Functional Testing of Web Services

Yury Makedonov p.
1 of 12
Functional Testing of Web Services
Yury Makedonov, CGI
2004 International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

© Copyright 2004 – CGI Group Inc. September 22, 2003
September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 1
Agenda
¾ Why we are getting more and more
web services testing
¾ What are web services
¾ What is XML
¾ How to test web services

¾ Test Approach
¾ Tools
¾ Summary
¾ Q&A
¾ Intended audience:
Testers without development background
International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

Yury Makedonov p. 2 of 12
Introduction
¾ Webservices have no GUI. Typically this type of

testing is performed by developers.
¾ Independent testing teams started getting more and
more webservices testing projects
¾ Why are webservices so special?
Why web services?
¾ Web services are a simple interface using HTTP

protocol.
¾ Web services can be:
¾ developed by one company,
¾ used by another company, and
¾ hosted by a third company.
¾ Such involvement of several companies is a

business cases for independent testing of web
services.

What are web services?
¾ What’s in the name Web Services?

¾ Web means HTTP protocol,
¾ Services means request – response.
¾ Web services is a stateless protocol

¾ we send a request,
¾ we receive a response,
¾ we are finished.
¾ Why is this so important from testing point of view?

¾ Because we can prepare independent test cases that are
separate files. This makes our test approach relatively
simple.
XML
¾ Web services use XML encoded data (XML files) for

communication.
¾ What is XML?
¾ XML file is a text file that uses tags, similar to HTML
tags, to describe data.
¾ Why is this so important from testing point of view?
¾ Because our test cases (files) should be in XML format.

Examples of XML tags
¾ Examples of XML tags from auto insurance:

¾ <DateFirstLicensed>1990-06-12</DateFirstLicensed>
¾ <DateOfBirth>1969-07-21</DateOfBirth>
¾ <DriverTraining>Y</DriverTraining>
…………………………………………
These samples are pretty intuitive.
¾ Examples of blank XML tags (value not specified):

¾ <Company/>
¾ <Department></Department>
More XML details – document definition
¾ Every XML document has to have a certain structure

and certain values of parameters.
¾ Special files, defining XML documents, are used.
Two major types are:
¾ DTD (Document Type Definition) – flat text file,
¾ XSD (XML Schema Definition) – XML based definition.

Sample – “Document Type Definition”
¾ Note.xml:
¾ <?xml version="1.0"?>
¾ <!DOCTYPE note SYSTEM "note.dtd">
¾ <note>
¾ <to>Tove</to>
¾ <from>Jani</from>
¾ <body>Don't forget me this weekend</body>
¾ </note>
¾ Note.dtd:
¾ <!ELEMENT note (to,from,body)>
¾ <!ELEMENT to (#PCDATA)>
¾ <!ELEMENT from (#PCDATA)>
¾ <!ELEMENT body (#PCDATA)>
Sample – “Schema Definition” – Document
¾ Note.xml:
¾ <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
¾ <ServiceAddressRequest
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="Note.xsd">
¾ <note>
¾ <to>Tove</to>
¾ <from>Jani</from>
¾ <body>Don't forget me this weekend</body>
¾ </note>

Sample – “Schema Definition” – Schema

¾ Note.xsd:
¾ <?xml version="1.0"?>
¾ <xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
¾. . . . . . . . .. . . .
¾ <xs:element name="note">
¾ <xs:complexType>
¾ <xs:sequence>
¾ <xs:element name="to" type="xs:string"/>
¾ <xs:element name="from" type="xs:string"/>
¾ <xs:element name="body" type="xs:string"/>
¾ </xs:sequence>
¾ </xs:complexType>
¾ </xs:element>
¾ </xs:schema>
SOAP
¾ SOAP = Simple Object Access Protocol:

¾ A SOAP envelope:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<soap:Envelope
xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
<soap:Body>
<gs:doGoogleSearch xmlns:gs="urn:GoogleSearch">
........
<start>0</start>
<maxResults>10</maxResults>
<filter>true</filter>
.........
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>>

How to learn XML

¾ Do we need to know all intricacies of XML, DTD, and
XML schemas to start testing of web services?
¾ No!
¾ With basic XML principles, described above, you can
start development of XML test data files!
¾ I recommend an approach for XML learning:
¾ Get sample XML files with corresponding DTD or XSD files
for your new webservices project.
¾ Go through major elements and try matching definitions from
DTD/XSD and corresponding XML data.
¾ Use web sites (e.g. http://www.w3schools.com) or XML books
as additional sources of information.
Testing web services – Test Approach
¾ When testing webservices we use the same approach

as for any other testing project:
¾ identify requirements,
¾ Prepare high level test cases,
¾ Document detailed test cases, etc.
¾ What would be an outcome of a test planning phase:
¾ a set of test cases described in plain English language and
based on a requirements document,
¾ a corresponding set of XML files.

