Web service testing framework with interface for business users

Question

I'm looking for a web service testing framework that has a good built in text input / output gui. The point would be for business and other non developer users to be able to test requirements by using a simple gui that they could enter values into and see the results from the web service. I have seen lots of references on Stack Overflow and the web to great developer web service testing tool but a nice, built in, I/O gui is the key feature for me.

By web service testing I mean a tool that sends xml post requests over HTTP and tests the response.

I have been trying out fitnesse but to use it I need to cut out parts of the system and I very much want to do end to end testing. The way fitnesse displays its results is great but the wiki data entry is a bit clunky for business users imo.

Answer 1

We use FitNesse for the most part. The developers maintain a fixture that s the connector between your app and the FitNesse server. The business user can write the test cases in an wiki style. Works fine for us.

Rational Functional Tester was in the discussion too. However, I have never seen it, but would have met our requirements too.

Answer 2

I found testing composite application in Netbeans very easy to use ... As you requested in your question you can define an input XML and a desired output XML, and when you run the test you have a classic JUnit result like this :

Here you can find a good example: Understanding the Travel Reservation Service

I use NetBeans 6.5.1 bundled wit GlassFish ESB 2.1 ... I'm not sure that this feature is supported in the newest NetBeans Versions

Answer 3

You might want to look at the robot framework. It's a pretty decent testing library which makes it easy to test web services. There is also a library that integrates Selenium into the framework for front-end testing. Tests can be specified in a couple of plain text formats as well as in HTML tables. You also have the option to let users create test data in spreadsheets if you like, then save them in a tab-separated format.

Answer 4

Look at WebServiceStudio http://www.codeplex.com/WebserviceStudio

Answer 5

We use Concordion for business testing. It's very similar to Fitness but the input files are HTML files "executed" by JUnit.

If your web services don't take 500 parameters, a HTML table is a great way to define input values. I agree, there no UI (although a WYSIWYG HTML editor would do it) but the benefit is that your tests can be checked into Subversion (for example), executed regularly (read every night) and the result HTML files be published internally.