2012 10 23_3115_rational_integration_tester_tr

Rational Integration Tester
Training Guide

Note
Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in “Notices”
on page 132.

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2001, 2012.

RATIONAL INTEGRATION TESTER TRAINING GUIDE

1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 4
2 CONFIGURING RATIONAL INTEGRATION TESTER ........................................................................ 5
2.1 PRE-REQUISITES............................................................................................................... 5
2.2 THE LIBRARY MANAGER .................................................................................................... 5
2.3 CONFIGURING THE LIBRARY MANAGER FOR WEBSPHERE APPLICATION SERVER AND MQ ...... 6
2.4 ADDING THE INTERCEPT DLL ............................................................................................. 7
3 RATIONAL INTEGRATION TESTER PROJECT SETUP .................................................................... 8
3.1 THE INITIAL SCREEN ......................................................................................................... 8
3.2 CREATING A NEW PROJECT ............................................................................................... 9
3.3 EXERCISE: CREATING THE TRAINING PROJECT .................................................................. 10
3.4 RATIONAL INTEGRATION TESTER LAYOUT .......................................................................... 14
3.5 RATIONAL INTEGRATION TESTER PERSPECTIVES ............................................................... 15
4 MODELING THE SYSTEM......................................................................................................... 16
4.1 PERSPECTIVE OVERVIEW ................................................................................................ 16
4.2 WORKING IN MULTIPLE ENVIRONMENTS ............................................................................ 16
4.3 LOGICAL VIEW ................................................................................................................ 17
4.4 EXERCISE: SETTING UP THE LOGICAL VIEW FOR A SIMPLE SYSTEM ..................................... 19
4.5 PHYSICAL VIEW .............................................................................................................. 22
4.6 EXERCISE: SETTING UP PHYSICAL VIEW FOR A SIMPLE SYSTEM ......................................... 22
4.7 ENVIRONMENTS .............................................................................................................. 22
4.8 EXERCISE: CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT ........................................................................... 22
4.9 EXERCISE: SCHEMA LIBRARY ........................................................................................... 24
4.10 EXERCISE: THE MESSAGE EXCHANGE PATTERN (MEP) ................................................. 25
5 THE DEMONSTRATION ENVIRONMENT ..................................................................................... 27
5.1 MANAGING FLIGHT BOOKINGS.......................................................................................... 27
5.2 FINDING AND BOOKING HOTELS ....................................................................................... 28
5.3 FLIGHT ADMINISTRATION ................................................................................................. 28
6 USING SYSTEM DATA TO BUILD A SYSTEM MODEL .................................................................. 30
6.1 OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 30
6.2 SYNCHRONISATION OVERVIEW ......................................................................................... 30
6.3 BUILDING A MODEL FROM RECORDED EVENTS .................................................................. 31
6.4 RECORDING MQ MESSAGES............................................................................................ 31
6.5 EXERCISE: SETTING UP THE TRANSPORTS ........................................................................ 32
6.6 EXERCISE: ADDING THE FLIGHT BOOKING MESSAGE SCHEMAS .......................................... 37

Page 1 of 133 © IBM Corporation 2001, 2012


7 REQUIREMENTS LIBRARY ....................................................................................................... 38
7.1 OVERVIEW ..................................................................................................................... 38
7.2 THE MESSAGE EDITOR .................................................................................................... 38
7.3 EXERCISE: IMPORTING MESSAGES ................................................................................... 39
7.4 CREATING MESSAGES FROM A SCHEMA ............................................................................ 40
8 RECORDING EVENTS ............................................................................................................. 43
8.1 THE RECORDING STUDIO................................................................................................. 43
8.2 EXERCISE: RECORDING EVENTS FROM A TRANSPORT ........................................................ 44
8.3 EXERCISE: BUILDING OPERATIONS FROM RECORDED EVENTS ............................................ 46
8.4 EXERCISE: COMPLETING THE SYSTEM MODEL ................................................................... 52
8.5 EXERCISE: RECORDING EVENTS FROM AN OPERATION ...................................................... 53
8.6 EXERCISE: CREATING AND RUNNING TRIGGERS ................................................................ 56
9 CREATING AND EDITING TESTS .............................................................................................. 58
9.1 TEST STRUCTURE ........................................................................................................... 58
9.2 BUSINESS VIEW AND TECHNICAL VIEW ............................................................................. 59
9.3 EXERCISE: CREATING TESTS FROM RECORDED EVENTS .................................................... 59
9.4 THE MEP WIZARD .......................................................................................................... 64
9.5 EXERCISE: CREATING TESTS WITH THE MEP WIZARD........................................................ 65
9.6 COPYING AND LINKING REQUIREMENTS ............................................................................ 68
9.7 TEST TEMPLATES ........................................................................................................... 69
9.8 EXERCISE: CREATING A TEST FROM A TEMPLATE .............................................................. 69
10 TEST EXECUTION ............................................................................................................... 71
10.1 THE TEST LAB ............................................................................................................. 71
10.2 EXERCISE: RUNNING A TEST ........................................................................................ 71
10.3 EXERCISE: REPAIRING TESTS ....................................................................................... 72
10.4 EXERCISE: THE RULE CACHE ....................................................................................... 75
11 CREATING AND RUNNING A STUB ........................................................................................ 77
11.1 EXERCISE: CREATING A STUB FROM RECORDED EVENTS ................................................. 77
11.2 EXERCISE: EXECUTING A STUB FROM RATIONAL INTEGRATION TESTER ............................ 79
11.3 EXERCISE: MODIFYING THE STUB ON THE FLY................................................................. 80
12 TEST AUTOMATION ............................................................................................................ 83
12.1 TEST SUITES ............................................................................................................... 83
12.2 EXERCISE: CREATING AND EXECUTING A TEST SUITE ..................................................... 83
12.3 RESULTS GALLERY ...................................................................................................... 85



12.4 EXERCISE: VIEWING RESULTS ...................................................................................... 86
13 STORING AND MANIPULATING DATA .................................................................................... 88
13.1 TAGS AND THE TAG DATA STORE .................................................................................. 88
13.2 CREATING TAGS .......................................................................................................... 89
13.3 USING TAGS................................................................................................................ 91
13.4 EXERCISE: TESTING WITH TAGS .................................................................................... 91
13.5 DATA SOURCES........................................................................................................... 92
13.6 EXERCISE: DATA DRIVEN TESTING ................................................................................ 92
14 REPEATING ELEMENTS ....................................................................................................... 97
14.1 OVERVIEW .................................................................................................................. 97
14.2 EXERCISE: PUBLISHING A SET OF ORDERS .................................................................... 99
15 TEST ACTIONS ................................................................................................................. 104
15.1 TEST ACTION SUMMARY............................................................................................. 104
15.2 EXERCISE: RUN COMMAND ........................................................................................ 107
15.3 EXERCISE: LOG ......................................................................................................... 108
15.4 EXERCISE: LOOKUP TEST DATA .................................................................................. 109
15.5 FAILURE PATH AND PASS/FAIL .................................................................................... 111
15.6 EXERCISE: USING FAILURE PATHS .............................................................................. 112
16 INTERACTING WITH DATABASES ........................................................................................ 115
16.1 EXERCISE: CREATING A DATABASE COMPONENT MANUALLY .......................................... 115
16.2 EXERCISE: SQL COMMAND ........................................................................................ 117
16.3 EXERCISE: COLUMN AND CELL VALIDATIONS ............................................................... 117
17 RUN TEST ....................................................................................................................... 120
17.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 120
17.2 EXERCISE: CREATING THE CHILD TEST......................................................................... 120
17.3 EXERCISE: CREATING THE PARENT TEST..................................................................... 121
17.4 EXERCISE: PASSING DATA BETWEEN THE TESTS .......................................................... 122
18 MONITORING LOG FILES ................................................................................................... 124
18.1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................ 124
18.2 EXERCISE: LOOKING FOR ERROR MESSAGES............................................................... 124
19 ADVANCED STUBS ........................................................................................................... 127
19.1 EXERCISE: PARAMETERIZED STUBS ............................................................................ 127
20 LEGAL NOTICES............................................................................................................... 132



1 Introduction

This document serves as a training manual to help familiarize the user with the functionality
present in IBM® Rational® Integration Tester. Most of the training exercises make use of a variety
of technologies, including IBM WebSphere® Application Server, IBM WebSphere MQ, IBM DB2®,
and web services. It is assumed that the reader has a fair understanding of these systems.

The main objectives of this training course are to present the various functionalities of Rational
Integration Tester and how best to use them in testing Message Oriented Middleware applications.
In this course we will:

 Walk you through the installation of Rational Integration Tester on your PC
 Present the various perspectives in Rational Integration Tester and how and when they are
used
 Demonstrate how Rational Integration Tester can facilitate testing of services in a message
oriented middleware architecture by
o Providing a graphical interfaces for the display and creation of messages
o Automatically comparing a received response with a pre‐programmed one to ensure
they match
o Allowing the running of a test to be repeated over and over with little manual
intervention
o Exposing the details of the process to provide better information from the test team
to the development team, enabling test failures to be examined in detail
 Create and run automated tests and test suites
 Illustrate the ease of message data manipulation to facilitate testing by using various test
actions
 Build stubs and triggers, which are a vital part of integration projects
 Produce detailed reports on test suites

Before we dive into this training course, please make sure you have all the correct files in place.
 If you are using a cloud instance, the training files should be located on the desktop
 Otherwise, your instructor will let you know where to find any required files.



2 Configuring Rational Integration Tester
2.1 Pre‐requisites
If you are using a cloud instance, skip to section 2.3.
If you need to install Rational Integration Tester, please make sure that the following prerequisites
are in place:
 Rational Integration Tester project database – note that this can be shared between multiple
people. The database can be set up using one of the following:
o MySQL 5.0.1 or higher and MySQL 5.1.x
o Oracle 9.2i, 10g, or 11g
o MS SQL Server 2005
 Java 7
o The IBM JRE is included and installed with the Rational Integration Tester. The JRE is
installed in the Rational Integration Tester installation directory and is used only
when Rational Integration Tester is executed. The JRE does not affect the registry or
any other programs on the system.
 Microsoft Excel 2003 or newer (or equivalent)

2.2 The Library Manager
The Library Manager is the main configuration tool for Rational Integration Tester. It provides the
necessary tools to set up connections to the wide variety of technologies supported by Rational
Integration Tester, and set up other configuration options as required.
Rational Integration Tester supports a number of technologies out of the box – web services, email,
and a number of databases. However, connections to a number of other proprietary technologies
will require external Java libraries, which are normally supplied within the installation files of that
software.
If that software is installed on the same machine as Rational Integration Tester, then the Library
Manager may be used to point Rational Integration Tester towards the installed location of the
required libraries. Otherwise, those libraries can be copied across to the local machine, and the
Library Manager used to locate the local copies of those files. If you do not go through this
procedure, you will find that Rational Integration Tester will generate errors when you attempt to
connect using any technologies that have not been set up correctly.
Regardless of the technologies that you plan to test with Rational Integration Tester, you will need
to run the Library Manager once on any machine that has a copy of Rational Integration Tester. This
will allow the Library Manager to perform extra setup tasks, such as creating Rational Integration
Tester’s home directory.



Any changes made in the Library Manager will not take effect until the next time you start Rational
Integration Tester. This means that if you are running Rational Integration Tester while making
changes in the Library Manager, you will need to restart Rational Integration Tester.
We will now look at an example use of the Library Manager – setting up connections to Java
libraries for the IBM WebSphere Application Server and WebSphere MQ tools.

2.3 Configuring the Library Manager for WebSphere Application Server and MQ
Depending on the version of WebSphere Application Server and MQ, specific product libraries are
required. Please make sure that you have configured Library Manager with the right libraries. This
has already been set up for any cloud instances.
1. In the Library Manager, click on the IBM WebSphere Application Server item on the left
hand side. You will now see a list of providers, for each supported version of the Websphere
Application Server.

2. In the Providers section on the right hand side, select version 8.0 of WebSphere Application
Server.
3. Go down to the Settings section, and make sure that each of the necessary .jars has been
found. If not, select each one in turn, pressing the Edit button to locate the .jars. If necessary,
your instructor will be able to provide you with a copy of each file.
4. Next, you will need to do the same for IBM WebSphere MQ 7.0.



2.4 Adding the Intercept DLL
There are several ways that we can set up recording for WebSphere MQ. During this training
course, we will be using the intercept dll provided by Rational Integration Tester. This will allow us
to view and record messages sent to any queue on the MQ server. If you are using a cloud instance,
this has already been done for you.
Please view section 6 of the rit_wmq_ref.pdf plugin guide for instructions on how to configure this.



3 Rational Integration Tester Project Setup
3.1 The Initial Screen
Once configuration of our system is complete, we’re ready to launch Rational Integration Tester
and create a new project. Launching Rational Integration Tester will bring up the following screen:

If you are running Rational Integration Tester on your local machine, you will need to make sure
you have a license at this stage – cloud instances should already have a license installed for you. For
more information on licensing, please ask your trainer, or view section 2.2 of the rit_ins.pdf
installation guide.
Once licensing is sorted out, you have several options. From top to bottom:
 New Project – allows you to create a project.
 Clone Project – creates a copy of any Rational Integration Tester project.
 Fetch Project from Source Control – Check out a project from a source control system, and
open it. Note that you will need to configure Rational Integration Tester to communicate
with your source control system before doing this. See the rit_scm_ref.pdf plugin guide for
more information.



 Open Link – follows a link taken from the Test Lab to navigate to the results of a test or test
suite.
 Open an existing project – opens an existing project, either from the list of recent projects
shown by Rational Integration Tester, or by browsing to a .ghp file.

3.2 Creating a New Project
Creating a new project goes through 4 stages. These are:
1. Setting the project name and location
2. Connecting to external servers
3. Setting up user‐based permissions
4. Setting up change management integration
Only the first step is compulsory; the others are optional, but can be edited later from within the
project. If you need to edit any of these settings after the project has been created, you can do it
through the Project Settings dialog (found in the Project menu of Rational Integration Tester).
That said, filling out the server settings listed in the second stage of the project creation process
will normally be very useful, and we will be supplying that information for the examples used in
this course.
The first of these settings is for a project database, which we will be using during this training
course. The project database provides the ability to record and view historical test results – without
this, you will only be able to view results from the current session. It also provides the ability to
record logging data from any stubs that you use. Scripts are provided with Rational Integration
Tester to help you set up and configure a project database, which may be a MySQL, MS SQL, or
Oracle database. Once it is set up, the database may be shared across multiple users and multiple
projects.
The other server settings available are for RTCP and the Results Server (legacy users only). RTCP
provides the ability to manage any proxies and agents used by the software; these capabilities can
be used while recording and stubbing. The Results Server setting is used to create links to the
reports held on the server, which should also be connected to your project database; this
functionality is now provided by RTCP, so the Results Server is no longer required, and will not be
used in this project.
As we only have a single user for our example project, we will not configure user‐based
permissions for our project. It will be useful in other projects where it is necessary to restrict access
to a project to certain individuals, or to allow different access levels to the project for different
users. In particular, it will be helpful for projects that implement data masking – permissions will
allow one user to set up masks over certain message fields, so that other users cannot view the
contents of those fields. We will discuss this further in the section on data masking.
Finally, we can configure a connection to change management tools such as JIRA, HP’s Quality
Center, or any Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) compliant change management
system, such as Rational Team Concert. This allows us to link directly into these tools, and raise
defects directly from a test or test suite.



At the end of the wizard, a new project folder will be created within your file system. This folder
will hold all resources – a model of the system under test, along with any tests, stubs or other
resources created for the project. Data files used by your project can also be stored here – this can
help you make your project more portable by including everything in one place. Alternatively, you
might want to include those data files in another location – Rational Integration Tester will be able
to refer to them either way.

3.3 Exercise: Creating the Training project
We will now create a brand new project, which we will continue to use for the duration of this
course:
1. Launch Rational Integration Tester by double‐clicking the IBM Rational Integration Tester
shortcut on your desktop.
2. Rational Integration Tester will launch, displaying the initial screen. Create a new project by
selecting New Project and clicking OK.

3. We can now give our project a name, using the Project Name field. We’ll call our project
WWTravel Testing.



4. If desired, modify the Owner and Comments fields (these are saved with the project and
can be modified later).
5. In the Directory field, enter the full path to the directory where the project should be
created, or click Browse to locate the directory. The selected directory cannot contain an
existing Rational Integration Tester project.
6. When you are satisfied with the project details, click Next. If the selected directory does not
exist, you will be prompted to let Rational Integration Tester create it, or you can go back
and select a different directory.
7. The wizard will now display the Server Settings dialog. At the top of this dialog, there is a
Results Database section, where we can provide connection details for the project
database, which is used to store all of the test data collected by Rational Integration Tester.
A valid database and working connection are required to store or view any historical results
in Rational Integration Tester.
8. Rational Integration Tester will remember the database details that were used previously; if
you are using a cloud instance, this means that you should already have details entered for
you. Otherwise, you will need to enter the Database URL, User Name, and Password. If you
need to re‐enter them, the settings for the databases on the cloud instances are shown
below. Otherwise, ask your trainer.



