Service testing guidelines

Before you can test a service, you must set up your test environment and incorporate these guidelines in order to produce reliable tests.

Test prerequisites

Before creating service tests, you might need to perform some initial tasks. These tasks depend on the transport and security protocols that are implemented by the web service under test.
  • HTTP: This transport method is supported by default; no additional configuration is required.
  • SSL: The workspace must contain the certificate keystore (JKS) files that are required for single or double authentication.
  • Java™ Message Service (JMS): The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) syntax must be compatible with the requirements of the product. Refer to Verifying WSDL syntax compliance for JMS services.

Test generation

When the test is generated, message call envelopes are created according to the XML schema definition (XSD). During this process, mandatory fields are created, and default choices are assumed. You can modify these elements in the test editor.
Note: During recording, you might supply authentication details which are not relevant for the actual application under test. To exclude such actions from the generated test, in Window > Preferences > Test > Test editor > Service test ensure that the Display the 'Skip if Empty' column in XML tree viewer check box is selected. To select the empty XML elements that you want to skip, in the test editor, select the elements in the Skip if empty column.

Encryption and security

The Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) that the product uses must support the level of encryption required by the digital certificate that you select. For example, you cannot use a digital certificate that requires 256-bit encryption with a JRE that supports only 128-bit encryption. By default, the product is configured with restricted or limited strength ciphers. To use less restricted encryption algorithms, you must download and apply the unlimited jurisdiction policy files (local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar).

For Oracle Java, download the files from this site:http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jce8-download-2133166.html.

Before installing these policy files, back up the existing policy files in case you want to restore the original files later. Then overwrite the files in /jre/lib/security/ directory with the unlimited jurisdiction policy files.

SSL Authentication

Service tests support simple or double SSL authentication mechanisms:

  • Simple authentication (server authentication): In this case, the test client needs to determine whether the service can be trusted. You do not need to setup a key store. If you select the Always trust option, you do not need to provide a server certificat key store.

    If you want to really authenticate the service, you can configure an certificate trust store, which contains the certificates of trusted services. In this case, the test will expect to receive a valid certificate.

  • Double authentication (client and server authentication): In this case, the service needs to authenticate the test client according to its root authority. You must provide the client certificate keystore that needs to be produced to authenticate the test as a certified client.

When recording a service test through a proxy, the recording proxy sits between the service and the client. In this case, you must configure the SSL settings of the recording proxy to authenticate itself as the actual service to the client (for simple authentication), and as the client to the service (for double authentication). This means that you must supply the recording proxy with the adequate certificates.

When using stub services, you can also configure the SSL settings of the stub service to authenticate itself as the actual server. This means that you must supply the service stub with the adequate certificate.

NTLM and Kerberos Authentication

The product supports Microsoft™ NT LAN Manager (NTLMv1 and NTLMv2) and Kerberos authentication. The authentication information is recorded as part of the test during the recording phase.

To enable NTLMv2 support, you must add a third party library to the workbench. For more information, see Configuring the workbench for NTLMv2 authentication.

Digital certificates

You can test services with digital certificates for both SSL and SOAP security protocol. Digital certificates must be contained in Java™ Key Store (JKS) keystore resources that are accessible in the workspace. When dealing with keystore files, you must set the password required to access the keys both in the security editor and the test editor. For SOAP security you might have to provide an explicit name for the key and provide a password to access the private keys in the keystore.

Limitations

Arrays are not supported.

Because of a lack of specification, attachments are not supported with the Java™ Message Service (JMS) transport. The envelope is directly sent using UTF-8 encoding.

All security algorithms are not always available for every Java™ Runtime Environment (JRE) implementation. If a particular security implementation is not available, add the required libraries to the class path of the JRE that this product uses.

The generic service tester displays the envelope as reflected in the XML document. However, security algorithms consider the envelope as a binary. Therefore, you must set up the SOAP security configuration so that incoming and outgoing messages are correctly encrypted but remain decrypted inside the test.

Performance

Virtual user performance depends on the implementation of the container application. For an HTTP transport, the product has been tested with a maximum of 900 concurrent virtual users under Windows™ and 600 under Linux™. For JMS, the maximum is 100 concurrent virtual users, although this number can vary due to the asynchronous implementation of JMS. Beyond these values, connection errors might occur and the transaction rate will decrease.