What is SoapUI and How Does It Help in Web Services Testing?

Nowadays testers plug in a variety of web services into a web application to boost its functionality and performance without writing any additional code. Web services make the web application communicate with third-party services smoothly regardless of the technology and system architecture. But testers often find it a daunting challenge to assess the functionality and performance of individual web services in an exact and accurate way. As an open source application, SoapUI helps programmers to test web services accurately without putting any extra time and efforts. There are also a number of reasons why a large percentage of web testers use SoapUI for web service testing.

Why SoapUI is used widely by Testers for Testing Web Services?

Supports Many Protocols

SoapUI makes it easier for QA professionals to test a wide variety of web services by supporting major protocols. In addition to SOAP, WSDL and HTTP, the application also supports REST, AMF, JDBC and JMS. So testers can use a single tool to test applications and services written in different programming languages. Also, they can assess all aspects of the web services accurately regardless of the underlying technology.

Provides a Graphical Interface

The graphical interface provided by SoapUI enables users to test web services without having adequate technical expertise. They can further use the graphical interface to test web services based on both WSDL and SOAP. The web service client provided by the graphical interface can further generate web services and requests automatically.

Provides a Command Line Option

The experienced QA professionals also have option to use the command line option provided by SoapUI. So they can run the tests directly from the task scheduler. The option enables them to execute the automated tests in batch files. The testers can further use the command line option to customize the execution of tests, and having control over tests, output and parameters. 

Facilitates Regression and Functional Testing Automation

The testers can use SoapUI to automate their functional and regression testing efforts without putting any extra effort. They can simply avail the features provided by the application to validate the quality of web services. Further, they can easily write functional tests, create test suites, add test cases to the test suite, and add assertions to the test cases. The users can further take advantage of the drag and drop action to simplify creation and execution of complex test scenarios.

Allows Testers to Replicate Web Services in Advance

Often developers find it daunting to test the web services in the implementation stage. Many developers even put additional time and effort to replicate the full-scale production environment to test the web services effectively. SoapUI makes it easier for QA professionals to test web services without replicating production environment. They can use the application to test web services before their implementation. SoapUI further helps testers to mimic the behaviour and features of both REST and SOAP APIs through the SoapUI Mock Services.

 Supports Multiple Environments

SoapUI can be used for performing functional and regression tests in both staging and production environments. So the testers can use a single tool to assess the web services in multiple environments. At the same time, they also have option to change the test setup smoothly according to the environment.

Comes with Advanced Security Features

SoapUI further comes with features to protect the web application and services from various security threats. It helps users to secure their databases by creating and submitting malicious SQL statements. Likewise, the QA professionals can conduct XML bomb scans to check if the website’s performance is affected when users try to submit larger documents. They can further prevent cross site scripting (XSS) attacks by checking if the parameters used in its messages are being exposed by the web service.

Despite being an open source tool, SoapUI is being updated at frequent intervals. The SoapUI 5.2 comes with JSON based assertions and three distinct built-in functions. At the same time, enterprises can also invest in SoapUI Pro to avail a number of additional features and enhancements for web service testing.

How does Regression Test ensure Better Functioning of Application?

Most enterprises nowadays make changes to the systems at regular intervals to make their software applications deliver richer user experience. The changes made to the system can be either functional or non-functional. For instance, a business may add new functionality to its software, upgrade to the latest version of a technology, modify the existing system configuration, or install security patches and updates. That is why; modern testers have to frequently deal with changes made to both functional and non-functional areas of a system.

Likewise, the QA professionals also need to ensure that the functionality and performance of the application remain intact despite changes made to the system. They perform regression tests to identify the new flaws or bugs created due to changes made to the system. They also need to conduct several tests again to assess the changes in the application’s behaviour and performance more accurately in the changed environment. Thus, regression testing ensures that the applications functions flawlessly despite the changes made to the system.

Understanding Important Benefits of Regression Testing

Ø  Often the changes made to the system or application results in new bugs or flaws. So the functionality and performance of an application is affected each time they system or application is modified. The QA professionals can easily identify the bugs and flaws generated due to these changes by conducting regression testing. The programmers can work on the flaws identified by the testers, and make the software application perform flawlessly despite the changes.

Ø  Whenever the operating environment of an application is modified, the modification has several side-effects. For instance, when a business switches from one operating system to another, the new operating environment will have a direct impact on the application’s functionality. Likewise, the functionality of the application will be impacted at the time of migrating to an upgraded version of the platform. The QA professionals can conduct regression tests repeatedly to identify and eliminate such side-effects.