Settings Value
Database URL jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/projectdb
User Name root
Password root

9. Click on Test Connection. A window should pop up stating that the connection was
successful.
10. Below the database settings, we can connect to the Results Server and RTCP. We will not be
using the Results Server, but RTCP may be needed later on. The default setting here should
be sufficient:

Settings Value
RTCP URL http://localhost:7819/RTCP
Domain Booking System



11. When you are satisfied with the details entered on this screen, click Finish. If user‐based
permissions or connections to change management tools were required, you would need to
choose Next, and then set them up on the following screens.
12. The new project will be opened in Rational Integration Tester. By default, it will display the
Logical View in the Architecture School perspective.



3.4 Rational Integration Tester layout

The main window of Rational Integration Tester is a workbench that contains several dockable
windows. These windows are organized in a logical way, providing an intuitive, easy‐to‐use central
workspace.
Information about your current project can be found in the title bar and status bar. At the top of the
screen, the title bar indicates the name of the current project, along with the current environment.
At the bottom of the screen, the status bar indicates the name of the current test cycle, the current
user, and the memory usage. For the purposes of this manual, we will not need to be concerned
with the information in the status bar, though you may find it useful to keep an eye on the title bar
to check which environment is currently active.



3.5 Rational Integration Tester Perspectives
In the center of the screen is the main workbench of Rational Integration Tester, showing the
current perspective view. The workbench can be viewed from one of six perspectives
, selected from the Perspectives toolbar:
Perspective Icon Description

defines the architecture of the system under test, including
Architecture School
service components as well as logical and physical resources

creates requirements that will help other users to create
Requirements Library
tests and test data more quickly and more accurately

monitors systems and processes to record events that are
Recording Studio
captured by Rational Integration Tester

Test Factory creation of tests, test suites, stubs and test data sets

Test Lab executes resources that are created in the Test Factory

contains historical test data and lets users view various
Results Gallery reports for any stored test run, including performance,
errors, and coverage data

The initial layout of the workbench for each perspective is pre‐determined, and it can be restored at
any time by selecting Window > Reset Current Perspective from the main menu. Many aspects of
the workspace can be customized. Each window can be resized within the workbench by clicking
and dragging on its borders; it can be closed via the button in the top right hand corner and can
be set to automatically hide when not in use with or to remain constantly visible with .



4 Modeling the System
4.1 Perspective Overview
The Architecture School perspective is the default perspective loaded when Rational Integration
Tester is started. This perspective is used for modeling the system in a simple, graphical fashion.
This model is split into several parts. As the model is split into several parts, the Architecture
School perspective is also split into several different views. In addition to these views, we also use
an Environment to bind different parts of the model together.
The views are presented along the bottom of the perspective:
 Logical View
 Physical View
 Synchronisation
 Schema Library
 Data Models
 Rule Cache
For the moment, we’re going to look at an example of a simple system, which will make use of the
first two views, along with Environments, which are used to tie the Logical and Physical views
together. We’ll then move to the Schema Library to set up message formats.

4.2 Working in Multiple Environments
As we move through the lifecycle of a project, testing may be carried out over multiple
environments. For example, we might have a development environment, using development data,
and its own infrastructure. As we move into a formal test phase, we might start to use different
infrastructure components, or different data. Finally, in production, a completely new set of
infrastructure components will be used, and real‐world data will be in use.

This is only a simple example, but it serves to illustrate the problem: if we’re not careful, we could
create tests or stubs that will need to be rebuilt as we move from environment to environment, or
even worse, resources that are not portable at all. Fortunately, Rational Integration Tester provides
a solution to this, by partitioning the model of the system under test. In order to move our
resources across different environments, we will set up the infrastructure of our system in three
sections: Logical View, Physical View, and the Environment.



The Logical View provides us with an abstract view of the system under test, but does not tie us to
using any particular infrastructure. As an example, it will state that a database is required by our
system, but it will not state any more than that – the database URL, connection details, and even the
type of database provider are not specified at this stage.
The Physical View then defines all of the implementation options – so, for our example, we may
have 3 separate databases used across all different environments. All 3 databases would be listed in
the Physical View.
Finally, the Environment binds the logical and physical resources together. At any stage, Rational
Integration Tester can check which environment is being used, and if a reference is found to a
logical infrastructure element, it will use the environment to find the correct physical component.
So, to finish off our example, if we need to access a database within a test or a stub, Rational
Integration Tester will look up the environment to determine which of the 3 databases should be
accessed. If we then move to another environment, Rational Integration Tester will perform the
lookup again, and select the appropriate database.
Of course, this applies to any infrastructure – not just databases, but also web servers, Email
servers, Java Message Service (JMS), or any proprietary technologies.

4.3 Logical View
The Logical View provides an abstract model of the system that we are interacting with. We’re
going to build a simple model here to demonstrate how this works. This model will be made up of
several different elements:

The first object we’ll need to create is a Service Component. Service Components act as containers
for all other elements within the Logical View, and may contain other Service Components to build
up more complex structures.

In most cases, we’ll want to define Operations within a Service Component. Operations define the
functionality of the system. We will be able to create resources based upon the information
provided within each operation.



In order to communicate with the operations available within the system, we’ll also need a set of
Infrastructure Components. These are named components that can be bound to physical resources.
Remembering that Logical View does not contain any concrete details of these components, they
will serve to tell us that there is a JMS server, database, web server, etc., while the Physical View
and Environment will provide more exact information later on.
All of these elements – service components, operations, and infrastructure components ‐ may be
created by pressing Ctrl+N to create a new component, right clicking and using the context menu,
or from the toolbar at the top of the Logical View. In addition, you can use Ctrl+F to find resources
after they have been created.

Finally, we will use Dependencies to link operations to each other, or to infrastructure components.
Outgoing dependencies are displayed in lavender, and incoming dependencies are displayed in
green. Dependencies are only displayed for items in the diagram that are selected. In the example
diagram above, this lets us know that:
 Operation1 has a dependency on Operation2, meaning that Operation1 may call upon
Operation2 (though it might not do so in all circumstances).
 Operation2 has a dependency on the HTTP Connection. This will normally mean that either
we require this HTTP connection to act as the transport for the operation, or that the
operation may need to make use of the HTTP connection itself after it has received a
message.
To create a dependency, we can either draw it using the Add a Dependency button in the
toolbar, or if we are setting up an infrastructure component as the transport, we can do this by
opening up the operation’s properties by double clicking on it, and editing the transport
information within the Message Exchange Pattern tab of the properties window that appears.



The toolbar contains a number of other useful tools, at the right hand side:
Add an External Resource: creates a new External Resource, or Synchronization Source,
within the Logical View, and optionally synchronizes with it. We will discuss

synchronization in detail later on.
Add a Dependency: allows you to draw a dependency between two operations, or from
an operation to an infrastructure component.
Edit Filters: filters determine which dependencies will be shown in the Logical View.
They may be necessary in larger, more complex systems.
Selection mode: puts the cursor into selection mode, where you can select and edit
elements of the model. This is the default cursor mode.
Zoom in: zooms into the diagram. This can also be done with Ctrl+MouseWheelUp.

Zoom out: zooms out of the diagram. This can also be done with
Ctrl+MouseWheelDown.
Zoom area: zooms to fit an area, drawn with the mouse, onto the screen.

Reset Zoom: sets the zoom back to the default level.

Fit to contents: zooms the screen to fit everything contained in the Logical View.

Pan mode: uses the cursor to pan around the screen.

Layout all nodes: automatically rearranges all elements contained in the Logical View, so
that nothing is obscured.
Grid: switches the grid on or off. The default setting is off.

We will now use the elements described above to start building a model of an example system. This
system will contain a single web service. We can use this same process to build a model of any
service oriented architecture. Later on, we will look at more efficient methods to build the model,
though as these are not available in all environments, we’ll look at building everything by hand for
this first example.

4.4 Exercise: Setting up the Logical View for a Simple System
1. Before starting, we’ll need to make sure that the web service we’re modeling is active. On
the Windows desktop, double click the AddNumbersServer.jar to execute it. You should see
the following window appear:



2. Press the Start Service button. The Add Numbers Server window should update so that the
Start Service button is no longer valid:

3. Minimize this window (do not close it), and return to Rational Integration Tester.
4. From the Architecture School perspective, make sure that you are in Logical View using the
tab at the bottom of the screen.
5. The middle of the screen will be blank, as there is currently nothing in our model. To add the
first component of a system, right click and select New > General > Service Component.
When asked for a name, call it AddNumbers. It should then appear in your workspace:

6. Select AddNumbers by clicking on it. The outline should change to orange, to indicate the
selection.
7. Right click on the AddNumbers component, and select New > General > Operation. Call the
operation Addition. Your service component should now look like the following:



8. Similarly, add an infrastructure component called AddNumbersPort, by right clicking and
selecting New > Web > HTTP Connection
9. The logical description of our basic system is nearly complete. We just need to define the
transport information for the Addition operation by tying it to the AddNumbersPort. Double
click on the Addition operation, and take a look at the Message Exchange Pattern tab.
10. Look for the Transport property, and press the Browse… button next to it to select a
transport.
11. In the dialog that appears, select the AddNumbersPort we created earlier. Press OK to return
to the properties of the Addition operation.
12. The Binding section of the dialog will now have been updated to point towards the
AddNumbersPort. A set of HTTP settings will also be available now that we have specified a
HTTP transport. We’ll come back to these settings later – for now, press OK to close the
properties dialog.
13. You should now be able to see the dependency between the operation and the infrastructure
component. Select the Addition operation by clicking on it, and you should see a purple
arrow going from the operation to AddNumbersPort. This indicates that the Addition
operation is dependent on AddNumbersPort.

14. Try navigating around the logical view using the following controls:
o To navigate around the logical view you can use the horizontal and vertical
scrollbars, or press the Pan button and left click on the screen to drag it around.
o To adjust the zoom level you can use either the zoom buttons or hold down the
Ctrl key and use the mouse wheel.
o To move any of the services or components around, ensure the Select Cursor button
is selected, and left click on the service or component you wish to move, and drag
it to the desired location.
o If you ever want to reset the layout of the services and components, then the Layout
All Nodes button will organize them into an efficient layout.
o To set the zoom level so that the entire diagram fits inside the screen, use the Fit to
Contents button .



4.5 Physical View
On its own, the logical view that we’ve created is not enough to fully describe our system. As
mentioned previously, it doesn’t contain information about the address of the server we’re talking
to, or any connection settings that may be required. We’re going to specify this information
separately, in the Physical View.
This view displays available physical resources and their location within the enterprise. Each
resource listed within the Physical View represents a single configuration of an infrastructure
component described in the Logical View.
Resources in this view are organized by subnet and host. If a resource is not associated with a
subnet or host, it will be displayed under Unconnected Resources. We’re going to create the
physical resource for the AddNumbers web service – a simple web server.

4.6 Exercise: Setting up Physical View for a Simple System
1. Switch to Physical View using the tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. We’re going to add a new resource here. Along the top of the perspective, you’ll see a toolbar
containing options for adding new resources from different categories

3. Choose the Web category, and then choose the Web Server option .
4. The New Web Server dialog will appear. Set the Host setting to localhost using Port 8088.
5. Press Test Transport to make sure that you are able to connect properly to the web service.
Once you are satisfied that it is working properly, press OK to close the dialog and save the
new resource.

4.7 Environments
Once we have the logical data, which gives us an abstract model of what infrastructure is required
by our system, and the physical data, which specifies the different configurations available for each
infrastructure component, we then need to match these up. Remembering that this could change
between different stages of the lifecycle of the project, we can use a set of environments to
coordinate this process.
A new project starts without an environment, so we’ll create an initial environment in this exercise.
Other environments could be created subsequently as required. These will allow us to keep using
the same test resources, simply by switching to new environments as they become available.
Environments do not have their own view; instead, there are a number of options in the Project
menu which allow us to access and edit an environment: Create New Environment , Edit
Environments , and Switch to Environment . If you are using the default settings within
Rational Integration Tester, the Title Bar will also show the name of the current environment.

4.8 Exercise: Creating an Environment
1. Select Project > Create New Environment



2. Give the environment a name – for example, Local (most of the environment we’re working
with in this training course will be on the local host).
3. The Environments window will appear. On the left hand side, you can select the
environment to edit. On the right hand side, you can see how this environment is configured.
4. On the right hand side, you should be looking at the Properties tab, which will be empty at
the moment. The properties of an environment are expressed as tags, which will be covered
later in the course. For the moment, we’re not going to need to set up any properties
ourselves.
5. Switch to the Bindings tab. You should see the AddNumbersPort listed here. Note that the
physical connection for it is currently listed as UNBOUND.
6. Click on the UNBOUND setting, and a drop down box should appear, containing the option to
bind the AddNumbersPort to the HTTP Client at localhost. Select the new physical resource
to tell Rational Integration Tester that any messages sent to the AddNumbersPort will be sent
to localhost.

7. Press OK to save your changes and exit the dialog. You should see that the environment
name is now displayed in the Title Bar.

Once an environment has been created, we can also view and edit environmental data directly from
the Logical View. To do this, you can right click on an infrastructure component in Logical View,
and select either Physical Resource, which will show the related physical resource in the current
environment, or select Set Binding In..., which will allow you to set the binding in any
environment. This information can also be seen by opening the infrastructure component by
double clicking on it, and going to the Bindings tab.



4.9 Exercise: Schema Library
We now have most of the information we would need to create a test or stub for this sample web
service. However, we’re still missing information about the format of the messages going to and
from the web service. Most of this information can be provided through the Schema Library.
1. Switch to the Schema Library using the tab at the bottom of the screen.
2. At the top of the perspective, there is a toolbar containing buttons for importing different
types of message schemas. Press the WSDL button.
The New WSDL window will appear.
3. Press Change… to enter the location of our schema definition. The Select Location dialog
box will appear.
4. Select the URL tab, and enter the following URL:
http://localhost:8088/addNumbers?wsdl – note that the URL is case‐sensitive. Press
OK to close the Select Location dialog, and again to close the New WSDL dialog.
5. You can also view the schema information used by the addNumbers service by going to the
same URL with your web browser.
6. Once the schemas have been imported, you can then view them in Rational Integration
Tester. Select WSDLs on the far left of the screen. You will then be able to see the
addNumbers WSDL displayed on the left hand side. Select this WSDL; the details of the
schema should then be shown on the right hand side. The Source tab will give the same
schema information we saw in our web browser.



Note: If you have mistyped the name of the WSDL, you should receive a warning, and the
right hand side of the screen will not show the message schemas. If you end up in this
situation, you can fix it in the following manner:
Amend the location of the WSDL by using the Change… button next to the WSDL Location at
the top of the screen. Following that, press the Rebuild button to rebuild the schema
data.
7. Go to the Config tab to view each individual message type. You can select each message type
using the Operation drop down just under the tabs along the top of the screen. Use this to
view the three message types: addition__INPUT__addition,
addition__OUTPUT__additionResponse, and addition__FAULT__AdditionException.

4.10 Exercise: The Message Exchange Pattern (MEP)
The final stage of building our system model is to state how the operations will make use of the
message schemas that have been provided. We will do this by building up the Message Exchange
Pattern, or MEP, for each operation. The MEP contains information about the input and output
schemas for the operation, whether the messaging pattern is Request/Reply or Publish/Subscribe,
and how the messages will be sent. In order to create a dependency in the Logical View, we have
already set up the transport, stating how messages will be sent to and from our service. To
complete the model of the system under test, we still need to set the rest of the properties of the
MEP.
As we will see later on, setting up the MEP correctly now will allow Rational Integration Tester to
aid us in automatically creating resources for each operation.
1. Return to the Logical View.
2. Double click on the Addition operation to edit it.
3. On the Message Exchange Pattern tab, make sure that the Pattern is set to
Request/Reply.
4. We now need to select the message formats for the request and the reply. On the Request
line, press the Browse… button to select a message format.
5. The Select Schema dialog will appear. It is formatted in much the same way as the Schema
Library. Find and select the addition__INPUT__addition schema, then press Finish.
6. Do the same for the Reply message, selecting the addition__OUTPUT__additionResponse
schema.
7. You will also see tabs towards the bottom of the screen for HTTP Properties and HTTP
Headers. Under the HTTP Properties tab, set the Resource Name to /addNumbers .



8. Press OK to close the Addition operation.
We now have all the information we might need to work with a very simple web service. For more
complex systems, it would be preferable to analyze the system to derive some or all of this
information automatically. We can do this in two ways, depending on the technologies involved –
by synchronizing with the system, or by building a model of the system from recorded events.



