Testing Web Services Consumer

Question

Here are some tools that I have found to test web services consumers:

http://www.soapui.org/ https://wsunit.dev.java.net/

Are there any others? I would prefer testing frameworks that are written in Java or Python.

Answer 1

The Grinder is right up your ally with both Java and Python, that handles most web services, (SOAP/REST/CORBA/RMI/JMS/EJB) etc.

http://grinder.sourceforge.net/

Answer 2

I have used soapui by a maven plugin. It can create junit-linke reports to be run and analysed like unit tests. This can be easily integrated in continious build, also with the free distribution of soapui.

Answer 3

I've used Web Service Studio.

"Web Service Studio is a tool to invoke web methods interactively. The user can provide a WSDL endpoint. On clicking button Get the tool fetches the WSDL, generates .NET proxy from the WSDL and displays the list of methods available. The user can choose any method and provide the required input parameters. On clicking Invoke the SOAP request is sent to the server and the response is parsed to display the return value.

This tool is meant for web service implementers to test their web services without having to write the client code. This could also be used to access other web services whose WSDL endpoint is known."

Also the Web Services Explorer in Eclipse which comes as part of the Web Tools Platform.

"Through UDDI and WSIL, other applications can discover WSDL documents and bind with them to execute transactions or perform other business processes. The Web Services Explorer allows you to explore, import, and test WSDL documents."

Answer 4

You really need to be more specific: What is it that you want to test in your WS-consumer? That it calls the right WS? This looks a bit pointless - WS are a perfect place for mocking whatever may be called - without anything being called.

In order to test the consumer you'd otherwise be writing a Webservice that mocks the original, right? I'd suppose that the communication protocol that goes through the wire is not the clients domain - e.g. it's generated. So the only thing a WS-consumer's client sees is the interface. And there's nothing to test in an interface.

It might be that I completely misunderstood your question - please clarify if I did. I'll revise the answer then.