Ø  Many QA professionals nowadays try to effectuate integration testing through regression tests. Instead on performing integration testing in a conventional way, they prefer running regression tests to assess the performance of the application more accurately. They simply run regression tests after all modules or components of the software are integrated to ensure that the application runs flawlessly in the specific environment.

Ø  The enterprises frequently add new features and functionality to their applications to enhance their popularity and profitability. Each time a new feature is added to the software or some bug in fixed by developers, the code base changes. There are always chances that the changes made to the code will have a negative impact on the application’s functionality. The QA professionals can perform regression testing to ensure that the application functions flawlessly despite changes made to the code.

Ø  In addition to assessing the functionality of the application after changes are made to the system, regression testing also helps QA professionals to track the quality of the output. For instance, regression testing of a compiler can be conducted to assess the size of the code base or determine the amount of time required for executing test suites. The testers can further execute the test cases repeatedly to ensure that the code base is easy to manage and maintain.

As enterprises frequently make changes to their systems, regression testing becomes repetitive and continuous. So a business can always consider automating its regression testing efforts to get accurate test results within a shorter amount of time. The regression testing tools will make it easier for testers to execute existing test suites quickly, and create new test cases easily according to the changes made to the system.

Why Early Introduction of Functional Testing in SDLC is Wise?

Software testing is often considered to be the pillars of success for the developing software. Its role becomes evident since before the start of the development process (with the feasibility testing procedure) and continues till after the development process has ended. In this article we will discuss the role of early introduction of the functional testing in Software Development Life Cycle or SDLC and why it is wise to do so.

In most cases, it is seen that the software developing organizations do not start testing the software till after the software has been already coded and then transformed into an application. However, this process is risky and often ends up to be helpless and cost ineffective. In order to create a quality product with high security levels, the SDLC should be improved which can be done only with the help of the introduction of the functional testing of the software as early as possible in the SDLC.

Statistics show that most of the bugs that a software may encounter are detected by the testing procedure at an early stage of the SDLC. The bugs that are detected at a later stage are usually harder to resolve and causes many more complications, thus wasting more money and time. To prevent this loss, testing should be initiated as soon as possible in the SDLC phase.

Theoretically SDLC consists of four broad stages:

1.   The planning phase where the entire process and working principle are planned for the particular software and it is seen that the client requirements are met by the whole plan.

2.  Based on this planning procedure, the estimated completion time of the software is detected.

3.     Each of the planned steps depends on the success of the previous step. Completion of the previous step, initiates the next step.

4.      Actual testing of the software on completion of the software creation.

However, in reality, things do not work out as smoothly and the completion time is altered.

A flexible working time for the development of the software often yields a good quality product, but a rigid time period allows less time in the testing phase, ultimately resulting in poor software and customer dissatisfaction. This is one of the major reasons why it is considered wise to introduce functional testing in an early SDLC stage. It prevents the piling up of the test results for the end and provides ample time for the developers to fix all the bugs that could possibly make the software weak and cause problems with the functionality.

Another major advantage of introducing functionality testing at an early phase of SDLC is the fact that it saves up a lot on the monetary front as well as time of the organization. In the initial stage of the SDLC, the bugs that are developed are small and hence can be easily fixed with minimal tweaking and it leaves the major functionality of the software unaltered. However, with the advancement in the SDLC process, more functions are added to the system giving rise to more complicated bugs that become harder to fix and consume more time and money.

So now that you are aware of all the issues that the SDLC faces due to a delayed functionality testing, we hope you will be able to judge the benefits of early introduction of the same.

What Do We Know About Regression Testing?

When it comes to software development process, even a small change can bring forth major unexpected changes in the functionality of the whole system. Here comes the role of the regression testing. Regression testing is done to check if the existing functionality is rendered unaltered even by the tweaks made to abolish the bugs. It also provides with proof that the eradicated bugs are not brought to life again.

Regression testing is done whenever any kind of changes are applied to the system, so as to check if the system is working properly as desired. Bigger the changes made, bigger will be the possibility of the software functionality to be affected. Basically regression testing has two steps:

1.    Conducting the already performed tests.

2.    Checking the results of the tests with the previously available results to check if the system is up and running and what new bugs have developed which needs to be eradicated to make the software function well.

The regression tests are performed from time to time in patches to save both time and money on the testing process by preventing the errors to pile up at the end.