5 The Demonstration Environment
Obviously, there is only so much we can do with a simple demo environment like addNumbers. The
Rational Integration Tester training courses use a more complex example, the Worldwide Travel
system. Your instructor may choose to use some or all of these sections during your training course.
So before we can go any further, we need to know how this example system under test fits together.
There are three main sections to the system that we’ll be dealing with: a flight booking system, a
hotel booking system, and a flight administration system.
All three parts of the system are presented to the user through their web browser; the interface is
generated by a Tomcat web server, which connects to the relevant parts of the system as required.
In the background, the following software has been deployed:
 Tomcat 7.0.26
 IBM WebSphere Application Server 8.
 IBM WebSphere MQ 7.
 IBM DB2 9.7 Express Edition.

5.1 Managing Flight Bookings
The Worldwide Travel system lets users book a flight on the fictional airline, Worldwide. Bookings
can also be managed through the interface, allowing users to find, update, and delete existing
bookings.
The implementation for this is split into two parts – the set of services for making bookings, and the
set of services for managing bookings.

When a user makes a booking, Tomcat publishes a message onto a MQ queue, which is then
retrieved by the MakeBooking service running in WebSphere Application Server. This looks at the
credit card type, and posts a message onto a queue for that card type (Global, Multinational, or
Worldwide). A service for that card type, also running on WebSphere Application Server, will then
pick up the message, and process it. In order to process the booking, the service needs to know
what reservation numbers exist, create a new reservation number, and record it for future
reference. All of this is done by referring to a DB2 database which is used to hold booking



information. The reservation number is then passed back to MakeBooking, to Tomcat, and then the
user.
When a user wants to manage a booking, Tomcat will be interacting with a set of web services
implemented by WebSphere Application Server. These services will allow the user to log into the
booking system, search existing bookings, update bookings, or delete them. Searching, updating,
and deleting will access the same database that was used previously for making bookings.

5.2 Finding and Booking Hotels
Following a flight booking, a user may require a hotel in that destination. The HotelFinder web
service allows the user to look up a list of hotels that are available in a particular city between a
given pair of dates. Tomcat can then provide this list to the user. The HotelFinder web service is
hosted by Tomcat itself, rather than running on WebSphere Application Server.

5.3 Flight Administration
On the day of a flight, users from the airline will need to check in passengers. The administration
services allow the user to first search through a list of flights, select a flight, and then select
particular booking on that flight. This is all done by Tomcat, directly accessing the DB2 database
used when creating and managing bookings.
When a passenger is checked in, the airline user will need to check their passport, and update
records accordingly. To do this once a booking has been selected, a message is posted to an MQ
queue in COBOL Copybook format. It is picked up by the flight confirmation service (running as its
own process), which then posts a reply back, also in Copybook format. Tomcat then uses the
information in this reply message to update the database.



6 Using System Data to Build a System Model
6.1 Overview
Obviously, if we wanted to build a larger system such as Worldwide Travel within Rational
Integration Tester by hand, as we did for addNumbers, it would take some time. Instead, depending
on the technologies in use within the system under test, there are two methods of automatically
generating a system model. We can either synchronize our system model with the system under
test, or we may record events within the system, and use these recorded events to build a system
model.

6.2 Synchronisation Overview
The simpler option when building a model of the system under test is synchronization. This process
analyses the services and infrastructure provided by the system, and replicates that within the
Architecture School. This will set up the logical and physical views, an environment, and any
message schemas used by the various services in the system.
In order to do this, Rational Integration Tester requires a valid synchronisation source to exist
within the system under test, so that it can request information on the system. Supported
synchronization sources include:
 WSDL
 webMethods Integration Server
 TIBCO BusinessWorks Project/Design Time Library
 SAP System
 Oracle SCA Domain
Adding any of these to your project will give you the option to synchronise with the data held by
that external resource. To start the synchronisation process, you can add any one of these
infrastructure components to the Logical View of Architecture School, or by switching to
Synchronisation view and adding it there. Either way, the process of adding a synchronization
source will provide the option of synchronising. Multiple synchronisation sources may be added to
the project if required.

Post‐synchronisation, the system under test may change; as this will be recorded within the
synchronisation source, it is possible for Rational Integration Tester to update the project to reflect
these changes. To do this within the Synchronisation view, first press Check Synchronisation –
this will compare the system model within the Rational Integration Tester project against any
synchronisation sources, and display any differences between these. Following on from that, you



can press the Synchronise button, which will then update the Rational Integration Tester
project to resolve these differences.

6.3 Building a Model from Recorded Events
As you can see, while Rational Integration Tester supports a number of synchronization sources,
not all of these will exist in every system. If a system does not have any of the synchronization
sources mentioned above, then there is nothing to refer to when building a model of a system under
test – for example, a JMS‐based system may be able to provide information on the available queues
and topics, but it will not provide any information on the operations that access those resources,
the dependencies between operations, or the message schemas being used. In this case, we may be
able to build a model of the system from recorded data.
This is exactly the sort of situation we’re in with a system based around MQ and WebSphere
Application Server. We don’t have a single source of data that will provide us with information
about the system. Instead, we’ll record data from the transport to build the system. For the
moment, we’ll set up the transport, and import the necessary message schemas. When we move to
the Recording Studio perspective, we’ll record a set of events, and use this information to create a
set of operations.

6.4 Recording MQ Messages
There are several different ways to record messages over the MQ transport – each has their own
advantages and disadvantages. The choices are as follows:
 Queue Browsing
 Proxy Queues
 Mirror Queues
 Dynamic Mirror Queues
 Queue Aliasing
Your choice will depend on several factors. Some methods, such as the use of proxy queues, require
changes to the system under test. Others are invisible to the system under test, but require access
to the MQ server in order to make modifications. Other factors will include determining if the
system under can be stopped temporarily, to ensure that no messages are missed, and connections
can be set up appropriately; and finally, the amount of effort required on the part of the user, and
the impact on the performance of the MQ server. For more information on the pros and cons of each
method, please refer to the Recording Settings section of the document rit_wmq_ref.pdf. In our
example, we will be using dynamic mirror queues, as this requires no modification to the system
under test, and requires a very small amount of setup on the part of the user.
Regardless of the method that you have chosen, the recording setup should look quite similar to the
following:



The client application will communicate via request and reply queues with a given service. Rational
Integration Tester will read the request and response messages being posted to the queues within
the queue manager. While the queue manager may act slightly differently to its usual behavior – for
example, by copying each message to a mirror queue – the messages themselves will be untouched,
and the actions of the system under test should also be unchanged.
Note that we may choose to record just a given service, if we have an operation definition (and so
know which queues to monitor), or we may record all queues within the queue manager by
recording the MQ transport.

6.5 Exercise: Setting up the Transports
In order to record information about the system, we first need to provide some basic information
about the infrastructure of that system. We’ll build this in the Architecture School, in the same
way that we built the addNumbers system previously. It will be very simple at this stage – just a
service component and a few infrastructure components. We’ll then import some message schemas
that we can use within our operations later on.
1. Return to the Logical View of Architecture School, and create a new Service Component.
Call the new service component WWTravel.
2. Right click on the WWTravel service component, and select New > IBM > IBM WebSphere
MQ Queue Manager. Call it WWTravel_MQ.
3. As before, we’ll need to add a physical infrastructure component. We could do this by going
to the Physical View and creating one there, but we’ll take a different approach this time,
which will allow us to create the environmental binding at the same time. Right click on the
WWTravel_MQ infrastructure component, then choose Set Binding In > Local > Create New
IBM WebSphere Queue Manager.



4. As we’re using an MQ server on the local machine, enter localhost as the host. The port
should be 1414.
5. We then need to set up the Channel and Queue Manager. Set the Channel to
wwtravelwebapp and the Queue Manager to QM_wwtravel. The settings for the transport
should be as follows:

6. Press Test Transport to make sure everything is set up correctly so far. After Rational
Integration Tester has reported that it has successfully connected to the MQ server, which
may take a moment, switch to the Recording tab.



7. Under Queue Recording, set the Recording Mode to Dynamic Mirror Queues. All other
settings here can be left at their defaults.
8. Finally, switch to the Advanced tab. Here, set the number of QM Connections to 5. This will
allow us to manage more connections with the queue manager, in case we may be working
on multiple tasks at the same time (e.g., recording and stubbing).



9. Press OK to close the properties for the MQ Queue Manager.
10. As our services will be running on the Websphere Application Server, we’ll want to model
that, too. Also within the WWTravel service component, add a New > IBM > IBM Websphere
Application Server, and call it WWTravel_WAS.
11. As with the MQ Queue Manager, right click on WWTravel_WAS, and select Set Binding In >
Local > Create New IBM WebSphere Application Server.
12. Enter localhost as the Hostname, and 2809 for the Bootstrap Port. Press OK to close the
properties of the WebSphere Application Server.



13. Finally, we’ll add the booking database that will be used by several of the services in our
system. Again within the WWTravel service component, right click and select New > General
> Database Server. Call it WWTravel_DB.
14. Again, right click on the database, and select Set Binding In > Local > Create New
Database.
15. We can now enter the physical properties for our database. First, we’ll need to select the
Driver – in this case, we’re using a DB2 database, so select the IBM DB2 (Universal) driver.
16. As for the other settings, the Maximum Number of Connections should be set to 1, the
Database URL should be jdbc:db2://localhost:50001/WWTRAVEL, the User Name
traveluser, and the Password Pi‐Ev‐G7, as seen below:

17. Press Test Connection to make sure that the database connection is up and running, then
press OK to close the dialog box.
18. Your Logical View should now show the WWTravel service component like so (in addition to
the AddNumbers service component created earlier):

19. Finally, open up the Environment Editor using Project > Edit Environments, and verify
that all of the logical and physical components have been bound correctly:



We have now modeled the basic infrastructure of the Worldwide Travel system. From this point,
we could move directly to recording events from the system, and modeling the operations from
that. We’ll make this a bit easier by importing some message schemas before we begin recording.

6.6 Exercise: Adding the Flight Booking Message Schemas
1. Return to the Schema Library. Here, we need to add three new XML schemas, so press the
XSDs button on the left hand side of the screen to show any available
XSDs – none should be shown at the moment.
2. We could use the XSD button in the Schema Library toolbar to add new XSDs to the
project, as we did with the addNumbers WSDL. However, as we’ve got a group of files, we’ll
just drag and drop them into the schema library. Find the XSD Schemas folder on your
desktop, and drag and drop it into the center panel of the Schema Library.
3. Rational Integration Tester should now show three new XSDs – BookFlightRequest,
BookFlightResponse, and Payment.

4. You can select each of these, and view the associated message schemas on the right hand
side of the screen.



7 Requirements Library
7.1 Overview
In the Requirements Library perspective, the user defines the requirements for an interface in the
form of messages. Messages can be created from scratch or captured and saved from Recording
Studio. There are several advantages of having these message requirements:
 They facilitate the creation of tests by dragging and dropping these messages onto a
messaging action type in the Test Steps.
 It helps keep tests consistent across multiple users as each can share this repository of
defined message structures for various components under test and in essence acts as a
message catalogue
 It provides an example of how the data should look like for a particular test. A user may
decide to use a message captured by someone else with the knowledge that the data has
been captured and therefore is correct. Examples of use are for creating triggers and stubs.
It is fairly common during development or testing of EAI or SOA projects that components are
unavailable. We will look at creating stubs for such components later in this document.
For the moment, we’re going to look at how Rational Integration Tester processes different
message formats, using the Requirements Library.

7.2 The Message Editor
This will also serve as our introduction to the Message Editor included in Rational Integration
Tester. The Message Editor formats all message types supported by Rational Integration Tester into
a tree structure. It will also export messages from that same tree structure into the appropriate
format when sending that message over a transport.



Depending on the context, the message editor will have a number of tabs. We will look at these in
more detail as we come to use them, but the main tabs you will see are:
 Config: Provides main configuration information, including information about the transport.
Also reflects the settings used in the Value or Assert tab.
 Value/Assert : Provides values to send for each field, or expected values for those fields if
receiving a message.
 Filter: Allows the user to filter messages based on their contents
 Store: Saves data for later use

7.3 Exercise: Importing Messages
1. As an example, we’re going to use the simple example provided in the Data Files folder on
your desktop – additionInput.xml. Open this file in notepad to take a look at it – you will
see a simple XML message. Do not open the file in your web browser, as it will reformat part of
the message by inserting extra characters.
2. Select the XML text, and copy it using Ctrl + C.
3. Switch back to Rational Integration Tester, and make sure you are in the Requirements
Library perspective. Remember that you can select this with the Requirements Library
button from the Perspectives Toolbar, or by pressing F8.
4. On the left hand side, you will see a tree structure describing all of the logical elements we
saw earlier in the Architecture School. The tree structure will map directly to the structure
of the different components in the Logical View. Find the Addition operation in the tree,
then right click on it, and choose New > Message. Call it example_from_file.

5. The right hand side will now be partly populated. You should see a simple tree structure for
your new message, with a Text (Message) above a text (String). Right click on the text
(String), and choose to paste the XML data we copied earlier. You should end up with a
message that looks like the following:

6. If an error occurs, go back to the XML document in notepad, and make sure that you have
copied all of the XML before attempting to paste it into Rational Integration Tester again.
7. Compare the original XML document with the tree structure generated in Rational
Integration Tester, then Save this message.



7.4 Creating Messages from a Schema
While we can import messages by copying and pasting, there will also be times when we want to
work by entering values into the structure provided by the message schema.
1. Right click on the Addition operation in the tree on the left hand side, and choose New >
Message to create a second message. Call it example_from_schema.
2. You should see a message which simply has a top level message node containing a single text
string, as we had in the previous exercise. Right click on the text (String) node, and select
Schema…
3. The Select Schema dialog will appear. On the far left, select WSDLs. You should then see the
addNumbers WSDL appear in the middle of the dialog – click on it to select it.
4. On the right hand side, you should get a preview of the message types available in the
schema. This may be partially hidden by the Binding Properties. To control what is
currently displayed/hidden, you can use the arrow buttons ( ). Press the down arrow to
hide the Binding Properties.
5. In the Operation drop down, we can choose which message type we would like to use – for
this example, we’ll be generating a message based on addition__INPUT__addition, so select
that.

6. Press Next – you will now see a set of options that will sometimes be useful when applying
schemas to a message. In particular, there will be circumstances where the option to Include
optional fields will be needed. For this message schema, however, there are no optional
fields, so we can simply press Finish.



7. You should now see the message formatted using the input message schema for the
addNumbers service. We can edit this further, as required. For example, you may want to
delete certain nodes from a particular message – we’ll delete the second argument for the
addition. To do this, select the arg1 (Element) node, and press the Delete key. Rational
Integration Tester will ask for confirmation – answer Yes to this.

8. The message structure will be updated, and you will see orange and red x symbols to inform
you that there is an error somewhere in the message. You can hover your mouse over these
symbols to get more information, but in general, an orange x symbol indicates that there is
an error somewhere further down that branch of the tree, while a red x symbol indicates
that there is an error inside that specific node. Hover over the red x – you should see that the
schema indicates that the addition element should have an arg1 element inside it.
9. To add the element back to the schema, right click on the tns:addition (Element) node,
and select Add Child > arg1 (Element). The message will be updated, and as the message
now conforms to the schema, the error markers will disappear.
10. As we’ve still got null values for each of the arguments, edit the Text nodes for arg0 and
arg1, and enter a number for each one.
11. Save the message.



We have now seen how to import example messages by copying and pasting the data into Rational
Integration Tester. We have also created an example message by applying a message schema and
entering the data manually.
As we will see in the next section, is it also possible to record messages from the live system, and
save them as requirements for later use.



8 Recording Events
8.1 The Recording Studio
Rational Integration Tester and the agents provide us with the capability to record events
(messages or database interactions) from the system under test. The Recording Studio allows us to
control what parts of the system we wish to record, whether it might be specific parts of the system
infrastructure, or specific services using that infrastructure. We do this by setting up Event Monitors
that specify what we wish to record.
Once we have decided what to record, we can then begin recording. As events are recorded, they
are displayed within the Events View. If desired, Event Monitors can be added or removed as we
record. We can also filter what events are shown in the Events View by selecting different monitors
within the Event Monitors panel. As events of interest are recorded, we can view more details for
these events by selecting them within the Events View – further details will then appear in the
Event Details panel below.

It is important to note that recording these events does not interfere with the operation of the
system under test. Events will still be dealt with in the same way that they usually would be – the
only difference is that those events will be accessible through Rational Integration Tester.



