.

During replay, the user verifies that QuickTest Professional sends the message. However, the content of the message is the string ssr0XML, not the expected XML file. This causes the Web Services server to generate an error. How should a message be sent?

Solution: Using the SendRequest Web Services method

The SendRequest method sends the message specified in the SOAPMessage argument with no modifications and no additional items are appended to the message. Specifically, the message is not affected by previous AddAttachment, AddHeader, AddMessageProtection, AddSecurityToken statements.

object.SendRequest OperationName, SOAPMessage

object The WebService test object.
OperationName The Web service operation to be performed by the request.
SOAPMessage The SOAP request in the form of an XML string. The value should be a valid SOAP envelope, according to the SOAP specifications.

You can retrieve the response to the message sent with this method by inserting a LastResponse statement after it.

Note:
The SendRequest method expects a XML string, not an XML object. So if you are using the XMLUtil object to create an XML object, you will need to use the ToString method to convert the XML object to an XML string. Then you can use it with the SendRequest method.

Example:
Set ssr0XML = XMLUtil.CreateXMLFromFile("D:\temp\XML\ServiceStatus\SSR0.xml")
XMLstr = ssr0XML.ToString
WebService("XOAService_2").SendRequest("ServiceStatus", XMLstr)

Read this series to understand the basics of WebServices with QTP.

Web Services and QTP – Part 1: Testing Web Services Key Concepts

Advanced Concepts, Web Services

First of all, I would like to thank all the readers of LearnQTP and forum members for their great patience reading out my series of posts on DotNetfactory and Databases in QTP and for their valuable comments in each post. Special Thanks to Ankur, for giving me the exceptional opportunity to share my experience to the community.  Once again I am here with a new series of posts which will focus on Web Services Testing using QTP.

The series is divided in four parts

1. Testing Web Services – Key Concepts
2. Web Service Testing Wizard
3. Adding Web Service Test Object to Object Repository
4. Testing Web Services without enabling Web Services Add-in

In this first article I will focus on important key concepts of web services that you should know before start testing Web Services.
Web service is the way to connect different services together into a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). Web services provide an application integration technology that can be used over internet and take Web Application to the next level.

W3C defines – A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network. It has an interface described in a machine-processable format (specifically WSDL). Other systems interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its description using SOAP messages, typically conveyed using HTTP with an XML serialization in conjunction with other Web-related standards.

Testing web services is no different than testing any other application/software program, but there are some unique challenges.

Web service based architecture is intrinsically distributed and is dependent on various stakeholders, which makes it difficult to establish availability and quality of service across the various stake holders. Most likely Web Services could be dependent on third party web services. And these third party web services can be changed without any information

Web services in an inter-enterprise SOA are so loosely coupled than the traditional architecture that tracking message route between different Web service stake holders is difficult.

Web services testing is basically the validation of interface points, messages and message formats which is quite different from testing the GUI.

Testing tools which are using GUI based automation is simply inadequate for Web services testing, but we don’t have to worry too much as we have QTP. Ian Fraser has well said it -

“The true beauty of QTP is that the only limitation is your imagination and ability to code in VBScript.”

HP Service Test and QTP Web Services Add-in are great solutions for Web Services testing. HP Service Test Management module plugs into Quality center. We need QTP Web Services add-in in order to work with web services which can be downloaded from HP Download Center.

Let us first understand web services key points need to know before delving into testing with QTP. Typically a Web Service is a set of all related functions which are invoked to other application or services over the Internet. The information to programmatically invoke a Web service by an application is given by a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document. Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML-based language for locating and describing Web services. Now as the Web Service is powered by the web application server that uses SOAP to understand and speak with web services and delivers information in XML. Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is XML based protocol to exchange information over HTTP. To locate the web services WSDL documents are indexed in searchable Universal, Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) business registries.

To access a Web service, it will have the WSDL path. But in case you are not aware of it you will have to use UDDI to find the service. You can make a search on Google to find the WSDL. Type below text in google to search

“inurl:wsdl site:w3schools.com”

you will find the public example web service provided by W3C. On accessing the WSDL (http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/tempconvert.asmx?wsdl) you will come to know about the access points and interfaces available for the web service. Something like the snapshot below –

This web service has two methods ‘CelsiusToFahrenheit’ and ‘FahrenheitToCelsius’ and simply takes the temperature and converts it to the required.

