Testing a WCF web service

Question

Hi All,

I have written a commercial WCF web service.

I would like to give the service to another person to test independent of the application that will be using the web service. This is because a third party is going to be building that app and we don't have access to it at the moment.

Another thing to remember too is that the person I want to hand this off to for testing is a non programmer. That is important.

So are there any tools out there that can subscribe to a WCF web service, and recognise what data needs to be inserted, and create a GUI to try out different combinations of data?

Thanks.

Answer 1

In general, you need to publish the web service meta data (normally as a wsdl end point) - this metadata should enable any client to get all the information needed to make calls to your web service.

This may help: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms734765.aspx

As may this: http://keithelder.net/blog/archive/2008/01/17/Exposing-a-WCF-Service-With-Multiple-Bindings-and-Endpoints.aspx

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Update:

From the comment, is appears that you need non programmers to be able to test your service and are looking for a user interface that can be used to work directly with your web service (and automatically adapt to changes). As far as I know, there is nothing built it that will do this for you (though the old asmx services created web forms that could be used).

Answer 2

You can consume a web service with Office InfoPath, or write a simple test application in C#.

Answer 3

I typically use SoapUI for that purpose. You can also create test suits with it and it's free. Alternatively you can use the Microsoft WcfTestClient.exe that comes with Visual Studio since version 2008 I guess...

Answer 4

So you are looking for application that will create UI for manual testing of your service? Not sure if something like that is available for free. SoapUI PRO is able to do that but in contrast to common SoapUI it is not free. Basic SoapUI version requires tester to write XML messages directly.

You should think about your requirement. You want tester without any programming knowledge to test artificat which is for programmers - not for end users. You probably have to buy some tool or write your own solution to support such test.

Answer 5

WCF Test Client (WcfTestClient.exe)

You can find the WCF Test Client (WcfTestClient.exe) in the following location: *C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\Common7\IDE*

Using the WCFTestClient Tool to Test Service Operations