Following recording, events may be re‐used in a variety of ways. The simplest thing we can do is
export the recorded events to disk, so that they may be imported back into the Recording Studio at
another point in time. Otherwise, events can be used to build:
 Operations
 Triggers
 Requirements
 Data Sets
 Tests
 Stubs
If we do not have a complete model of the system under test, then events recorded from the
transports within the system may be used as a basis for building new operations within our system
model.
Events may be re‐used in the form of Triggers; a trigger allows us to stimulate the system under
test directly from Rational Integration Tester. We can then record what happens in response – note
that this will not necessarily be the same as what happened when we originally created the trigger,
and we will not be performing any validation on any events recorded in response to the trigger.
This means that we can send events to the system without going through the GUI layer (or any
other layer of the system that we might prefer to bypass), allowing us to understand how the
system reacts to various inputs.
In other cases, we may wish to save a message for later on, without specifying how it will be used. It
may be saved in the form of a Requirement, giving us an example message that we can view in the
Requirements Library. Those requirements may later be imported into other resources.
We can also use recorded groups of events to create tests or stubs. The data within the events may
be hard‐coded into the test or stub; it may also be entered into a data set such as a CSV file, or a
data model, which maps the relationships between the data in the system.

8.2 Exercise: Recording Events from a Transport
We will now capture events for the MQ Queue Manager transport.
1. Before we get started, we will need to initialize a few components of the system, such as the
GUI layer, to make sure that they are running. To do this, use the Start WWTravel.bat
shortcut on your desktop.
2. Once this has completed (it will only take a few seconds), return to Rational Integration
Tester, and go to the Logical View of Architecture School.
3. Make sure you are in the Local environment (as shown in the Rational Integration Tester
title bar).
4. Select the WWTravel_MQ infrastructure component.



5. Right click on the WWTravel_MQ component, and select Record. The perspective will change
to the Recording Studio, and the WWTravel_MQ transport should be listed in the Event
Monitors.
6. Click the Start Recording button in the Events View toolbar to start recording events.
7. In a browser window, open the Worldwide Travel booking site. For a cloud image, this will
be listed in the favorites menu of your web browser; otherwise, ask your trainer.

8. Click on the “Stansted to Barcelona” Book Now button. Here, you will have the opportunity
to book a flight and a hotel. For the moment, we’ll only worry about flights, so skip the hotel
data at the top of the form, and just enter passenger and payment details for a flight. Make
sure that you select Multinational as the credit card – the other details do not matter, as
long as they are filled in.
9. Click Proceed when finished and you should see a confirmation page with a reservation
number.



10. Return to Rational Integration Tester and you should see that 4 events have been recorded
in the Events View.
11. Click on the first message in the Events View. You should then see the message details
appear in the panel below, showing the message that was initially sent by Tomcat.
12. We still need information on how the system deals with requests for other credit card types,
as these will be posted to different queues, so return to your web browser, and make
bookings for Global and Worldwide credit cards. These should also be recorded in Rational
Integration Tester, giving you a total of 12 recorded events.

8.3 Exercise: Building Operations from Recorded Events
Now that we have recorded some events, we can use these for a number of different purposes. The
first thing we’ll do is to complete the model of the system.
1. Take a look at your set of recorded messages, in particular the description fields. There
should be 12 messages, and the descriptions will list the queues that were used while
recording. This should include wwtravel.booking, wwtravel.payment.multinational,
wwtravel.payment.global, wwtravel.payment.worldwide, along with their respective reply
queues. If you are missing any of the different credit card queues, go back and record a
booking using that particular type of card.
2. Pause the recording by pressing the Pause button.
3. Select all 12 messages, before pressing the Save button.



4. The Recorded Events wizard will appear, allowing us to choose what we will do with the
selected events. To build a model of the system under test, we need to create some
operations, so select that option, and then press Next.

5. Rational Integration Tester will now display the 12 recorded messages, attempting to
separate them into distinct operations. It should look something like the following:



6. As the operation names are generated from the queue names used, we might like to change
them to something more useful. Select the first message belonging to the operation that is
currently named wwtravel.booking – wwtravel.booking.reply.
7. You will now be able to enter a new name below, so enter MakeBooking, and press Rename.
You will be asked if you want to apply this change to all other messages that were associated
with the same operation – answer Yes. You should then see the Operation column update
accordingly.



8. Next, we will add the message schemas for MakeBooking. To do this, select one of the request
messages for MakeBooking on the left hand side of the dialog (it will contain all of the data
you entered into the web form earlier). On the right hand side, select the second line of the
message, beginning text (String).

9. The Add Schema button should now be active. Press it, and the Select Schema dialog will
appear. On the left hand side, select XSDs, then the BookFlightRequest XSD. Press Finish to
apply the schema to this message. You should then see the namespace update within all
fields of the message:



10. Now select a response message for MakeBooking, and follow the same procedure, using the
BookFlightResponse XSD.
11. We’ll need to go through the same process for the other operations in our system. Select the
two messages that are associated with the wwtravel.payment.multinational queue, give
them an operation name of ProcessMultinational, and press Rename.
12. We also need to set up message schemas for ProcessMultinational, but this will be a little
bit simpler than for MakeBooking. If you take a look at the response message, you’ll see that
it only includes a single text field, so we won’t need to apply a schema there. Select the
request message for the ProcessMultinational operation, and apply the Payment XSD as
the schema.
13. You can set up the last two operations for Global and Worldwide cards in exactly the same
way – call them ProcessGlobal and ProcessWorldwide; you can use the same message
schemas as for ProcessMultinational. Once you’re done, the dialog should look like the
following:

14. Press Next. You will then be able to select where in the model of the system these operations
should be created. By default, WWTravel should be listed as the parent service component for
all of the operations we’re creating, as it is the parent service component for the
infrastructure we recorded earlier. As this is suitable, press Next.



15. You’ll now see a summary, letting you know that Rational Integration Tester will be creating
4 operations for you. Make sure that Open resource after finish is unchecked, then press
Finish to create all 4 operations. You can now switch back to the Architecture School to see
what has been created.

16. In the Logical View, you can now double click on each operation to view its properties. Do
this for one of the operations you created, and view the Message Exchange Pattern tab.
This should show you the message schemas you set earlier for request and reply messages;



it should also show you the transport information used by that operation, including the
names of the queues that it uses.

8.4 Exercise: Completing the System Model
1. Within the Logical View of Architecture School, we now need to add some extra
dependency information to give ourselves a complete system model. Firstly, the
MakeBooking operation should have a dependency on each of the credit card processing
operations. For example, to add a dependency from MakeBooking to ProcessMultinational,
select the Add Dependency button from the toolbar, click on the MakeBooking operation,
and then on the ProcessMultinational operation.
2. Follow the same process to create dependencies from MakeBooking to ProcessWorldwide
and ProcessGlobal.
3. Next, each of the credit card processing operations have dependencies on the WWTravel
database. Add a dependency from ProcessMultinational to the WWTravel_DB component in
the same way, and then do the same for ProcessGlobal and ProcessWorldwide.
4. Last, all of the operations are running on our WebSphere Application Server, so add a
dependency from each operation to the WWTravel_WAS component.
5. Note that dependencies only appear for items you have selected. However, you might notice
that if you select MakeBooking, for example, a lot of dependencies will be displayed, making
the diagram difficult to read. This is because default settings will display the dependencies
all the way through – if you just want to see a single level of dependencies, you can go to
Project > Preferences, and in the General panel, set Max dependencies shown to 1, then
press OK. The diagram should then become easier to read.



8.5 Exercise: Recording Events from an Operation
Now that we have a model of the system, we can choose to record events for particular operations,
rather than recording everything in the system. As we now have multiple sources of events, we can
also choose to filter events by source.
We will capture booking events again, but this time we will be recording events based on
operations rather than transports. We will see how we can filter these events. Later, we will see
how we can re‐use these events to build other resources within Rational Integration Tester.
1. Return to the Recording Studio perspective, and find the Event Monitors panel. This
should currently show that we are monitoring the WWTravel_MQ transport. We’ll stop
monitoring this for the moment, so select it, and press the Delete Event Monitor button
to remove the event monitor.
2. We’ll also clear the events we recorded in the previous exercise. To do this, press the Clear
All Events button in the Events View toolbar.
3. Press the Add Event Monitor button; this will allow us to select an operation to record.
Choose the MakeBooking operation we created in the previous exercise.

4. You will now be given the option to choose to record any of the dependencies of the
MakeBooking operation at the same time. You should see that the WWTravel_MQ transport is
available, as are the other three operations. This is because the default behaviour is to show
only items that MakeBooking has a direct dependency on (the WWTravel_WAS component is
not shown, as Rational Integration Tester cannot record directly from the WebSphere
Application Server). Switch the radio button at the top of the dialog from Direct Only to
Indirect Only, and you should see the WWTravel_DB component become available, while the
other dependencies are hidden; MakeBooking only has a dependency on WWTravel_DB
through the other operations in the project, rather than having a direct connection to it.
Finally, switch to Both, and you should see all recordable components that MakeBooking has
a dependency upon.
5. Select the ProcessMultinational, ProcessGlobal, and ProcessWorldwide operations. Note
that if there were other operations had dependencies on the MakeBooking operation, we



could select those on the Parent References tab; as nothing depends on MakeBooking in our
system, this will not be necessary. Press OK to continue.

6. All 4 operations created in the previous exercise should now be listed in the Event Monitors
panel. If any of them are not listed, return to step 2, and add any missing operations.

7. Press the Start Recording button.
8. Switch to your web browser and submit another booking request, using a Multinational
credit card.
9. Return to Rational Integration Tester, where you should see 4 events recorded in the Events
View – 2 each for MakeBooking and ProcessMultinational.
10. You can filter recorded events to show only those events that were recorded for a given
event monitor by selecting the event monitor in the Event Monitors panel. For example,
click on the MakeBooking event monitor. You should now see just the MakeBooking events,
with the events recorded for ProcessMultinational filtered out.
11. Click in the empty space below the list of event monitors to clear the filter – you should see
all 4 events again.
12. Record 2 new bookings, again using the Global and Worldwide options. You should now
have 12 messages in total.



13. Again, you’ll be able to filter by source. Note that you can select multiple event monitors at
the same time when filtering, to show messages from multiple operations.
14. We will save two of these example messages as requirements. With the first message for
MakeBooking selected, click on the click on the Save icon on the Events View toolbar to
open the Recorded Events Wizard.
15. Select the requirements option on the first screen, and press Next.
16. On the second screen, you will be asked how the data within the message should be stored.
You choose either hardcoded values, or to use a data source. We’ll look at using data sources
later in the course, so for now, choose to Store data as hard coded values, and press Next.
17. Following this, Rational Integration Tester will confirm that the requirement is associated
with the correct operation. As we have recorded from an operation, this should state
MakeBooking as the operation. This is correct, so press Next again.
18. On the Summary screen that appears, you will be asked to give the requirement a name. Call
it exampleRequest. Uncheck the box labeled Open Resource After Finish, and press Finish
to create the new requirement.
19. Do the same for the corresponding reply message, calling it exampleReply.
20. You can now switch to the Requirements Library to view the saved messages.
So far, we have just stored a single message for later re‐use. Later exercises will look at other ways
we can re‐use the messages that we have saved.



8.6 Exercise: Creating and Running Triggers
A trigger is used to send an event to the system under test. Triggers can be created manually, or
from a previously recorded event. In our example, we will use an existing event.
1. In the Recording Studio perspective, select the Triggers tab, below the Event Monitors
panel:

2. In the Events View panel select the first recorded event (the request) and then click the
Save triggers from selected events toolbar button.
3. Give the new trigger the name TriggerMakeBooking – it will be created under the
Components tree in the Triggers view.
4. If necessary, expand the tree to show the new trigger (expand each node, or click to
expand all nodes).

5. Double‐click the TriggerMakeBooking trigger to edit it.
6. The Edit Trigger dialog is displayed. Select the Value tab and update one of the fields (e.g.
change the passengerFirstName field) in the body.



7. Click OK to save the change and close the dialog.
8. Click Record in the Monitor View if it has been stopped.
9. Run the trigger by right clicking it in the Triggers view, and selecting Run Trigger from the
context menu.
10. A new series of events will be recorded in the Monitor View.
11. To verify that the request contains the updated field, select the event and view the updated
field in the message view below.
12. Stop the recording using the button. Do not clear the recorded messages as they will be
used in the following exercises.



9 Creating and Editing Tests
Now that we have a model of the system under test, we can look at creating tests for that system.
We will also look at the basics of editing these tests.
There are 4 main ways to create tests in Rational Integration Tester:
 Creating a new blank test
 Creating a test from recorded events
 Creating a test, or a group of tests, using the MEP wizards
 Creating a test from a template
Creating a test from recorded events can be done from the Recording Studio perspective; all other
options are handled in the Test Factory.
We’ll create our first test from recorded events. We’ll then take a closer look at how that test is put
together, and how we can edit it. Finally, we’ll look at other methods of creating tests – using the
MEP, and using templates.

9.1 Test Structure
The main structure of a test is put together using a set of test actions – there is no scripting
required in Rational Integration Tester. Instead, Rational Integration Tester will determine what it
is required to do by analyzing the sequence of these pre‐configured actions.
At a top level view, the actions within a test will
be split into three phases: Initialise, Test Steps,
and Tear‐down. These sections are treated
differently depending on the type of test being
run. For normal functional tests, as in this
training course, these three sections will
generally be executed in sequence. However, for
performance tests and stubs, where the test
actions will be repeated multiple times, only the
Test Steps section will be repeated – Initialise and
Tear‐down steps will be run once only. Similarly,
certain test actions (such as the Pass and Fail
actions) will skip any further test actions within
the Test Steps, and go straight to any actions
within the Tear‐down phase. For this reason, it is
suggested that the Initialise and Tear‐down
phases are used for setup/clean‐up, such as
clearing database tables or moving files.
The test actions themselves are generally executed in sequence, though logic may be added to the
test to allow for branching and looping.



9.2 Business View and Technical View
Rational Integration Tester provides two different views of Test Actions. The first of these is the
Technical View, which is the default view generated by Rational Integration Tester. This displays
each action using information taken from its configuration:

The Business View provides a user‐editable view. By default, it is exactly the same as the Technical
View, but it may be edited by the user to add a description of the action. In the example below, the
two messaging actions have been edited to add a description; the rest of the test has been left alone:

Switching between Technical View and Business View can be done by using the Technical View
and Business View buttons on the main toolbar at the top of the Rational Integration Tester
window.
Once you are looking at the Business View, action descriptions can be edited in a couple of ways:
 Click once on the action to select it, then once again to edit the description.
 Select the action, then press F2.
 Right click on the action, and choose Rename.

9.3 Exercise: Creating Tests from Recorded Events
1. In the Events View in the Recording Studio perspective, select a pair of events that have
been recorded – a request and a response. To select both events, you can click and drag
while holding the left mouse button, or select a range of events using the mouse and the
Shift key.
2. Click on the Save button in the Events View tool bar to bring up the Recorded Events
wizard.
3. On the first page of the wizard, choose to create an integration test, and then press Next.



4. The next screen provides a choice of how to store the data used in the test. For this example,
take the option of hard coded values, and press Next.

5. The wizard will then allow you to verify that the correct operation has been used – in our
case, we should just see messages from MakeBooking. If this is not the case, you’ll need to
restart the wizard, making sure that you have only selected a request/reply pair for
MakeBooking. Otherwise, press Next again.



6. The following page checks that all requests and replies are matched up correctly – in this
case, there is only a single request and reply, and these are already matched up for you.
Press Next to continue through the wizard.

7. On the Summary page, you can give the test a name – call it Regression1. For simplicity,
make sure that the Open resource after finish option is enabled to open the test in the Test
Factory after saving.



8. You are now in the Test Factory perspective. You should see a new test created in a folder
called Tests, contained in the MakeBooking operation. The panel to the right displays the
new test and the steps it contains.

9. Double‐click on the Send Request step. You will see the message schema populated with the
details you entered in the booking form. Note also that the Transport, Formatter and
Service settings have been populated for you.



10. Close the Send Request step, and double‐click on the Receive Reply step. Again, note that
the message has been pre‐populated.



Note: When creating a test from recorded messages, Rational Integration Tester will use the
messages in the same order that they are listed in the Events View. This means that you’ll need to
select the request, then the response – using recorded events listed in the wrong order will create a
test with the messages in the wrong order.

9.4 The MEP Wizard
The MEP wizards provide us with another way of creating tests. Rational Integration Tester will
take the information that you have supplied as part of the operation under test in the Logical View,
and use that to generate a basic test or set of tests. You’ll recall that we looked at the MEP (or
Message Exchange Pattern) earlier – it contained information about the message schemas used by
the operation, along with transport details for that operation.
The Test using MEP and Tests using MEP wizards will read that information from the MEP, and
use it to generate input and output messages for the operation. For an operation with a
Request/Reply MEP, this will create a test with a Send Request and a Receive Reply action; both



test actions will take their schema and transport information from the MEP. The main difference
between the two is that creating a single test using the MEP will create a Send Request step where
the fields within the message are all blank; creating multiple tests will fill in the input messages
with random or constant data, as selected within the wizard. In both cases, the Receive Reply action
will contain a message using the appropriate schema, but all fields will be blank, as Rational
Integration Tester does not know how the system is meant to respond to the first message. You can
either edit this test action, or leave it till later to repair in the Test Lab – we’ll make use of this
second option later.

