Understanding Automated Integration Point Testing

PeopleSoft provides a means for automated integration point testing. You can perform automated integration point testing as a means to unit test, perform cross-application business process testing, or regression test integration points.

Automated integration point testing is suitable for testing integration points between PeopleSoft systems, PeopleSoft systems and third-party systems, and PeopleSoft systems and open interfaces.

You can use automated integration point testing with the following PeopleSoft integration technologies:

  • Service operations.

  • Component interfaces.

  • Flat files.

  • Staging tables.

The automated integration point testing process entails:

  1. Recording service operation transactions.

  2. Exporting service operation transactions.

  3. Playing back service operation transactions.

  4. Managing testing results.

Recording Service Operations

When you use integration point test automation, PeopleSoft Integration Broker records service operation details as they traverse between PeopleSoft applications, as well as between PeopleSoft and third-party applications. This enables you to test integration when these systems are not available, and then play back the service operations at a later time to mimic integrating with the systems.

For synchronous transactions, PeopleSoft Integration Broker saves request and response service operation transactions as flat files, one file per service operation transaction, in an integration point repository. For asynchronous transactions, PeopleSoft Integration Broker only saves requests.

Exporting Service Operations

PeopleSoft Integration Broker provides an export process that persists recorded request and response data as files to disk. After you export files, you can add them to your integration point certification repository.

To carry out the export process, you use the Message Export command line tool.

Playing Back Service Operations

Service operation transaction playback consists of outbound and inbound playback.

Outbound playback refers to testing from the source system when the target is not available. Inbound playback refers to testing the target system when the source is not available. In either case, you can use Send Master or the Batch Project Executor to act at the source system.

Managing Testing Results

The integration point test tool writes service operation transactions as files in directories to an integration point test data repository. After testing is complete, these directories of service operation transaction data need to be managed in a repository for subsequent use.

You can use automated integration point testing for the following levels of testing:

  • Unit testing during integration point development.

  • Cross-application business process testing.

  • Regression testing.

Unit Testing Integration Points

Unit testing occurs during integration point development, prior to cross-application business process testing. The components of an integration point that you can test include sending service operations, handlers, transformations, and content-based routing logic. You can also test business logic in a component that will behave differently when accessed from a component interface than when accessed through a PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture page.

The process for unit testing integration points is:

  1. Build integration points prior to cross-business business-process testing.

  2. Generate test data for the integration point test process.

  3. Use the integration point test automation tools to test the integration point.

  4. Validate results by reviewing the Service Operations Monitor for both inbound and outbound service operation transactions. You can further verify inbound playback results by viewing the tables involved in the integration.

  5. Validate dependent processes by running a process that depends on the data being integrated.

  6. Submit ‘bad’ service operation transactions to test error handling.

  7. Submit service operation transactions in bulk to volume test the integration point.

Cross-Application Business Process Testing

Business process testing involves testing integration points in one application against a target application and version for which it was designed. As an example, you could test integration points between two PeopleSoft applications.

The steps for cross-application business-process testing are:

  1. Set up multiple product lines in one test environment.

  2. Manually enter data on PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture pages, or use an automated tool for doing so.

    PeopleSoft Integration Broker records the integration point service operation transactions.

  3. Run dependent processes on each side to validate the data.

    Note: For full synchronous service operations testing, running dependent processes might not be practical, due to the large number of transactions involved. You can open the table records to verify that the data that you expect is present, or use an automated database table compare tool.

  4. Consolidate service operation transaction data into a test repository for later use.

Regression Testing

Regression occurs after cross-application business process testing. You can minimize the need for regression testing by requiring users to test their code changes with the data captured during testing. This enables you to test published interfaces in other applications against changes to integration points in the application.

The process for regression testing is:

  • Play back service operation transactions recorded during testing to test integration points.

  • Run dependent processes to validate results.