There is one most important element in WSDL, which is Port. WSDL Port defines the connection point to a web service. It can be compared to a function library or a module or a class in traditional programming language.   You can find the service name and port in below section of WSDL.

You can understand this Web Service better when you will navigate to the W3C web service example , where you can see the interface for the web service.

If you click any of the two operations there it shows you the form to input parameters required for the operation and invoking this will give you the result in XML.

Just below the form you will see sample SOAP request and response, which is actually processed when the web service is invoked.

SOAP Request

SOAP Response

The ‘string’ (in blue) that you see is actually replaced by the value that you process.

So now you must be ready to start testing this in QTP.  We will see the various intricacies of web service testing with QTP in the next part.

Web Services and QTP – Part 2: Web Service Testing Wizard

Advanced Concepts, Web Services

In the earlier part of WebServices testing with QTP, we have gone through the basic concept required for web service testing. In this part we will use those concepts to test the web service using QTP.

When you are about to test a web service, make sure you have enabled Web Service Add-in for QTP. Once you have the add-in properly loaded you will see web service pane at Test Settings and Options. Web services toolkit option enables you to select a toolkit you want QTP to use for web service operations. For new tests and components, the default toolkit is the same as the toolkit set in the Web Services pane of the Options dialog box for learning Web Service objects.

QTP performs validation using the WS-I validation tool. The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) is an open industry organization chartered to establish Best Practices for Web services interoperability, for selected groups of Web services standards, across platforms, operating systems and programming languages.You will need to specify the path of validation tool in web services pane at option, and then you can access the tool by selecting Tools > validate WSDL.

Let us now see Web Service Testing Wizard in QTP. To open the wizard click the web services wizard in toolbar or select Automation > Web Service Testing Wizard.

You will see a Welcome screen which provides you the overview of wizard. You can choose whether you want the welcome screen when running the wizard or not.

Clicking on Next button you will get the screen for WSDL Scanning. Here you will need to specify the WSDL, which can be a URL, a WSDL file or it could be in your repository which has added earlier. Select the Include security settings in the generated Web service testcheck box if you want to specify the security tokens that are required for communication with the Web service you want to test.

Click Next, the next screen that pops up is depending on your selection in the last screen. If you have specified a secure WSDL, the Network Credentials dialog box opens. Enter the login details required to access the WSDL and click OK. The Web Service Testing Wizard – Set Security Options Screen opens. If you selected the Include security settings in the generated Web service test check box, the Web Service Testing Wizard – Set Security Options Screen opens. If you do not need to specify security settings, the Web Service Testing Wizard – Select Service and Operations Screen opens.

Specify the WSDL from W3Cschools.com which I have mentioned in the last parthttp://www.w3schools.com/webservices/tempconvert.asmx?wsdl . Clicking on Next, Select Service and Operations Screen opens.

You will see the two operations here select one of the operations and move it to selected Operations list. And click next. The next screen comes is the Summary screen. You can automatically insert XML checkpoints by selecting Add XML checkpoint after each relevant step (selected by default). Selecting this check box adds an XML checkpoint for each step in the test that has a return value or an output argument.

Click Finish and The WebService test object is stored in the local object repository, and the defined steps are converted to the proper syntax and inserted into your test.

Go to your Object repository. You will see your web services test object and the xml checkpoint added. Selecting the test object, you can see the details of this object like wsdl, port, and service. You can see the following script generated in your test.

CelsiusToFahrenheit= WebService("TempConvertService").CelsiusToFahrenheit("string (Autogenerated)") WebService("TempConvertService").Check CheckPoint("CelsiusToFahrenheit")

You can see that the parameters are not yet passed, it is auto generated by the wizard (“string (Autogenerated)”), and you will need to specify this parameter before executing this. Something like below and execute.

CelsiusToFahrenheit = WebService("TempConvertService").CelsiusToFahrenheit("25") WebService("TempConvertService").Check CheckPoint("CelsiusToFahrenheit")

In the Test Result you will find that your test failed. Click on Web Service object you can see the SOAP request and response there as described in the last part.

The web service has actually output the result in the response i.e. 77; actually it has failed at check point.

This is because we have not configured the xml checkpoint for the expected result. So if you have selected to add xml checkpoint at wizard then make sure you have configured it.