9.5 Exercise: Creating Tests with the MEP Wizard
We’ll now create a group of tests using the Tests using MEP wizard.
1. In the Test Factory perspective, right‐click on the Tests virtual folder under the
MakeBooking operation and select New > Tests using MEP. A wizard is launched that will
help you create multiple tests to validate all possibilities from the operation’s message
exchange pattern (MEP).
2. The first page of the wizard lets you control the structure of the request messages that will
be generated for each test. You can alter that structure by selecting how many occurrences
of each element should be included. As the message schema we are using does not allow for
any optional or repeating elements, every element should occur exactly once. This means
that we can leave all settings at their defaults for this example.



3. Click Next, which brings you to the wizard’s second page. Here, you can control the contents
of the message by selecting different content types for each element and values for those
elements that do not have random content generated for them.
4. Notice that Iterate Enum is selected for the Payment:cardType element. This will prompt
the wizard to generate a unique test for each type of credit card that the operation can
process (three in this case), which can be verified in the next page of the wizard.

5. Instead of allowing completely random strings for all fields, we’re going to edit some of
them. Set the flightNumber field to a constant, with a value of WW100.
6. For the price and weekNumber fields, we’ll allow random values, but we’ll set some
constraints. In both cases, we’d like to have a 2 digit number. Set the Type for the field to
Random Regex, and the Value to dd
7. In the final screen of the wizard, go to the With Tests section, and select Do Nothing. Click
Finish to close the wizard and generate the tests.



8. Let’s take a look at what this wizard did. In the Test Factory perspective, look at the Tests
virtual folder under the MakeBooking operation. The wizard created three new tests.
9. Double‐click to open one of these: paymentcardType = multinational
10. Double‐click to look inside the Send Request action.
11. Here you see the request message which will be sent for this test of the MakeBooking
operation. The wizard has created the message with the expected structure and populated
most fields automatically with randomised values. The flightNumber field should be set to
WW100, while the weekNumber and price fields should be set to random 2 digit numbers.
Similarly, the cardType field should be populated with one of the three possible card types
(a different one in each of the three generated tests)



12. Close this window without making changes.
13. Open the Receive Reply action. At this stage Rational Integration Tester doesn’t know much
about the expected response from this request. This message structure has not been
populated yet.

14. Close this window.

9.6 Copying and Linking Requirements
So far, we’ve seen how we can create message data within a test by hand, or from random data. In
addition to this, we can also use previously created requirements to fill in message data.
In doing this, we can either copy the data that is held within the requirement, or link to the
requirement. Copying the message data will overwrite the information in the test action; it can then
be edited further as required, but any updates to the requirement will not be reflected inside the
test. Linking to the requirement will also overwrite the data in the test action, but in this case, the
test action will always use whatever data is held within the requirement. This means that updates
to the requirement will flow through to the test action as well.
To copy or link a requirement to a test action, simply drag and drop the requirement onto the test
action. You will then be presented with the option to copy or link the requirement into the test
action. Note that this will copy or link all settings from the requirement, including transport
settings. The only exception will be any timeout/tolerance values held within the test action, which
can be edited separately.
Alternatively, you can open the test action, and go to the Config tab. Above the transport and
message settings on this tab, you will find two link icons. These can be used to link the header



(including transport settings) and the message body; using the two icons, we can choose what we
want to link, rather than linking everything in one go. From these icons, you can also choose to
change a link to use a different requirement, or to unlink the message. Unlinking a message means
that the message will then hold a copy of whatever was in the requirement at the time; future
updates will not flow through to the test action automatically. If desired, you can relink to the
requirement later on.

9.7 Test Templates
When creating new tests, similar sequences of actions may often be used. Rather than recreating
these every time, Rational Integration Tester provides the option of test templates, which can be
used to store those common sequences for fast reuse when creating new tests. These new tests will
then have copies of the actions used within the template, which can be altered as required.
Test templates may be created in similar ways to tests – they can be created without any test
actions, in the same way an empty test may be created. It is also possible to create a template based
on the MEP of an operation. This will be similar to creating a single test from the MEP – the
template will contain messages based on the schemas used in the MEP, with each field left blank for
the user to fill in. After creating the template, it can then be edited in exactly the same way as a test,
using the same settings and test actions.
Once the template has been saved, tests may then be created based on the template. This will copy
all of the properties of the template into a brand new test. Note that this is simply a copy, and any
further updates to the template after that time will not automatically flow through to the tests
created from the template. However, if the template uses linked requirements, changes to the
requirements will still flow through to each test, as long as the requirements are not unlinked in
those individual tests.

9.8 Exercise: Creating a Test from a Template
We’ll now see how we can use templates and linked requirements to create a set of tests that may
be updated by editing a pair of requirements. This means that if a message schema were to change,
all tests created from that template could be updated simply by updating the requirements used
within the template.

1. Test templates, like tests, are created for operations. Return to the MakeBooking operation in
the Test Factory Tree.
2. Right click on the operation and select New > Templates > Test Template. Call the
template basicTemplate.
3. A new empty template will be available to edit. In order to set this up quickly, we’re going to
copy the steps from the Regression1 test. Select the Regression1 test in the Test Factory
Tree, then drag and drop it onto the Test Steps section of your template.



4. The template should now be populated with the same test actions as the Regression1 test.
Save and close the template.
5. We’ll now use the template to create a new test. Right click on the MakeBooking operation,
then select New > Tests > Test From Template.
6. Within the dialog that appears, select the basicTemplate, and give your new test a name,
such as exampleFromTemplate.

7. Open the new test, and take a look – it should contain the same actions and data as the test
template. You can now edit this further; for example, you might change some of the data
within the Send Request action. Once you’re finished, save and close the test.



10 Test Execution
10.1 The Test Lab

The Test Lab allows us to execute tests, test suites, and stubs, and view their execution status. All
available resources are show in the Test Execution Tree, and can be run by double clicking, by
right clicking and selecting Run, or by selecting the resource, and using the Run button in the
main toolbar of Rational Integration Tester.
The Task Monitor will then show each execution of a test resource, showing a progress bar, and
the status (pass/fail) of the resource. Selecting a test execution in the Task Monitor will display
more information for that test execution in the Console. This will include a summary of what
happened during the test, along with any logging information.

10.2 Exercise: Running a Test
1. Switch to the Test Lab perspective.
2. Run the Regression1 test by right‐clicking on it and selecting Run from the context menu, or
select the test and click Run in Rational Integration Tester’s main toolbar. A graphical
summary of the execution is displayed in the Task Monitor, and a detailed report of the test



results can be found in the Console, in the lower portion of the window. In this case, the test
should fail because the reservation number does not match what is expected.

3. Click on the Receive Reply error in red on the Console. The View Message Differences
window pops up to reveal the difference in the Expected and Received messages. In this
case the newReservationNumber elements are different.

10.3 Exercise: Repairing Tests
The Regression1 test failed because it didn’t take into account changing reservation numbers.
We’re now going to look at how we can fix the test from the Test Lab perspective.



1. The View Message Differences window gives us the opportunity to correct any
discrepancies between the expected and received messages. In this case, we’ll try to update
the message by pressing the Overwrite expected field button.
2. Select the test and click Run in the Task Monitor to run the test again.
3. The test should fail again due to a reservation number mismatch. The reservation numbers
increment with each reservation, so attempting to use a hard coded value will not work.
4. Bring up the View Message Differences window for this new run of the test. We’ll try to
repair the test again, but this time, we’ll use the Replace with regex match button to use a
regex that will allow any reservation number.
5. Open up the test in Test Factory perspective and double‐click the Receive Reply step and
note that the value of the message field element newReservationNumber has been replaced
by a regular expression.

6. Re‐run the test in the Test Lab.
7. This time the test passes.



8. Bring up the Message Differences window for this latest run of the Regression1 test. Note
that the regex is now displayed as part of the expected message, allowing the received
message to pass the test.

9. The tests generated using the MEP wizard will need to be handled differently, as they have
no data describing what the expected message is to look like. To start, run the
paymentcardType = global test. This will fail.



10. Bring up the Message Differences window. You will see that the expected message is
missing some of the fields found in the received message.

11. Therefore, instead of overwriting just a single field, choose Overwrite expected message.
12. If we run the test again, it will still fail. This time, it will be due to the reservation number not
matching, as in the Regression1 test. We could repair the field in the same way that we did
previously, but we would need to do the same thing for each of the other tests as well.
Instead, we’ll use the Rule Cache to apply repairs to multiple tests.

10.4 Exercise: The Rule Cache
When validation errors are repaired and cached the repair method is saved as a validation rule.
These rules will be applied to the same field from which they are created when the same schema is
in use. Rules are managed under the Rule Cache view in Architecture School. Existing rules are
listed on the left side of the view, and they can be sorted by namespace or path by clicking on the
appropriate column heading. The star in the left column indicates whether or not the rule is
currently enabled or disabled .
1. Run the paymentcardType = global test again. As predicted, it should fail due to the
reservation number.



2. Bring up the Message Differences window, and check the box Add to Rule Cache
3. Make sure that the reservation number field is selected, and press the Replace with Regex
button
4. You will be asked to confirm that you want to apply this change as a rule.
5. After this, check that you are satisfied with the proposed regex, and carry out the changes as
normal. Before leaving the Message Differences window, you will notice that a star has
been placed next to both the expected and received fields.
6. Close the Message Differences window, and run the test again. It should now pass.
7. Switch to the Test Factory perspective, and open the paymentcardType = global test.
8. View the Receive Reply step of the test, making sure that you are looking at the Config tab
of the dialog. Here, we can see that the regular expression has been applied, as in the
previous exercise – but in this case, there is a star next to the regular expression, letting us
know that a rule exists.

9. Return to the Test Lab and run the other two tests that we haven’t yet repaired. You will
find that they both fail at first, as the expected message is incorrect. This can be fixed as in
the previous exercise. Once you have done this, there will be no need to worry about the
reservation numbers any more – the regular expression specified within the rule will be
applied for you automatically.



11 Creating and Running a Stub
A stub can be used to simulate a system or process that is unavailable. In the example below, we
will create a stub from the request/reply events that were recorded earlier. This stub can then be
used to simulate the business process that is unavailable.

11.1 Exercise: Creating a stub from recorded events
1. Open the Recording Studio perspective and clear any previously recorded events from the
Events View.
2. In the list of Event Monitors, choose to record the MakeBooking operation.
3. Make sure that recording is currently switched on.
4. Go to the Test Lab perspective to run the paymentcardType = worldwide test, then return
to the Recording Studio.
5. Click on MakeBooking in the Event Monitors to filter out any messages from other sources.
6. Select a request message and the corresponding reply message in the Events View.
7. Press the Save button. This time, we will not be creating any operations – instead, we will
create a stub, so select stubs on the first page of the wizard, and press Next.
8. On the second page of the wizard, we have the option of creating several different types of
stub. As this first stub will be pretty simple, we’ll choose to Store data as hard coded values.
Press Next once you’ve done this.
9. The next page of the wizard simply asks for verification that all events have been sorted by
the correct operation. As we have already filtered messages by the MakeBooking operation,
this should show two messages from that operation. If so, press Next.
10. On the following page, the messages have been grouped into transactions. As there is only a
single pair of messages for the moment, these should both be listed as a single transaction.



11. On the final page, you will be able to specify a name for the stub. Set this to
SimpleBookingStub, and make sure that Open resource after finish is checked.
12. Press Finish to create the stub. Rational Integration Tester should then switch to the Test
Factory perspective.
13. We can now take a look at the stub we’ve created. In the Transitions section, we have a list
of the events that the stub will respond to. The stub we have created only knows how to
respond to events for MakeBooking.

14. Below this, we can see the messages we recorded previously, in the Input and Output tabs.
15. By default, the stub will attempt to filter out anything that doesn’t exactly match the default
message that we received. In those cases, it will not send a response message. For our
example, we’d like to respond to anything that matches the same message structure; it may
or may not have the same values within the message fields. This will make our stub a bit
more versatile. To get started, switch to the Input tab, and take a look at the message body.
You will see that each field has a small filter icon next to it:

16. We want to switch off any filtering that is checking for an exact field match. The Does Exist
filters won’t matter, as long as the basic message structure is the same. To switch off filtering
for the exact matches, select all of the fields within the message (you may need to scroll
down to do this). With everything selected, right click and choose Contents > Field Actions
> Filter > Equality. This will toggle the equality checks off, and the message body should
then appear with fewer filter icons, like so:



17. The remaining filters are simply checking that each part of the structure of the received
message is the same as what we see here. This is fine, as there is only one valid message
structure according to the schema. Switch to the Output tab, and take note of the
reservation number that will be sent by the stub. You should see this again in the following
exercise.
18. Save your stub – it’s now ready to be executed.

11.2 Exercise: Executing a stub from Rational Integration Tester
1. Before we start using our stub, let’s switch off the service in WebSphere Application Server,
so we’re certain that it is not processing any messages, but instead leaving them for the stub.
To do this, open up your web browser, and follow the link in your bookmarks to the
Websphere Integrated Solutions Console. When asked for login details, leave them blank,
and press the Log In button.
2. In the left hand pane select Applications>Application Types>Websphere Enterprise
Applications.
3. The list of applications that we’re using within WebSphere Application Server will then
appear on the right hand side. Check the box for com.wwtravel.booking.app – this handles
booking requests for us.
4. Above the list of applications, there is a Stop button. You can now press this to stop the
booking application – note that this will take a moment. You should then see that the
application has stopped successfully.



5. Return to Rational Integration Tester, and switch to the Test Lab perspective.
6. You’ll still see your stub in the tree on the left hand side of the screen. Run the stub, either by
double clicking on it, or by selecting it and pressing the Run button.
7. The stub will then appear in the Task Monitor. Some initial details will appear down below,
in the Console. This will be updated later on, as the stub receives incoming messages, and
responds to them.
8. As it stands, the stub will now wait until it receives some input, so let’s provide something
for it to work with. You can either do this by making a new booking in your web browser, or
by running a test for the MakeBooking operation.
9. In the Test Lab of Rational Integration Tester, take a look at the console output for your
stub. You should now see that the stub has received a message, and sent a reply.

10. If you make another booking, you should see that you are receiving the same booking
number every time. As we turned off the filtering of messages within the stub, it shouldn’t
make any difference what booking request we send to the stub; we just need to be using the
same message structure.

11.3 Exercise: Modifying the stub on the fly
A stub can be modified as it is being executed. Simply make your modifications, save the stub, and
Rational Integration Tester will automatically shut down the old version of the stub, and start up
the new version. As a simple example, we’ll now update our stub to send a different reservation
number to the user.



1. Within Rational Integration Tester, return to the Test Factory perspective.
2. Edit the SimpleBookingStub, and go to the Output tab.
3. Change the reservation number to something different – for example, A01234.
4. Save the stub. Rational Integration Tester will offer to update the running stub. Choose Yes.

5. Switch to the Test Lab perspective.
6. You should see in the Task Monitor that the stub has automatically been stopped, and
started again:

7. Make another booking in your web browser – it should now give you the new reservation
number you have entered.

8. As we’re now finished using this stub, we’ll switch back to the live system. Within the Test
Lab of Rational Integration Tester, select the currently running version of the stub in the
Task Monitor (it will be the one with a Status of Ready).
9. The Stop button in the Task Monitor toolbar will now be available – press it to stop the
stub.
10. We’ll now want to restart the booking service on WebSphere Application Server, so return
to your web browser, and go back to the console interface. If you closed the browser
previously, navigate back to the list of applications again.
11. Select the com.wwtravel.booking.app application by checking the box next to its name, and
Start it. All services should be running, as shown below:



12. If you make any further bookings, you should now notice that you are receiving new
reservation numbers again each time you make a request.

It would be possible to create a more complex stub which generated new reservation numbers for
each booking. This would require use of more complex actions within the stub. Note that this may
or may not be necessary, depending on what you intend to do with the stub. If all you require to get
back from the stub is a reservation number – any reservation number – then there may not be any
point in developing the stub further. If you require more complex behavior, then you will want to
develop the stub further.



