Whereas most of this chapter described subtasks you perform as part of
a test or specific interface elements of the Integrated Test Environment
perspective, this section describes the workflow you typically follow to
perform a test. It incorporates most of the subtasks and involves most
of the interface elements. It recommends the most efficient and effective
techniques in situations where there are multiple ways of accomplishing
a subtask. Do the following to test an interface using Integrated Test
Environment:
-
Although you can deploy components to an InterChange Server Express instance by
using Integrated Test Environment, it is recommended that you perform all
deployment activities beforehand for the following reasons:
-
You avoid having to compile maps and collaboration templates as part of
the testing process.
-
You can start the components prior to the testing stage as well; components
must be deployed before they can be started. When you deploy connectors
you must restart the server to start them, and almost any interface involves
a connector, so it is not typically efficient to deploy the components
for an interface as part of the testing process.
-
If you have to test several interfaces you can do a single deployment prior
to testing, rather than having to make sure you oversee the proper deployment
for each interface during testing.
See your System Manager documentation for information on deploying components
using System Manager and repos_copy.
For information on deploying components by using Integrated Test Environment
(which is not recommended), reference one of the following sections:
-
Although you can manage component states by using Integrated Test Environment,
you can only do so for the components displayed in the Test Unit view.
If one of their dependent components is inactive you must start it using
a tool other than Integrated Test Environment anyway, so you can avoid
this possibility by ensuring all components are started beforehand.
To start components, use either the Windows-based System Monitor or
the web-based System Monitor. For information on these tools, see the
System
Administration Guide.
-
Register the InterChange Server Express you want to test with as a "Local Test
Server".
-
Start the Integrated Test Environment perspective as described in Starting
Integrated Test Environment.
-
Select the server you want to test with as described in Selecting
a server configuration.
If the server instance you want to use is not listed in the dialog,
try deleting it from the Server Instances view and re-registering it.
-
Configure RMI settings for your environment as described in Configuring
RMI settings. If you do not do this properly, you will not be able
to test interfaces using Integrated Test Environment.
-
Create a test project to contain the test
unit. For more information, see Creating
a test project.
-
Create a test unit for the interface you want to test. For more information,
see Creating a test unit
within Integrated Test Environment.
-
If you plan to deploy the components in the interface you are testing using
Integrated Test Environment, do the following:
-
Make sure the VisiBroker Smart Agent is started. For more information,
see the System Installation Guide for Windows or Unix.
-
Use the Task Manager view to start the server, bind the Integrated Test
Environment agent to it, and connect the Integrated Test Environment to
it as described in Using
the Task Manager view.
-
Enable the Server Context Overlay as described in Enabling
and disabling the Server Context Overlay.
-
Confirm that the components in the interface are in an active state.
It is recommended that you use the Windows-based System Monitor or web-based
System Monitor, as they can show the states of all the components in the
system, whereas the Server Context Overlay only displays the connectors,
collaboration objects, and parent-level maps in the interface. For more
information on the Windows-based System Monitor and web-based System Monitor,
see the System Administration Guide.
You can also use the Server Context Overlay to view the states of components,
as described in Using
the Server Context Overlay.
-
Show Connector Agent views for the clients in the interface.
It is recommended that you organize the Connector Agent views in a way
that makes sense to you. For instance, you might find it easiest to have
the view for the source connector in position 1 in the perspective (shared
with the ITE Navigator view), and to have the view for the destination
connector in position 4 in the perspective (shared with the Properties
view).
You can do one of the following to show and organize Connector Agent
views for the interface:
-
Execute the "Start connector views" task as described in Table
19 and then drag-and-drop the views to the positions you prefer.
-
Follow the instructions in Using,
showing, and closing Connector Agent views to choose which Connector
Agent view you want to use for each connector definition.
-
Connect the Connector Agent views to the server as described in Connecting
to the server.
Confirm that the clients connect to the server successfully as described
in
Confirming that a
client has connected to the server.
After you have confirmed that the clients connected to the server successfully,
configure the Connector Agent view for the source connector to use the
Input Pane as described in Using
the Input Pane and configure the Connector Agent view for the destination
connector to use the Result Pane as described in Using
the Result Pane.
-
If you want to use business object tracing, start it at this point so that
the data is captured when you begin to send business objects in the next
steps. For more information on starting the business object tracing task,
see Table 19.
-
Do the following to create and send a business
object request from the source connector:
-
Create a business object instance to send as a request as described in
Creating
request business objects.
-
Set values for the attributes of the business object instance as described
in Setting values for
business object attributes.
-
Save the business object instance to a file to be used in subsequent tests
as described in Saving
business objects.
-
Send the business object instance as a request as described in Sending
request business objects asynchronously or Sending
business object requests synchronously as appropriate.
-
Use the ICS Console view to observe the processing of the business object
as described in Using
the ITE Console and ICS Console views.
-
Do the following to examine the business object as different components
finish processing it:
-
Edit the response business object in the Result Pane of the destination
Connector Agent view as described in Editing
response business objects.
-
Send the business object response as a
reply as described in Sending
response business objects.
-
Repeat steps 17 through 21
to test the interface again, or repeat steps 7
through 21 to test another interface.