Note:-

• Make sure you run Web service tests using the same toolkit with which the test was created.
• QTP includes Maintenance Run Mode, which is not supported for applications such as Web services, which do not have a user interface.
• WSDL Validation tool is a third-party application that is not provided with QuickTest. You can download Interoperability Testing Tools 1.1 from the Web Services Interoperability Organization Web site at http://www.ws-i.org and it must be installed locally.

Web Services and QTP- Part 3: Adding Web Service Test Object

Advanced Concepts, Web Services

Apart from Web Services Testing Wizard we discussed in last part, let’s find out what are other possible ways to work with Web services in QTP. What about adding Web services objects directly into object repository and use the test object to add steps in test or component.

QTP provides Web Service Add Object Wizard which helps you to add the test object into the repository. These web service test object behaves same as any other test objects while creating the steps in test i.e. we can access all its operations  in keyword view or in expert view.

To open the Add object Wizard click the object repository at toolbar or select Resources > Object Repository. Select Object > Web Service Add Object Wizard. The Web Service Add Object Wizard opens to show the Specify WSDL for Scanning screen.

Specify the URL for your WSDL as you did at Web Service Test Wizard and click Next.  It will now show you the select service screen. Here you can select the service and Port from the available list. And click finish.

Close the Object Repository and the test object is now ready to use in your test. To use a web service test object use ‘WebService(<Test Object>), and you can access any of the operations available.

so as of now, we have seen that we add a test object in the repository and can do further processing. Let’s now see how can test a web service without adding the test object in the repository.

A web service test object requires three main description properties to invoke a method. Which are –

1. WSDL
2. Service and
3. Port

Refer object repository for already added test object

if we can define these in the script we will be able to access the methods of web services.

WebService(“wsdl:=<your wsdl>”,”service:=<your service>”,”port:=<your port>”)

So in order to invoke the method CelsiusToFahrenheit from the WSDL used in earlier parts you can have the statement in the script as –

Desc1 = "wsdl:=http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/tempconvert.asmx?wsdl" Desc2 = "service:=TempConvert" Desc3 = "port:=TempConvertSoap" ' Call to the WebService Fahrenheitval = WebService(Desc1, Desc2, Desc3).CelsiusToFahrenheit("25") msgbox Fahrenheitval

Which gives you the required output as 77.

All the other available operations can be carried out with this approach.

Web Services and QTP- Part4: Testing without Web Services Add-in

Advanced Concepts, Web Services

Yes, you got it right testing Web services can be done without using Web services add-in. All this is possible with the help of WinHTTP(Microsoft Windows HTTP service), which provides a high-level interface to the HTTP internet protocol.

We can use the com object WinHTTPRequest in our tests in order to invoke any operation to a web service. We will need to post the SOAP request to the web server using methods and properties ofWinHTTPRequest and we can get the corresponding response from the service.

Let us now try this out, open QTP and make sure you have not enabled Web Services Add-in in Add-in manager at startup.To retrieve the COM object of WinHTTP we use CreateObject method

Dim oWinHttp Set oWinHttp = CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1")

Now you can access the different properties and methods of WinHTTPRequest. I have explained some of them which we will need to use here.

Object.Open Method,URL,Async
Open – opens a connection to an HTTP resource.
Method – specifies the HTTP verb used for the open method, like ‘GET’,’PUT’,’POST’ etc
URL – the name of the resource
Async – indicates whether to open in asynchronous mode.

Object.SetRequestHeader Header,Value
SetRequestHeader – adds, changes, or deletes an HTTP request header
Header Specifies the name of the header to be set like depth,Content type, Content length etc.
Value specified the value of header.

Object.Send Body 
Send – sends an HTTP request to an HTTP server.
Body – is the data to be sent to the server.

We will use one property ‘ResponseText’ here which retrieves the responses entity body as text. Now as we are now aware of these methods, we can use this in our script. Below example script illustrate the accessing of web services using WinHTTP.