12 Test Automation
12.1 Test Suites
So far, we have run all of our tests and stubs manually. This is fine while we are developing these
resources, but when we want to run large numbers of tests, this will not scale very well. We will
now look at automating our tests, which will involve two tasks – the automation itself, as well as
reporting the results of these automated tests.
A test suite is a resource type providing a method of aggregating tests and/or other test suites,
which can be run in series or in parallel. Each test suite is made up of one or more scenarios; each
scenario may contain tests, performance tests, test suites, and other scenarios.
Each scenario provides configuration information for the resources inside it – which environment
to use, the timing of the tests (in parallel, or spaced out), and what stubs should be executing while
the scenario is active. For more advanced test suites, scenarios also provide the ability to data drive
the tests within them, and to use probes (where a performance test license is available).
In addition, scenarios can choose to terminate or continue when a resource fails – this allows
smoke tests to be carried out where necessary, but also for larger test suites to continue when all
test results are required.

12.2 Exercise: Creating and Executing a Test Suite
1. Switch to the Test Factory perspective.
2. Right‐click on the MakeBooking operation and select New > Tests > Test Suite.
3. You will then need to provide a suitable name for the suite. Call it MakeBookingSuite and
click OK to proceed.

4. The new suite appears with a new scenario, which is opened in its own tab in the Test
Factory. Double‐click on the scenario icon.
5. You can now view the scenario settings. You should notice that the Environment setting is
<Undefined> ‐ this means it will use the current environment. Click OK to close the scenario
settings.



6. Add the 3 payment card tests that we created earlier. This can be done either by
a. dragging them from the Tests virtual folder under MakeBooking operation and
dropping them under the new scenario, or
b. by clicking the Add Tests button on the toolbar above the new scenario and selecting
the tests that were just created

7. Save the new suite by selecting File > Save, or clicking the Save button in Rational
Integration Tester’s main toolbar.
8. Run the suite by clicking Run in Rational Integration Tester’s main toolbar or by right‐
clicking the suite and selecting Run from the context menu
9. The suite is opened and executed in the Test Lab. A graphical summary of the execution is
displayed in the Task Monitor, and a detailed report of each item in the suite can be found
in the Console, in the lower portion of the window.



12.3 Results Gallery
When a test suite is executed, results will be recorded into the project database, provided one has
been set up previously. These results may then be viewed from within the Results Gallery.

Results are viewed for each resource. The resource type and name can be selected along the top of
the perspective, along with the instance to be displayed (for a test suite only). The instances are
sorted by the time and date of execution of the test suite, and are named – the default name is the
environment it was run in, but this can be changed, as we will see later.
Below that, we can see an execution summary for the currently selected test resource – for a test
suite, this means the status of each test inside the suite. For a single test, this will display a
summary of every time that the test was executed and recorded into the database, remembering
that by default, tests are only recorded into the project database as part of a test suite or test cycle.
At the bottom of the perspective, we will see the various reports that are available. Different
reports will be available, depending on the resource that is selected above, and the configuration of
the system under test:
 The Reports tab displays a summarized report for the selected test or test suite.
 The Console tab displays the console output for the selected test.
 The Notes tab allows you to annotate results, updating the project database.



 The SCA Coverage, Tibco BW Coverage, and webMethods Coverage tabs supply coverage
reports for test suites run against environments with an Oracle SCA Domain, Tibco
BusinessWorks, or webMethods Integration Server.
 The Tibco BW Errors and webMethods Errors tabs supply information on any errors
logged by Tibco BusinessWorks or a webMethods Integration Server during the execution of
a test suite.
 The Tibco BW Performance and webMethods Performance tabs supply basic
performance data taken from Tibco BusinessWorks or a webMethods Integration Server
during the execution of a test suite.

12.4 Exercise: Viewing Results
1. Open the Results Gallery perspective. The Results Gallery contains all of the historical data
for the test suites in your project, letting you view the results of any suite and any instance
of that suite
2. In the top half of the screen, you should see results for the MakeBookingSuite displayed. If
you do not, select Suite in the drop down at the top left. You can then press the Browse
button to select the MakeBookingSuite. If you have run the test suite multiple times, you will
be able to choose between these using the drop down menu at the top right.
3. Once you’ve got the MakeBookingSuite selected, take a look at the Resource column in the
summary pane. This will list the scenario, along with each of the tests that were contained
inside that scenario. Select the Scenario, and the Reports tab at the bottom of the screen
should display a summary of results for the scenario, stating that all three of your tests have
a status of Passed.

4. If you select one of the tests in the summary pane, the Reports tab will update to show a
report detailing what took place during the test. Scroll through this – you should see the test
steps that were executed, along with the messages that were sent and received.



5. While keeping the test selected, switch to the Console tab. You will now be able to see the
console information that was reported during the test. You can click on any of the links in
here to bring up the Message Differencing Window, as in the Console in the Test Lab.
6. Next, switch to the Notes tab. Here, we can edit the Label used for the test run. Set this to
Initial Run, and press Save. You should then see the label used in the Instance drop down
at the top right update to show Initial Run, rather than Local.
7. You can also add extra information in the Notes section – type in some extra information
here, and press Save again.

8. Finally, view the results for the other tests. You may also like to run the test suite again; this
will give you multiple instances to choose from the Instances drop down in the top right
corner.



13 Storing and Manipulating Data
13.1 Tags and the Tag Data Store
Tags are variables internal to Rational Integration Tester that can be used to store and retrieve
data. There are 3 main types of tags that you may see within Rational Integration Tester:
 System tags: contain values that are provided by Rational Integration Tester, and cannot
be changed by the user. These include things like the time, the project name, and the host
name of the machine running Rational Integration Tester.
 Environment tags: contain user‐supplied data that can change from environment to
environment.
 Test tags: contain user‐supplied data that is local to a given test or stub.
In addition to these main types, you may see other types of tag. These are mainly treated as
varieties of Test tags. Some examples of these that you may encounter are:
 Global tags: a test tag that has had its scope set to cover all tests in a test suite. Global
tags may be used to pass values between multiple tests in a test suite, as long as the tag is
defined in both tests, and marked as global in both tests. Outside a test suite, the scope of the
tag is limited to the current test.
 Overridden Environment tags: it is possible to override an environment tag with a test
tag. These are marked to differentiate them from other tags; note that this is discouraged,
but may occasionally happen when creating environment tags for a project that already
contains a set of tests/stubs.

 Java Properties: by creating a test tag with the same name as a java property, it is
possible to access that Java property within a test or stub (for example, the Java property
file.separator).
For the purposes of this module, we will focus on the 3 main types of tag – System tags,
Environment tags, and Test tags.
All tags that are available to a test or stub can be viewed from within the Tag Data Store; this dialog
can be accessed from the Tag Data Store button, or from the context menu anywhere within a
test. The image below illustrates a typical Tag Data Store. The tags are listed in alphabetical order.



You should notice that the values for environment tags reflect the currently active environment; if
you switch environments, these will update.
The tool tip for the tag under the mouse‐pointer displays the optional description field for the tag
You can create a logical hierarchy of tags by separating multiple name sections with the / character
(e.g., JMS/URL and JMS/User will be displayed together under the JMS section).

13.2 Creating Tags
Within Rational Integration Tester, you can create new Environment tags and Test tags. As System
Tags are managed by Rational Integration Tester, tags of that type cannot be created or edited.
Environment tags may be created and edited from the Environment Editor (Project > Edit
Environments). Within the Environment Editor, you will see a list of environments on the left hand
side, along with an item labeled Default Properties. Default Properties provides a value for any
tags which have undefined values within any environment. For this reason, it is advisable to create
new tags within the Default Properties, and edit them within any environment requiring different
values.
To edit or create tags within an environment, select that environment on the left hand side, and
verify that you are looking at the Properties tab on the right hand side. Underneath this tab, you
will see all tags for the current environment.



From this tab, you can edit tags for the current environment:
 New… creates a new tag within the current environment, allowing you to set a value and
description within that environment. The tag is also created within all other environments,
but is not assigned a value or a description in any other environment.
 Edit… brings up a dialog which allows you to edit the value and description of the currently
selected tag within the current environment. Double clicking the tag will bring up the same
dialog.
 Clear resets the value and description of the tag within the current environment, leaving
them undefined.
 Delete removes the tag from all environments.
If a tag does not have a value or description within an environment, it will be listed in here as
#undefined?, and will take its value/description from the Default Properties, as discussed
previously.



New test tags need to be created within individual tests or stubs. For the most part, they will be
created from the Tag Data Store, but can also be created within certain test actions:
 Create one manually by clicking on the icon within the Tag Data Store. In the Create Tag
dialog, enter the name, optional default value, and description for the new tag.
 Create multiple tags by pasting a list of tag names directly into the tag data store window.
First create a list of tag names in a text‐based file – the names may contain / characters to
create a hierarchy as mentioned above (e.g., MYTEST/Name). Next, copy the list of tag names
and paste it into the data store window (press Ctrl + V or click the paste icon ). Blank
lines will be ignored when pasting tags.
 Use the Quick Tag option within a test step to automatically create a tag with a name
corresponding to a particular message field.

13.3 Using Tags
As seen above, tags may be given values when they are created. Test tags may also be given new
values during the execution of a test or stub. This will usually be done on the Store tab of a test
action; in that case, the tag is referenced simply by its name.
To retrieve the value of a tag, you will need to surround the tag name with two percentage signs at
each end. This means that you can store a value in a tag called myTag simply by referring to its
name, myTag, but to retrieve the value of that tag, you will need to refer to it as %%myTag%%.
Some features of Rational Integration Tester use ECMA Script – within any of these scripts, tags can
be referenced by their name, unless that name clashes with a reserved word or variable. In that
case, you can reference the tag as tags["myTag"].

13.4 Exercise: Testing with Tags
1. Go to the Test Factory, and create a new test based on the basicTemplate we created
earlier. Call it tagTest.
2. We’re going to add another step to the test, to log the name of the test, and the environment
being used. Right click on the Test Steps, and select New > Flow > Log.
3. A new Log step should appear in your test. Drag and drop this step so that it appears as the
first of the Test Steps.
4. Double click the Log action to edit it.
5. In the Output Message, right click and select Insert Tag > TEST > NAME. You should see the
text %%TEST/NAME%% appear in the Output message.
6. Press Enter to add a new line. Right click again, and select Insert Tag > ENVIRONMENT >
NAME. Similarly, you should see %%ENVIRONMENT/NAME%% appear.
7. The %% signs designate a tag, and this part of the text will be replaced when we run the Log
action. However, we can also add some extra text. Add some context so that you know what
is being logged later on. For example:



8. Run the test in the Test Lab view, and watch the console – you should see the names of the
test and environment.
9. Tags can also be used to record inputs and outputs for test steps. As a basic example, we’re
going to log the reservation number returned by the system. To do this, return to the Test
Factory perspective, and open the Receive Reply step.
10. The Receive Reply properties will open up – switch to the Store tab. This is where we can
configure which data fields will be required for later use.
11. At the bottom of the dialog, find the newReservationNumber field. Right click on it, and select
Contents > Quick Tag. A tag name should appear in the column, and the checkbox
in the column should be ticked. Note that these columns can also be filled in manually, if
you require a particular name for a field.
12. Press OK to close the Receive Reply step, and add another Log step to the end of the Test
Actions. The contents of this Log action should be:
Reservation Number: %%newReservationNumber%%
You can either type this in directly, or use the same method used for the previous log action.
13. Save the test and run it again. The console output should now include the reservation
number that was generated by the booking process.

13.5 Data Sources
So far, all of the data that we have used within our tests has either been hardcoded, or has been
taken from interacting with messages or pre‐defined tags. However, it is standard practice when
testing to use external data to provide inputs, or to help validate outputs. In order to access this
data, we will need to add a Data Source to our project. The Data Source may then be used to access
this external data for the purpose of data driving any test or stub.
There are 4 types of data source supported by Rational Integration Tester. Each one is handled
separately within a project, to account for configuration settings that will vary from data source to
data source. The data sources are as follows:
 File Data Source – reads data from an individual file. This may be something like a CSV file,
fixed width, or other delimited file.
 Excel Data Source – reads data from a sheet in an Excel spreadsheet.
 Database Data Source – reads data from a table in a database, or the results of a query on a
database. The database must be set up in Architecture School before this data source may be
created.
 Directory Data Source – reads in a set of files (for example, a set of XML documents).

13.6 Exercise: Data Driven Testing
In this section, you will generate a spreadsheet from an existing test, and use that to drive multiple
iterations of the test with different data.



1. Return to the Test Factory view, and create a new test using the basicTemplate test
template. Call it dataDrivenTest.
2. Open the dataDrivenTest, and bring up the properties for the Send Request step of the
test.
3. Go to the Config tab of the test action.
4. Click on the tns:flightNumber (Text) field, then use Ctrl+click to select each of the
following (Text) fields, down to tns:passengerGender. Do not select the (Element) fields,
or later stages of the exercise will fail.
5. Right click and select Contents > Quick Tag. The message structure should now appear as
below, with tags created for each of the selected fields:

6. Close the test action, and Save the test.
7. From the test action toolbar, press the Edit or create test data button.
8. In the Create or edit test data dialog that appears, there are settings for the location of the
Excel File on the file system, and the Test Data Set within the project. The Test Data Set
should be under MakeBooking, so that it’s with the test, but the Excel File settings will be
blank. Press the Browse button for that field to choose a location.
9. An explorer window will appear, pointing to a folder within your Rational Integration Tester
project. We’ll use this location, as it means that we can easily move the entire project, and
any links to this file can stay the same. Enter a file name of PassengerData.xls, and press
Select. The name and location of the excel file will then appear within the Create or edit
test data dialog, using a system tag to refer to the location of the file.



10. Next, we’ll need to select the tags we’d like to use, so press the Select Test Data Columns
button.
11. A Select Tags window will appear – drag to select all of the tags that are listed there, then
press Select.

12. In the Action section of the dialog, choose to Use this test data in a new action of type
Iterate Test Data and insert after Test Steps.
13. Make sure that the box labeled Edit Excel data on OK is checked. The dialog box should
now look like the following:

14. Press Finish. Libre Office will launch, displaying the spreadsheet that has been created. The
first row of the spreadsheet will contains headings that match the tag names from the data
source. The second row of the spreadsheet should contain the values that were in the
original message before we tagged the fields. This is due to two things: firstly, when we
created the tags, the default value of each one was set as the values given inside the message



we quick tagged. Secondly, the spreadsheet generated used those default values of each tag
as the first row of data.
15. In addition to this row of data, add 3 more rows of passenger information, then save the
document and close Libre Office.
16. Return to Rational Integration Tester. In the Test Factory Tree, there should now be a Test
Data set called PassengerData. Open this, so we can validate that everything has been set up
correctly.
17. The File Name should point towards the same location that we saw in the wizard. The Sheet
name will be blank – this is fine, as the default setting is to use the first sheet in the
workbook. Under the Format Configuration section, A row of the file contains column
names should be checked, with 0 rows before and after the column names. Check that this is
correct, then press the Refresh button at the bottom of the screen. You should now see the
data that you entered into the spreadsheet.

18. Close the PassengerData data source, and return to the dataDrivenTest.
19. This should have three test actions – an Iterate Test Data, a Send Request, and a Receive
Reply. To make sure that we send a request and receive a reply for each line of data, drag
and drop the Send Request and Receive Reply actions onto the Iterate Test Data action.
Your test should now look like the following image:



20. Save the DataDrivenTest. Return to the Test Lab perspective, and run the test. You should
see a Send Request and a Receive Reply line in the console for each row of data in your
spreadsheet.

Note: Whenever changes are made to the test data source from within Rational Integration Tester
(for example, the file name), the test data source will need to be saved. Until you save the data
source, other parts of Rational Integration Tester will not know about those changes – so in this
exercise, for example, the Iterate Test Data action will not be aware of changes to the chosen sheet
name if you do not save the data source first. Note that this only applies to configuration settings
controlled inside Rational Integration Tester – you do not need to save the data source again if an
extra column is added to the data source, for example.



14 Repeating Elements
14.1 Overview
This example looks at how messages containing repeating and optional elements may be handled
with Rational Integration Tester; in particular, how to data drive tests containing such messages.
For the example, XML messages will be sent and received over MQ, but the steps will be much the
same for other technologies.
Consider the order.xsd example (included in the Repeating Elements folder) that is used to create
messages for publishing and validating.
The XML Schema contains an item element that can be repeated multiple times in the message.
<xs:element name="item" maxOccurs="unbounded" type="itemtype"/>
Within the item element, there is another repeating discountcode element which is also optional
and so may not be needed.
<xs:element name="discountcode" type="stringtype" minOccurs="0"
maxOccurs="unbounded" />
Finally, there may also be multiple address elements within a message:
<xs:element name="address" maxOccurs="unbounded" type="addresstype" />
When matched with the OrderTestData.xls test data we get the five orders specified below.
Without the Repeating Elements functionality a user would manually need to create five tests. This
functionality allows the user to define a single message that makes use of repeating elements to
dynamically build the message from the test data set and time of publishing or subscribing.