Sample test case
¾ Requirement:
¾ “Location type” can be blank in a request
¾ Test case brief description:

¾ “Location type” is blank in a request
¾ XML test data file:

.......
<locationInfo>
<locationType></locationType>
<locationVal>1600</locationVal>
</locationInfo>
.......
How to prepare XML test files
¾ How to prepare XML test files:

¾ We have to get a sample XML file from a software developer
and to enter our values of parameters.
¾ This is not so terribly different from a standard GUI testing.
¾ The only difference:
we have to enter our data into “fields” of XML document
instead of fields of GUI.
¾ We have to follow a standard testing procedure,

familiar to every black box tester and to use standard
testing techniques when testing Web Services:
¾ valid and invalid data,
¾ boundary values,
¾ equivalence partitioning, etc.

Tools – to prepare XML test files
¾ What tools to use for XML files preparation:

¾ Whatever you have,
¾ from Notepad
¾ and Microsoft Word
¾ to XMLSpy
¾ My favorite tools are:

¾ Notepad (or TextPad for bigger files)
¾ XMLSpy
Tools – to execute a test
¾ We have prepared a set of XML files that represent

our test cases.
¾ Next step is to process these files.
¾ To process XML files (XML requests) we need:
¾ to POST an XML file (to send it to a specific URL and port),
¾ to capture an XML response and to save it into a file.
¾ We need a tool to do this.

Tools – to execute a test
¾ Load Testing tools

¾ Natural choice is any load testing tool, designed to handle
HTTP traffic.
¾ XMLSpy.
¾ XMLSpy can POST a SOAP document and capture a
response.
¾ Custom tools/script:
¾ A Perl script or a Java program can be developed to send a
request and to capture a response.
¾ Empirix eTest:
¾ Commercials tool to test SOAP based web services.
¾ Many more options.
Analyzing results
¾ After we have XML response files we have to

compare them against expected results, described in
our test cases.
¾ Typically we have to verify values in some specified
fields.
¾ That task is not so different from a standard GUI
testing.

Regression testing
¾ In case of a regression testing we can use a less time

consuming approach.
¾ We can automatically compare a new set of XML
responses to a previous set, using:
¾ WinDiff.exe,
¾ XMLSpy,
¾ MS Windows commands: “Comp” or “fc”
Summary
¾ Testing of web services is not so different from a

standard GUI testing,
¾ New skills to learn are relatively simple (half a day or a
day to learn),
¾ Typical testing team already has most skills and
knowledge required for this type of testing,
¾ Testing web services can bring additional job and
visibility to an independent test team.
¾ Let’s leverage our skills and knowledge to a new field.
¾ Let’s test web services.

Contact Information
¾ Yury Makedonov
(416) 481-8685
ivm@ivm-s.com
http://www.ivm-s.com
References
¾ The above examples are from:

CGI projects
http://www.w3schools.com,
http://www.intertwingly.net/stories/2002/12/20/sbe.html
¾ You can find more information on XML on these and
many other web sites.

Functional Testing of Web Services

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Yury Makedonov p.

Functional Testing of Web Services

Yury Makedonov, CGI

2004 International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

¾ What are web services

¾ How to test web services

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 2

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

¾ Webservices have no GUI. Typically this type of

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 3

Why web services?

¾ Web services are a simple interface using HTTP

¾ Such involvement of several companies is a

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 4

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

What are web services?

¾ What’s in the name Web Services?

¾ Web services is a stateless protocol

¾ Why is this so important from testing point of view?

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 5

¾ Web services use XML encoded data (XML files) for

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 6

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

Examples of XML tags

¾ Examples of XML tags from auto insurance:

¾ Examples of blank XML tags (value not specified):

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 7

More XML details – document definition

¾ Every XML document has to have a certain structure

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 8

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

Sample – “Document Type Definition”

Sample – “Schema Definition” – Document

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 10

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

Sample – “Schema Definition” – Schema

¾ SOAP = Simple Object Access Protocol:

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 12

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

How to learn XML

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 13

Testing web services – Test Approach

¾ When testing webservices we use the same approach

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 14

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

Sample test case

¾ Test case brief description:

¾ XML test data file:

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 15

How to prepare XML test files

¾ How to prepare XML test files:

¾ We have to follow a standard testing procedure,

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 16

International Quality Conference, Toronto, Ontario, Canada September 22, 2004

Tools – to prepare XML test files

¾ What tools to use for XML files preparation:

¾ My favorite tools are:

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 17

Tools – to execute a test

¾ We have prepared a set of XML files that represent

¾ We need a tool to do this.

September 22, 2004 Functional Testing of Web Services, QAI Conference 18