Option Explicit Dim sWebServiceURL, sContentType, sSOAPAction, sSOAPRequest Dim oWinHttp Dim sResponse 'Web Service URL sWebServiceURL ="http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/tempconvert.asmx" 'Web Service Content Type sContentType ="text/XML" 'Web Service SOAP Action sSOAPAction = "http://tempuri.org/CelsiusToFahrenheit" 'Request Body sSOAPRequest = "<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>" & _ "<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">" & _ "<soap:Body>" & _ "<CelsiusToFahrenheit xmlns="http://tempuri.org/">" & _ "<Celsius>25</Celsius>" & _ "</CelsiusToFahrenheit>" & _ "</soap:Body>" & _ "</soap:Envelope>" Set oWinHttp = CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1") 'Open HTTP connection oWinHttp.Open "POST", sWebServiceURL, False 'Setting request headers oWinHttp.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", sContentType oWinHttp.setRequestHeader "SOAPAction", sSOAPAction 'Send SOAP request oWinHttp.Send  sSOAPRequest 'Get XML Response sResponse = oWinHttp.ResponseText ' Close object Set oWinHttp = Nothing ' Extract result Dim nPos1, nPos2 nPos1 = InStr(sResponse, "Result>") + 7 nPos2 = InStr(sResponse, "</") If nPos1 > 7 And nPos2 > 0 Then     sResponse = Mid(sResponse, nPos1, nPos2 - nPos1) End If ' Return result msgbox sResponse

This gives you the required expected value

 

The same we can do using XMLHTTP also, see the example below which illustrate the accessing of web services using XMLHTTP

Option Explicit Dim sWebServiceURL, sContentType, sSOAPAction, sSOAPRequest Dim oDom, oXmlHttp Dim sResponse sWebServiceURL ="http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/tempconvert.asmx" 'Web Service URL sContentType ="text/XML" 'Web Service Content Type sSOAPAction = "http://tempuri.org/CelsiusToFahrenheit" ' Web Service SOAP Action 'Request Body sSOAPRequest = "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>" & _ "<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">" & _ "<soap:Body>" & _ "<CelsiusToFahrenheit xmlns="http://tempuri.org/">" & _ "<Celsius>25</Celsius>" & _ "</CelsiusToFahrenheit>" & _ "</soap:Body>" & _ "</soap:Envelope>" 'Create objects to DOMDocument and XMLHTTP Set oDom = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument") Set oXmlHttp = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP") 'Load XML oDom.async = False oDom.loadXML sSOAPRequest 'Open the webservice  oXmlHttp.open "POST", sWebServiceURL, False 'Create headings oXmlHttp.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", sContentType oXmlHttp.setRequestHeader "SOAPAction", sSOAPAction 'Send XML command oXmlHttp.send oDom.xml 'Get XML Response sResponse = oXmlHttp.ResponseText 'Close object Set oXmlHttp = Nothing 'Extract result Dim nPos1, nPos2 nPos1 = InStr(sResponse, "Result>") + 7 nPos2 = InStr(sResponse, "</") If nPos1 > 7 And nPos2 > 0 Then  sResponse = Mid(sResponse, nPos1, nPos2 - nPos1) End If 'Return result msgbox sResponse

Option Explicit Dim sWebServiceURL, sContentType, sSOAPAction, sSOAPRequest Dim oWinHttp Dim sResponse sWebServiceURL ="http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/tempconvert.asmx" 'Web Service URL sContentType ="text/XML" 'Web Service Content Type sSOAPAction = "http://tempuri.org/CelsiusToFahrenheit" ' Web Service SOAP Action 'Request Body sSOAPRequest = "<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8""?>" & _ "<soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns:xsd=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"" xmlns:soap=""http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"">" & _ "<soap:Body>" & _ "<CelsiusToFahrenheit xmlns=""http://tempuri.org/"">" & _ "<Celsius>25</Celsius>" & _ "</CelsiusToFahrenheit>" & _ "</soap:Body>" & _ "</soap:Envelope>" Set oWinHttp = CreateObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1") 'Open HTTP connection oWinHttp.Open "POST", sWebServiceURL, False 'Setting request headers oWinHttp.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", sContentType oWinHttp.setRequestHeader "SOAPAction", sSOAPAction 'Send SOAP request oWinHttp.Send  sSOAPRequest 'Get XML Response sResponse = oWinHttp.ResponseText ' Close object Set oWinHttp = Nothing ' Extract result Dim nPos1, nPos2 nPos1 = InStr(sResponse, "Result>") + 7 nPos2 = InStr(sResponse, "</") If nPos1 > 7 And nPos2 > 0 Then sResponse = Mid(sResponse, nPos1, nPos2 - nPos1) End If ' Return result msgbox sResponse

Have you downloaded the FREE Optimizing QTP eBook yet?