Expected XML Messages 1‐5



14.2 Exercise: Publishing a Set of Orders
1. In Architecture School, create a Service Component object called Orders and include an
operation in it called PublishOrders
2. Double‐click on the PublishOrders operation to bring up its properties and go to the
Message Exchange Pattern tab.
3. In the Binding section, Browse to select a transport, and choose WWTravel_MQ.
4. In the Queue section, enter queue.orders , then press OK to close the dialog.

5. Now navigate to the Schema Library and import a new XSD . Select the supplied XML
schema, order.xsd, which can be found in the Data FilesRepeating Elements folder on
your desktop.
6. After importing, select XSDs on the left hand side of the Schema Library – you should now be
able to view the order schema.

7. Optionally, you can return to the PublishOrders operation to set the Message Exchange
Pattern to Publish, and to use the schema you have just imported; we will not be making
use of the MEP in this exercise, but if you wish to create other tests using MEP, this will be
useful.



8. Otherwise, switch to the Test Factory. We will now create a data source to import our data.
Right‐click on the PublishOrders operation and select New>Test Data>Excel Data Source.
Call the data source OrderData.
9. In the configuration pane, press Browse and find the OrderTestData.xls file found in the
Repeating Elements folder. Following that, check the box labeled Treat empty strings as
null. This will allow the tool to group nested data correctly. After pressing the Refresh
button, you should see the following data in the Preview pane:

10. Save the data source, and then close it.
11. We will now create a test to process this data. Right‐click on the PublishOrders operation
and select New>Tests>Test. Call it TestOrders.
12. Add an Iterate Test Data action to the Test Steps. Create, then drag and drop a Publish
action, followed by a Subscribe action and then a Log action onto the Iterate Test Data
action. Your test should look like the following:

13. Double‐click on the Publish action and configure it:



o Select WWTravel_MQ as the Transport
o In the Queue setting, enter queue.orders
o Look under the MQ Message (Message) node – there should be a text (String)
underneath it. If there is not, right click on the node, and select Add Child > Choice >
text (String) to add the text node. Press OK in the dialog that appears to confirm
your choice.
o Right‐click on the new text(String) node and select Schema. Choose the order
schema, and click Next.
o Check the box labeled Include optional fields, and then click Finish.
o You should now see the message schema applied to your message. Select then Quick
tag all the text nodes within the message, along with the orderid attribute.
o Right‐click on the item(Element) node and select Mark as Repeating.
o Do the same for the discountCode(Element) node and the address (Element) node.
o Check that the test action now appears as below, then press OK to save your changes:



14. Next, we’ll configure the Subscribe action to retrieve the message that we’ve just sent, and
hold the entire XML message in a single tag. Open up the Subscribe action and configure it
as follows:
o Use the same transport settings as the publish action (receiving a message from
WWTravel_MQ, using queue.orders)
o Disable validation on the text(String) part of the message.
o Switch to the Store tab, and save the value of the incoming message by quick tagging
the text(String) field.
o Click OK to close the test action.
15. Open the Log action, add %%text%% as the text message, then close the test action.
16. We now have to map the test data to the tags defined in the Publish action. Double‐click on
the Iterate Test Data action to configure it:
o In the Config tab, Browse to the OrderData for the Test data set.
o In the Group data by column field select id.

o Switch to the Store tab and check that each field in the Tag name column has been
mapped appropriately to the incoming Data. This should have been done for you
automatically, but if you did not have the tags in the test prior to setting the data
source for this test action, it would not be done for you; similarly, if you did not save
the data source earlier, this mapping will not have taken place.
o Close the Iterate Test Data action.
17. Save the test, and run it in the Test Lab.
18. You should see the test pass and in the console you should see five order messages,
corresponding to the messages described previously. As an example, the final message is
shown below:



15 Test Actions

Test actions are the main building blocks of our tests. So far, we have seen just a couple of the
actions that are available to us. Over the course of the next couple of chapters, we will look at a
number of the other actions available in Rational Integration Tester.

15.1 Test Action Summary
The following tables describe the majority of the test actions used within Rational Integration
Tester. The test actions in Rational Integration Tester are categorized into 5 groups, as seen in the
toolbar along the top of the test factory. These groups are Messaging, Flow, General, BPM, and
Performance. As this manual does not deal with BPM or Performance actions, the summary has
been limited to the first three categories.

Messaging Actions

Send Request: Send a message and wait for a response

Receive Reply: Receive and validate a response to a request

Receive Request: Choose a transport and format to receive a message

Send Reply: Respond to a previously received request message

Publish: Publish a message on a transport

Subscribe: Start listening for messages on a transport

Unsubscribe: Stop listening for messages on a transport

Message Switch: Configure a subscriber to pick up a message that can be
passed to the child Message Case actions.

Message Case: Filter the message received by the parent Message Switch.



Flow Actions

Assert: Check that a given condition is satisfied before the rest of the test
steps can be executed.

Decision: Choose a set of actions based on a given condition.

Pass: Automatically pass the test. No subsequent actions within the Test Steps
phase will be executed.

Fail: Automatically fail the test. No subsequent actions within the Test Steps
phase will be executed.

Run Test: Execute another test as a sub‐test.

Sleep: Pause the test for a specified period of time.

Iterate: Repeat test steps a number of times.

Iterate While: Repeat test steps while a condition is satisfied.

Iterate Test Data: Repeat test steps for a given data set.

Fetch Test Data: Retrieve a row of test data from a data set.

Lookup Test Data: Lookup test data from a data set; Test actions will branch,
dependent on whether the lookup is successful.



General Actions

Comment: Add notes to the test

Run Command: Specify a command or program to run

Log: Output messages to the console/logging file

User Interaction: Ask the user to interact with the test as it runs.

GUI Interaction: Interact with functional testing tools integrated with
Rational Integration Tester

Map: Transforms XML‐based data using an XSLT Stylesheet.

Compare Files: Compares two logical file sources (both of which may be
directories) containing record data.

Function: Execute a predefined or custom function

SQL Query: Execute an SQL SELECT against a database

SQL Command: Execute SQL UPDATE/INSERT/DELETE against a database

Stored Procedure: Execute a stored procedure against a database



15.2 Exercise: Run Command
The Run Command action gives all of the functionality of the Windows Command Prompt inside
Rational Integration Tester. This allows you to run external batch files and executables or store the
results of commands in tags.
1. To illustrate this functionality we’ll create a test that opens a Notepad window.
2. Go to the Test Factory perspective and create a new blank test – call it RunCommand.
3. In the Test Steps, right‐click and select New > General > Run.
4. Double‐click to configure the Run command.
5. Check the Connection settings. The Location should be set to Local, and the Working
Directory can be left blank.
6. We’ll just start a new Notepad window, so enter the command:
notepad.exe
7. Uncheck the option Wait for command execution to finish.

8. Press the Test button to execute the command – a new notepad window should appear. You
can safely close this straight away.
9. Click OK to close the dialog, and switch to the Test Lab.
10. When you run the test, it should pass and a notepad window should appear again.



15.3 Exercise: Log
The Log action writes information to the console, or a log file. Tagged data can be included within
this information. We have already encountered the Log action previously, but this time we will use
it to write to an output file.
1. In Windows Explorer, create a new blank file called reservationData.csv. Add one line at
the beginning, which should simply give column names for our data:
ReservationNo,FirstName,LastName
2. Save the file and close it.
3. In Rational Integration Tester’s Test Factory, create a new test based on basicTemplate,
and call it checkForDuplicates.
4. So that we have something interesting to log, we’ll tag some of the data in the request and
reply messages. Open the Send Request action, and go to the Store tab. Find the passenger
first and last name fields, and Quick Tag both of them. Close the Send Request action.
5. Similarly, tag the newReservationNumber field within the Receive Reply action.
6. After the Send Request and Receive Reply actions, add a new Log action, and open it.
7. Within the Output Message field, add each of the tags we’ve created, separated by commas.
Add a new line before the tags, so that the Log action will add a new line to the file before
each row of data. The Log action will do exactly what you tell it to do, so if you leave out the
new line, you’ll end up with one long row of data that we won’t be able to process in Rational
Integration Tester. You should end up with something like the following:

8. Set the output file to the reservationData.csv file created at the beginning of this exercise.
9. Make sure that the Append checkbox is ticked. This will make sure that we add new log
information to the end of the file, rather than overwriting any previous contents.
10. The Role field should be set to Info by default – check that this is the case.



11. Close the Log action, and run the test in the Test Lab.
12. Open the reservationData.csv file to verify that it has the details of the customer from the
test we’ve just run, and then close the file without making any changes.
13. Go back to the Log action in the Test Factory, and change the Role to Error. Observe what
happens when you run the test.
14. Change the Log action again to use a Role of Warning, and observe what happens to the test
when you execute it this time.
15. Go back to the Log action one last time, and change the Role back to Info.

15.4 Exercise: Lookup Test Data
The Lookup Test Data action will look up information from a data source, based on a key field.
We’re going to use it to make sure that that our system is not creating duplicate reservation
numbers.
1. In order to lookup any information, we will require a data source. While in the Test Factory,
right click on the MakeBooking operation, and select New > Test Data > File Data Source.
Call it ReservationLog.
2. As the file source, choose the reservationData.csv file we created in the previous exercise.
The file type should be set as Delimited.
3. In the Format Options, the Delimiter Options should be set to Comma.
4. Press the Refresh button at the bottom of the screen to check that the file has been loaded
correctly. You should see the same data you logged in the previous exercise.
5. Save the ReservationLog test data source and close it.

6. Switch back to the checkForDuplicates test. Add a Lookup Test Data action to the
test, and open it.
7. On the Config tab, choose to Browse for the data set, and select the ReservationLog data.
8. You will need to add a lookup, using a Column Key of ReservationNo, and a Lookup Value
of %%newReservationNumber%% . Close the test action.

9. When we perform this lookup, we expect that we will not find any duplicates – the
reservation numbers should be unique for each reservation. If we do find a duplicate, then
we want to report this. You should see that the Lookup action comes with two paths below it



– Found and Not Found. Right click on the Found option, and add a new Log action to this
path.
10. The new Log action should report that the reservation number is a duplicate. It should not
be added to any file, but will need to have a Role of Error. Once you have set the role and
entered an error message, close the Log action.
11. If we don’t find the reservation number in the previous log, then the test has succeeded, and
we will want to log the current data. This can be done simply by dragging and dropping the
Log action created in the previous exercise onto the Not Found path.
12. Save the test and run it against the Worldwide Travel system. It should succeed, and new
data will be added to our log file. As the system always produces a new reservation number,
the test should pass each time.
13. However, we can anticipate what the next reservation number will be, and insert that
number into the log file that we’ve created. This would fool the test into thinking it had
found a duplicate reservation number. Open the log file, and edit it so that there is an entry
for the next reservation number. Save the file, then run the test again – you should now see it
fail.
14. The Lookup Test Data action can also be used to retrieve information from the data source.
If we find a duplicate, we’ll report the first and last names of the customer recorded in the
file. To do this, return to the Test Factory, right click in the Test Steps, and open the Tag
Data Store.
15. Press the button in the Tag Data Store to add a new tag to the test – call it logFirstName.
Do this one more time, and create a second tag called logLastName. Close the Tag Data Store.
16. Open the Lookup Test Data action, and switch to the Store tab.
17. In the Output format, select Store one matching row only. As we’re attempting to prevent
any duplicates, we won’t expect to find more than one row of data inside the log file for each
reservation number.
18. In the Mappings section, you will see the FirstName and LastName fields from the data
source. Click on the FirstName row – a pencil button will appear at the right. Press this
button to bring up the Select Tags dialog.
19. Choose the logFirstName tag, and press Select.
20. Go through the same process to match the LastName field and the logLastName tag. Once
you’re done, the test action should now appear as follows:



21. Close the test action, and amend the Log action used for reporting errors, so that it looks like
the following:

22. Save the test.
23. Take note of the most recent reservation number, and again make sure that there is an entry
for the following reservation number in your log file. So that we can verify that data is being
extracted from our data source, choose new first and last names for this new entry.
Remember to save the log file after making any changes.
24. Run the test again. You should now see a duplicate, and the name shown in the console
should be the one that you entered in the previous step.

15.5 Failure Path and Pass/Fail
Failure Paths and Pass Paths allow you to specify what occurs in a test if a particular test action
passes or fails. These may be added to any test action by right clicking on it, and selecting Add Pass
Path or Add Failure Path. We’ll be focusing mainly on failure paths – these allow us to create tests
that fail gracefully. Note that when you add a failure path to a test action, it may include multiple
branches; most test actions will only have one way in which they fail, but messaging actions (for
example) can have two ways to fail: either a message is not received within the specified timeout
period, or a message is received, but does not satisfy the validation criteria.



The Pass and Fail actions cause a test to pass and fail respectively; test execution will skip
straight to the Tear Down phase of the test, ignoring any further actions within the Test Steps
phase. We’ll now create a simple test to illustrate how to implement these features, and then
discuss some of the more advanced real world applications.

15.6 Exercise: Using Failure Paths
1. Create a new test based on the basicTemplate – call it subscriberTest.
2. Go into the Receive Reply action, and then to the Config tab. Find the
newReservationNumber field. It should currently have a star next to it, indicating that it is
governed by a rule in the Rule Cache. Right click on this line, and select Rule Cache >
Disable. Once you’ve done this, the star will still appear, but with a line through it:

3. Go to the Test Lab, and run the test again. It should now fail, as it’s no longer receiving the
expected reservation number.
4. We’re going to modify the test so that it will pass with a warning if there an issue validating
the reply message. Anything else should still cause the test to fail (transport failure, timeout,



etc). Return to the Test Factory, right click on the Receive Reply step, and choose Add
Failure Path.
5. Right click on Subscriber Error and select New > Flow > Fail. Double click on the Fail test
step and add some text into the Output Message box, e.g. Message timeout. Click OK.
6. Right click on Validation Failure and select New > Flow > Log. Double click on the Log test
step and some text into the Output Message box, e.g. Validation failed. Set the Role of
the action to Warning. Click OK.
7. Your test should now look like this:

8. Save the test.
9. Return to the Test Lab, and run the test again. In the console, you should be able to see that
the validation step failed, and a warning was given, but the test has still passed:

10. In the Test Factory, open the Receive Reply step. Find the Timeout field, and set it to 5 ms.
Run the test again, and you should see it fail this time, as the error does not occur at the
validation stage.



Now that we’ve constructed a simple example to help understand the basic idea behind Failure
Paths and Pass/Fail actions, we can look at a more advanced example that’s more applicable to the
real world.

The above diagram shows a standard example SOA system. Service 1 receives a message and passes
this message on to Service 2, the message is then passed from Service 2 to Service 3 and back again,
onward to Service 4 and back, and finally back to Service 1. If at any point an error occurs, the
message is passed to an exception queue.

You could setup a basic test in Rational Integration Tester that publishes a message to Service 1,
along with a subscriber to receive the reply. A second subscriber can be setup however to listen on
the Exception Queue. If this subscriber times out then it means nothing has been placed on the
Exception Queue and so the test should pass. However if the subscriber receives a message then
there has been an error as so the test should fail.

This functionality can be achieved by adding a Failure Path to the subscriber, and adding a Pass
action to the Subscriber Error and a Fail action to the Validation Failure. (If a timeout occurs it will
trigger a Subscriber Error and so pass, if a message is received it will trigger a Validation Error and
fail)



16 Interacting with Databases
16.1 Exercise: Creating a database component manually
This section details the steps necessary to create a database component in your project. We will use
the Logical and Physical views to manually add a database that can then be accessed from any test
in the project. This chapter will assume you’re using the sample database provided, however the
same process can be used for any database.
1. Ensure you have SQLite listed as one of the Database (JDBC) providers in your Library
Manager, using the driver sqlitejdbc‐v056.jar. If necessary, you can do this by adding a
new provider and pointing to the file, which can be found in C:SQLite.
2. If you have made changes in the Library Manager, close and restart Rational Integration
Tester so that it will load those changes when it restarts.
3. Go to the Logical View. Select the WWTravel service component, then create a new database
component by right clicking and selecting New > General > Database Server. Name it Test
Database.
4. We now need to create a physical database for our logical database to point to. Switch to the
Physical View, right click on the Physical Components root folder and select New >
General > Database.
5. Open the new database and input the following values:
 Max Num of Connections: 1
 Driver: org.sqlite.JDBC
(Note that there are two SQLite drivers; the other one will not work)
 Database URL:
jdbc:sqlite:/C:Users<username>DesktopData
FilesDatabasereservations.db
(Modify depending upon where your database is stored)
6. Click Test Connection to ensure your database connection is setup correctly. If this does not
work, then you may need to go back and check steps 1 and 2 again.
7. Go back to the Logical View and reopen the Test Database you created before.
8. Go to the Bindings tab. For the current environment, select the UNBOUND field and pick the
SQL Lite database you just created (jdbc:sqlite:/C:Users<username>DesktopData
FilesDatabasereservations.db).
9. To check that the database is now available to use in tests, we’ll create a test to query the
database. Switch to the Test Factory perspective
10. Previously, we’ve created all of our tests underneath operations. This does not need to be
the case – you can create tests underneath service components or even database
components. Create a new blank test called queryTest, under the WWTravel service
component.



