A Comparative Study of Web Service Testing Tools

1Mr. B. B. Patel, 2Dr. D. B. Choksi 1Associate Professor, 2Professor Department of Computer Science Sardar Patel University, V V Nagar, Gujarat, INDIA

Abstract - Software testing is a mechanism that is used to ensure a desired level of quality of a software product. Through software testing, one can gain an insight into the reliability of a software product. Professionals in the IT industry nowadays are looking for pieces of softwares made available through the Internet. Using the notion of a web service, applications can communicate with each other. Testing of a web service is important as it offers one of the modes of communication between applications. For any web service, important parameters like response time, availability, scalability, etc are generally considered as quality parameters. This paper is aimed at providing an insight into the technical details of various popular tools for appropriate selection of a web service testing tool.

Keywords : Software Testing, Web service, Reliability, Response time, Availability, Scalability, Quality.

I. Introduction Software testing plays an important role in the process of software development. Depending upon the nature of application, an appropriate testing mechanism is applied. With the advancement of technology and availability of infrastructure, trends towards development of web-based applications are increased. A web service offers one of the possible ways to support communication between applications. A web service is a software functionality that supports machine to machine communication over the World Wide Web[1, 5]. Web service provides services to execute components/services on a communication network. In order to perform testing of a web service, various tasks are required to be performed like generating the client code for the service, defining the required test data, consuming web service through the client code, verifying the actual response with the expected outcome, etc. Tools like SoapUI, WcfStorm, SOAPSonar, Wizdlw, SOATest, WebInject, etc. are available for testing web services.

II. Working of a Web Service Web services generally use the web technology like HTTP for transferring messages between electronic devices or applications. These messages are mostly in XML and JSON file formats[4]. A web service is based on the Request-response method[5]. It can be implemented by either of the two protocols – SOAP (Simple object access protocol) and REST (Representational State Transfer)[5]. Both the approaches support XML data transfer.

III. Testing a Web Service Web service testing means testing of web services and its protocols like SOAP & REST[3]. One can test web services manually or through automation code or using an off-the shelf automation tool[2].

The steps involved in web service testing are shown below:

 Understand the WSDL file  Determine the operations that a particular web service provides  Determine the XML request format which we need to send  Determine the response XML format  Use a tool or writing code to send request and validate the response

IV. Web service testing tools Various tools are available for testing web services in the form of open source or proprietary product. Each tool has its own capability to test web services and helps in identifying the quality level of web services. Some of the well-known web service testing tools include SoapUI, WcfStorm, SOAPSonar, WizdlW, SOAtest, WebInject and Wizdl.

The key features of some of the selected tools are described here: [a] SoapUI SoapUI[6] is an open source, cross-platform testing tool. SoapUI can perform regression, functional, compliance and load testing of both SOAP and REST web services. Easy-to-use graphical interface, industry-leading technologies support and standards help testers to stimulate behavior of web services.

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Key Features  Ability to print, export and HTML-based reports.  Supports XML API for defining and loading test cases.  Support integration with ANT, JUnit, Bamboo and Hudson.  Supports development of customized SoapUI Plugins.  Records, monitors, and displays of test data.  Easy to use Graphical User Interface.  Supports quick creation and execution of automated tests.  Powerful data-driven testing.  Provides end to end test coverage.  Supports all protocols and standards [b] WcfStorm WcfStrom[7] is a free web service testing tool. WcfStorm is an open source tool developed by CodePlex for testing web services written in .NET or Java. It supports SOAP web service. Key Features  Written using F#.  Capability to invoke web service methods dynamically.  Supports to test multiple web services.  Cost effective testing tool.  Helps in edit raw SOAP requests. [c] SOAPSonar SOAPSonar[8] allows you to rapidly test the web services. SOAPSonar provides comprehensive web services testing for HTML, XML, SOAP, REST, and JSON. SOAPSonar focuses on testing performance, functional, compliance, interoperability and security of web services. Key Features  Can send requests and receive responses directly.  Setup test cases easily and saved to run functional and regression tests of web services.  Test reports can be saved in PDF, CSV,XLS, RTF, RPT and XML format.  Support for scalability and robustness web service testing.  Can identify vulnerabilities in web services using XSD-mutation.  Supports WSDL and Schema parsing.  Support for integration with HP Quality Center. [d] WizdlW WizdIW[9] is developed using the C#.NET language and it helps you to rapidly import and test web services. Key Features  Handles complex web services.  Support .NET Windows form environment for testing web services. [e] SOAtest SOAtest[10] automates the full testing of web services and validating APIs and API-driven apps. It has a robust support for the functional unit, security, integration, mocking, simulation, compliance and load testing of technologies like JMS, XML, JSON, REST and HTTP.

Key Features  Robust support for REST and web services.  Can detect error at runtime.  Offers service virtualization and multi-layer validation, end-to-end testing and continuous integration testing.  Supports around 120 plus protocols, message formats, and platforms.  Easy to use interface. [f] WebInject

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WebInject[11] is a free Perl-based command-line tool for automated functional, acceptance, and regression testing of web and web services. It simplifies the execution of tests. It does not have any IDE like user interface. It can run on platforms, which have Perl interpreter. Key Features  Supports functional, acceptance and regression testing.  Allows testing distinct system modules that possess HTTP interfaces.  Supports real-time monitoring of response times.  Allows integration with other test frameworks and applications.  Supports web service protocols like SOAP or XML-RPC.

The following table-1 highlight the comparative study of the most popular web service testing tools:

Table-1 : Comparative study of web service testing tools Name of the Developed by Open/ Website Support Tool Licensed SoapUI SmartBear Open https://www.soapui.org Testing tool for SOAP and REST APIs. Software Wcfstorm WcfStorm Licensed http://www.wcfstorm.com WcfStorm is a dead-simple, easy-to-use test Solutions workbench for WCF Services. It supports all bindings (except webHttp) . SOAPSonar Crosscheck Licensed http://www.crosschecknet.com SOAP and XML WSDL Testing. Networks WizdlW Ajai Shankar Open https://wizdl.codeplex.com Allows you to quickly import and test web services within the comfort of a Windows Forms GUI. SOATest Parasoft Licensed https://www.parasoft.com Testing and validating APIs and API-driven applications. WebInject Corey Goldberg Open www.webinject.org Automated testing of web applications and web services

V. Conclusion In this paper, the study of various web service testing tools is discussed. Also, the steps involved in web service testing are presented. An attempt is made to present features of most popularly used tools like SoapUI, WcfStorm, SOAPSonar, WizdlW, SOAtest, WebInject and Wizdl. VI. References

[1] Neha Sharma, Pratibha Sharma, Hakam Singh, “A Comparative Study of Web Service Testing Tool”, International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), Pg. 1457-1460, ISSN: 2321-9939, Volume-5, Issue-2, 2017. [2] Ravi Kumar, A.J Singh, “A Comparative Study and Analysis of Web Service Testing Tools”, International Journal of Computer Science and Mobile Computing (IJCSMC), Pg. 433-442, ISSN 2320–088X, Vol.-4, Issue-1, January 2015. [3] https://www.guru99.com/webservice-testing-beginner-guide.html [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service [5] https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/web-services-testing-tools [6] https://www.soapui.org [7] http://www.wcfstorm.com [8] http://www.crosschecknet.com [9] http://wizdl.codeplex.com [10] https://www.parasoft.com [11] www.webinject.org

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