11. Add the SQL Query action to the test. Edit the action, and hit the Browse… button to select
the Test Database. If you do not see the Test Database, set Obey References to No. This
will ignore any dependencies set in Architecture School, and show all databases within the
project.

12. Enter the following SQL Query:
SELECT * FROM reservation
ORDER BY reservation_number

13. Click on Test. If Rational Integration Tester shows an error message, check that you have
entered the query correctly, and that the Test Database has been selected at the top of the
window. Otherwise, you will see the contents of the Reservation table.



14. Click on Overwrite Expected Results and click OK to close the SQL Query window.
15. Run the test – it should pass. We haven’t altered the database, so the expected and actual
results of the query will match.

16.2 Exercise: SQL Command
The SQL Command action allows you to run INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE queries in Rational
Integration Tester. We’ll now create a simple test that performs an SQL INSERT command to insert
a single record into a database. This section assumes you’re using the database created in the
previous section. You are free to use your own however you will need to make appropriate changes
to the SQL query.
1. Create a new test called InsertTest
2. Add an SQL Command action and double click to open it.
3. Verify that the Database Server is set to the Test Database.
4. Paste in the following SQL Command:
INSERT into reservation
VALUES ("Male","Lyon","Thomas","Jack","21","WW007","A05006")
5. Run the test in the Test Lab.
6. Now run the queryTest again. You should observe that it now fails, as the data returned by
the query no longer matches the expected data for that test.
7. Open the message differencing window for the query results, and you should now see the
difference between the expected and actual results. Close the window without making any
changes.

16.3 Exercise: Column and Cell Validations
The queryTest is currently failing, due to the extra row that wasn’t in the expected results.
However, in some cases, we’ll want to validate a set of query results given more general criteria,
rather than specifying exact values to match.
1. Return to the Test Factory, and make a copy of the queryTest. Call it columnValidations.
2. Open the SQL Query action in your new test, and go to the Assert tab to view the expected
results.



3. Select any cell, and press the Edit Cell button. Alternatively, right click on the cell, and
choose Edit Cell.
4. Note that you can edit the validation for this particular cell. By default, the validation should
have an Action Type of Equality, and the value should be set to whatever value is currently
in the database within that field. Close this validation window without making any changes.
5. Similarly, to edit validation rules for a column, we can select any cell within the column, and
press the Edit Column button, or we can right click on the column heading, and choose
Edit Column. Open the validation rules for the gender column.
6. Press the New button to add a new validation rule – choose to evaluate the contents of the
column with an Action Type of Regex.
7. For the regular expression, enter ^(Male|Female)$
8. This should let us accept either Male or Female as valid entries; anything other than these
exact strings will fail. Check this by typing into the Document field, and verifying that these
values pass, and others fail, when you press the Test button.

9. Once you are satisfied that the regular expression is working here, press OK to close the
dialog. Add more validation rules for other columns, using regular expressions as follows:
week_number ^d{1,2}$
flight_number ^WWd{3}$
reservation_number ^Ad{6}$

10. These rules can be used to generalize how query results will be evaluated. However, we still
have the original cell assertions, which state that each cell must be equal to the values we



can see in the table in this dialog. In order to make things more general, check the box
labeled Disable Cell Assertions. This will mean that only the column assertions are used.
11. Press OK to close the dialog, and run the test. You should see that the test passes.
12. Return to the Test Factory, and modify the InsertTest so that it uses an invalid reservation
number (for example, change the A at the beginning to B).
13. Run the modified InsertTest, and then run the columnValidations test one more time. The
columnValidations test should fail, pointing out the invalid reservation number.
14. In the next exercise, we’ll reset the database to its original state, allowing both query tests to
pass again.



17 Run Test
17.1 Introduction
The Run Test feature allows you to run one test from inside another. This allows you to create tests
with reusable functionality and run them from multiple different tests within your project. This is
similar to the idea of creating reusable methods in object orientated programming.

Essentially, if there is a task that many tests will need to perform (e.g. resetting a database, starting
up a number of external applications etc…), then you can create a single reusable test that performs
that task, rather than rewriting those actions for every test. You can then re‐use this test wherever
necessary within other tests to perform the required task.

In this section we’ll create a modified “Insert Record” test that inserts a given record into a
database, using tags rather than hardcoding the values to be inserted into the database. We’ll then
use this as part of a separate test to reset the database. As part of this process, we’ll also see how we
can pass data from one test to another.

17.2 Exercise: Creating the child test
1. Go to the Test Factory perspective, and find the InsertTest in the Test Factory Tree. Make
a copy of this test, and call it InsertWithTags.
2. Open the SQL Command action.
3. Replace the SQL query with the following:
INSERT into reservation
VALUES ("%%ChildTestGender%%", "%%ChildTestLastName%%",
"%%ChildTestMiddleName%%", "%%ChildTestFirstName%%",
"%%ChildTestWeekNumber%%", "%%ChildTestFlightNumber%%",
"%%ChildTestReservationNumber%%")
4. You will notice that all of the tags are underlined. This is because they do not exist yet. Open
up the Tag Data Store and create them now.
5. Reopen the SQL Command action and check the tags are no longer underlined.
6. We won’t run this test – as the default value for a new tag is null, we’d only be inserting null
values into the database. Instead, simply Save the test.
You may be wondering why every tag starts with ChildTest. This is to help us identify which tags
belong to which test, and will be very useful when we come to pass data between the parent and
child tests.



We will now create a test that will reset a database by removing all current records then entering a
selection of supplied records. We will do this via the Run Test action calling our Insert Record
test.

17.3 Exercise: Creating the Parent Test
1. Create a new File Data Source, and name it DBResetData.
2. Press the Browse… button and select the inputData.csv file located in
C:Users<username>DesktopData FilesDatabase
3. Press the Refresh button and check that five records are displayed. Save and close.
4. Create a new test and call it ResetDatabase. This test will remove all records from the
database and populate it with sample data stored in a csv file.
5. Add an SQL Command action, open it and set the Database Server to the logical Database
created previously, and enter the following SQL command to remove all records from the
database:
DELETE FROM reservation
6. Save and close the SQL Command action, then right click on Test Steps and select Tag Data
Store.
7. Create the following tags: ParentTestGender, ParentTestLastName,
ParentTestMiddleName, ParentTestFirstName, ParentTestWeekNumber,
ParentTestFlightNumber, ParentTestReservationNumber.

8. These tags will store the values of each attribute read in from the CSV file. As the CSV file
contains multiple records, we’re going to make use of the Iterate Test Data action to
apply an action to each record in the CSV file.
9. Add an Iterate Test Data action below the SQL Command action.



10. Open it, press the Browse… button and select the DBResetData data source.
11. Go to the Store tab. You should see a list of the tags you created. Select the drop down menu
to the right of each tag and select the appropriate attribute. Click OK. This sets the value of
the tags in the test to the values of each column in the data source.

12. Right click on the Iterate Test Data action and select New > Flow > Run Test.
13. Open up the Run Test action, click the Browse… button and select the InsertWithTags test
you created earlier. Uncheck Run process in parallel. The test should now look like so:

17.4 Exercise: Passing Data between the Tests
We now have a child test and a parent test, and the parent test can execute the child test through
the Run Test action. However, we still need to specify how data will be passed between the two
tests. Firstly, we’ll go to the child test, and set up tags that will hold any input values. Then, we’ll
return to the parent test, and fill in those tags appropriately.
1. Return to the InsertWithTags test, and go to the Properties of the test. This can be found
on a tab next to the Steps.
2. Looking at the Interface for the test, there will be Input and Output sections. Under the
Input section, make sure All Tags is selected. All tags in the insert test have now been
enabled as inputs – but we still need to say what data will go into them.
3. Next, we need to go back to the ResetDatabase test, and reopen the Run Test step.
4. Select the Value tab.
5. You should see all the tags you created in the InsertWithTags test in the Unmapped box.
Press the << button to move them all into the Mapped box.
6. For each tag, select it, and in the box below insert the corresponding tag from the Reset
Database test.



7. Go to the Test Lab, and run the ResetDatabase test.
The ResetDatabase test runs an iteration of the InsertWithTags test with the tags in Insert
Record set to the values specified in the Reset Database test (which are set according to the values
read in from the CSV file). The Iterate Test Data action is used to run the Insert Record sub test
once for each record stored in the test data.

You may question the need to use a Run Test action in this situation, as you could simply have the
Iterate Test Data action run a SQL Command directly. If you had a single parent test and a single
sub test then this would probably be true. However imagine that you have many tests that all insert
records into the database. You could have a separate SQL Command action in every single one, but
if the database changes (e.g. a field is removed) then you’ll have to go through every test separately
and make the appropriate changes. If you use the Run Test feature however, you only need to
make the change in a single sub test.

Another advantage of using a sub test can be seen if you imagine that instead of the sub test
containing a single SQL Command action, it contains 50+ commands along with decision steps etc. If
you want to do such a complicated action more than once in different tests throughout your project,
the Run Test action helps save a lot of time. Once again anyone with programming experience will
notice the similarities between this and the idea of reusable methods in computer code.



18 Monitoring Log Files
18.1 Overview
Log files can be monitored automatically with Rational Integration Tester, avoiding the need to
manually check them for changes that may have resulted from actions within a test. In order to do
this, we set up the infrastructure resource with the location of its log files. After that, we can set up
actions to react to changes in the log files.

18.2 Exercise: Looking for Error Messages
1. Go to Architecture School, and locate the WWTravel_MQ component.
2. Double click on the resource to edit it, and go to the Monitoring tab.
3. Click on Add to add a Log File. As a simple example, we’ll be using the example.log file on
your desktop, and logging new information by hand.
4. Set the Path to C:Usersdb2adminDesktopData Files. Leave the File as *.log, and press
OK.



5. In Test Factory, create a new empty test under the MakeBooking operation, and call it
MonitorTest.
6. Add two Log actions to the test, one to say “Starting Test”, and the other to say “Test
Finished”.
7. As we will update our log file by hand, we will need the test to pause for a short period. To
do this, we’ll use a Sleep action. Set it to for a Fixed delay, of 20000ms. Your test steps
should now look like the following:

8. Switch to the Monitoring tab of the test, and choose Add – it should automatically find the
log file location we selected in Architecture School.
9. Find the Actions tab, and switch to that to tell the test how to respond to changes within the
log file.
10. Press the Add button to add a new action.
11. Double click in the Match field. It should bring up an Edit Regex window, with a copy of the
log file as it currently stands.
12. We want to respond if an error is logged – select the text [ERROR].
13. A popup will appear with regexes that match the selected text. Choose the Exact option ‐
[ERROR]. It should now appear at the bottom of the dialog, and the [ERROR] text should
now be highlighted, as below. Press OK to return to the test.

14. Under Action, choose Treat as error, and mark the Enabled checkbox.

15. Save the test, and go to Test Lab.



16. Run the test. While it is sleeping, edit the example.log file provided in the Data Files
folder on your desktop to add another line starting with [ERROR], and save the log file.
17. Rational Integration Tester should detect the change, and the test will fail.

Note: If Rational Integration Tester does not show any errors, make sure that you have edited and
saved the file within the 20 seconds provided by the Sleep action. In addition, default settings for
reading the log file (set in Architecture School) state that new entries in the log file must end in a
new line – simply adding [ERROR] without a new line will not register an error in your test.



19 Advanced Stubs
19.1 Exercise: Parameterized Stubs
In this exercise, you will create a parameterized stub. This is more complex than the basic stub we
created earlier, in that it will produce different reply messages when given different request
messages.
1. To start collecting data to generate the stub, go to the Recording Studio. Clear any
messages recorded previously.
2. Check that the MakeBooking operation is being monitored, and start recording.
3. Switch to the Test Lab, and run the test suite created earlier. Return to the Recording
Studio, and you should see the messages produced for that set of tests.
4. Select MakeBooking within the Event Monitors. This should filter out any other events,
leaving you with just the 6 MakeBooking requests and responses that were recorded. Check
these to make sure that you have a request message for each of the three card types allowed
by the booking system. If not, you’ll need to record more interactions with the system. If
you’ve got too many, then delete any extras from the Events View.

5. Select all 6 events, and press the Save button.
6. Again, we’ll choose to save them as a stub in the first page of the wizard. Press Next once
you’ve done this.
7. On the second page of the wizard, choose to Store data in a simple data set. Press Next.
8. The third page checks that everything has been allocated to the correct operation. You
should see 6 events, all labeled as being related to the MakeBooking operation. If so, press
Next. If not, you’ll need to go back and make sure you’ve selected the right events.
9. The fourth page checks that the requests and replies have been grouped correctly. Again,
this should already be the case, but you can choose to change groupings here or restart if
necessary. Press Next once you’re satisfied that this is correct.



10. You’ll then get a preview of how the request messages will be mapped into our data set.
Rational Integration Tester will analyze the messages used in the recorded messages, and
look for differences between the messages. By default, it will record data that changes into
columns within the data set; data that appears to be static will not be included. Take a look
at the request message – fields that are going to be included in the data set have a status of
New , while those that are not going to be included are listed as Ignored .
11. Within the request message, we only care about the card type, so select each of the other
fields, and press the Ignore button. This should leave only the card type listed as New,
and everything else Ignored. Press Next to go to the response message for MakeBooking.
12. Here, we can see that the reservation number is also marked as New. In this case, we may
also decide that we are interested in the status field as well, even though it had the same
value in each of the recorded messages. Find the status row, which should be marked as

Ignored. Select it, and press the Column button.
13. A popup dialog will appear, allowing you to name the column that will be created for the
status within our data source – by default, it will be called status. This will be fine for our
purposes, so press OK. Both the reservation number and the status should now be marked
as New.

14. Press Next again to go to the summary screen. This should inform you that a stub will be
created, along with a data source containing information about the card type, reservation
number, and status. If different fields are listed, you’ll want to hit back to return to the
previous steps, and make sure that each field is being added to the data set or ignored, as
required.
15. Call the stub BookingsWithData, and go to the Test Factory to view what we’ve produced.
16. Under the MakeBooking operation, you should see two things with the name
BookingsWithData. We have a stub, as we’ve had every other time, but we also have a data
source. Double click on this within the Test Factory Tree to open it.



17. The first thing you might notice is that the file name contains a reference to the root
directory of a project, written in gold and surrounded by percentage signs. This is a system
tag – a variable internal to Rational Integration Tester, which we can’t edit directly. This
allows us to refer to the project folder, no matter where that might be located. If the project
is moved to another folder or another machine, the link to the CSV file that we’re using will
still function.
18. Press the Refresh button at the bottom of the screen to view the data within the data source
– this should contain the three card types and reservation numbers we recorded previously,
along with a status column that states SUCCESS for each. There is also a grouping column
provided for us, in case we had recorded data with repeating elements (which would require
multiple lines of data). As our data is fairly simple, we don’t need to worry about this for
now. Close the data source.
19. Open the stub itself, and look at the Input tab. You should notice that the card type is being
stored into a tag.
20. Switch to the Output tab, and you’ll notice that no response is being sent here – in fact, no
response message appears to be present at all. This is because the stub that we have
generated will respond if it recognizes a familiar card type, but otherwise will ignore any
incoming messages. To see how we handle this, switch to the Business Logic tab.

21. The Business Logic tab allows us to specify our own custom logic to dictate how the stub
will respond to incoming messages. Here, you can see a Lookup Test Data action, which is



followed by two options – Found and Not Found. If the lookup is successful, it will send a
reply. If not, it will do nothing. Open the Lookup Test Data action by double clicking on it.

22. This has two tabs – the Config tab will open by default. As you should be able to see, we’re
trying to match the value that we stored into the cardType tag in the Input tab with the
cardType column in the data source.

23. Switching to the Store tab, you’ll be able to see that we’re going to save the data from the
columns in the data source into corresponding tags within the stub (with the exception of
the grouping tag). This will only happen if we find a match – otherwise, any values that may
exist within those tags will be left alone. Close the Lookup Test Data Action.
24. Open the Send Reply action. This will be used to send a reply if and only if we found a match
within the Lookup Test Data action.



25. Observe the message that is being sent back – this uses the values that were saved into the
status and newReservationNumber tags within the Lookup Test Data action, so these
values will be coming directly from our data source. Close the Send Reply action.
Run the stub, and send some requests to it (either by running tests, or by creating requests using
the web interface). You should notice that each card type gets its own reply, based on the data
source.



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