Various software testers take different approaches towards the regression testing of software available to them. While a part of the tester prefers testing the whole system after a certain amount of development is done, another set prefers testing the software every time a small change is made in the source code. In a way the later method is better as particular software is capable of showing completely surprising changes in the system which can be sparsely related to the changes made to the system. Luckily, (thanks to the technology available these days) testers can now create a library of various tests with the previously available data from functional tests, unit tests, integration tests, build verification tests or any other tests which helps in verifying that the system is performing as desired.

With the advent of automatic testing of software, regression testing has been made easier. Now a days a set of tests can be scripted with the help of codes and with just a few clicks of the mouse, these tests can be performed on the software under examination to check the validity of the system and the status of the abolished bugs. Although this automation helps in stress removal from the testers, it has some shortcomings too. When you are performing the same test over and over again, there are chances that the regression test system will become a standstill. At times it may also happen that the developers trick the automated regression test system to overlook certain errors and in this way your system will end up overlooking most of the errors. So, even if the automation saves a lot of time and energy, from time to time, manual inputs are needed to keep the system up and running.

In order to get the most out of regression testing of software, testers have to strike a balance in between the automation of the process and the manual aspect of the test. Also, regression testing should be introduced at an early stage of the software development life cycle so that maximum test coverage of the software can be achieved and piling up of the system can be avoided. 

The Different Types of Functional Testing

Software testing is an important part of the software development life cycle and should be done with utmost care in order to ensure the success of the software. Functional testing is a part of the software testing procedure which renders perfectly functioning software to the users.

People often have the misconception that functional testing of the software just deals with testing the software’s functionality to check that it provides the right output when fed with a particular input. But in reality functional testing deals with a lot more than just testing how the software functions. Software testing is classified into various types which are discussed in this article. These various tests are very important to ensure software which will be equipped to handle any kind of scenario or stress load.

1. Function Based Testing: Of the various types of functional tests that can be performed, this is probably the easiest one which is possible. It just takes the individual modules of the software and checks if it works properly. You check the component with various scenarios. You check it both individually and also you test the components functionality when they are working with each other as a whole system.
2. Scenario Based Testing: This type of functional testing can be a tad bit complex. Ultimately the software that is being developed is going to be used by the end users. In the real world, the software will be facing scenarios which are both simple and complex. Successful software is one which can smoothly perform in both the situations with equal ease. It is the job of the software tester to check the software’s functionality in such situations. The detected defects should be reported along with the scenarios in which they were tested so that it can be rectified.
3. Negative Testing: When the software is being used by the end users, there are numerable numbers of ways in which the users may handle the software in a wrong way. Negative testing checks the functionality of the software in such negative situations. These tests check how well the software handles these negative situations. The negative testing also ensures that no permanent damage or loss of data occurs when the software is going through the negative situations.
4. Long Range Testing: Long range testing checks the software for prolonged working period. There are situations in which the software may have to be up and working for a long period of time. In such situations, chances are that the software may crash due to the long working periods. Long period testing ensures that the software keeps running with similar ease for the entire period of time. It also detects the flaws that may appear in the software for the long working periods i.e. due to over loading. The functionality of the software in situations like long file processing is checked in long range testing.

Yes! We accept that some of the tests which are mentioned under the category of fictional testing may appear to be similar and overlapping. However each of the tests are important for the detection of the defects that may appear on the functional front of the software and must be performed for delivering a quality product to the customers or end users.

Objectives of Performing Functional Testing

Software testing is one of the most important and integral part of the software development life cycle, which is gaining importance day by day. Not only does it checks the performance, efficacy of the system, but also strives to make the system a better one. People are starting to take heed of the fact that the success of a software depends hugely on the testing procedure performed on it. The software testing procedure starts off before the development process and lasts till after the development has been finished. While the whole process is an elaborate one, functional testing is an integral part of the process.

Functional testing basically deals with the checking of the functionality of a particular product, but it packs a little more punch to the process. It not only checks how the software is functioning or the defects that are produced in the result, but also other related things which may affect the function of the same. Certain objectives are to be kept in mind while performing the functional tests on a product.

1. The main aim of the functional testing is to check of the given piece of product is delivering the results which it was desired to i.e. it is functioning properly.
2. Just checking the functionality at a controlled environment is not enough. The product should be checked for proper functioning at adverse situations which it may face in the real world.
3. It is not uncommon for the end users to mal handle the product, hence the functionality of the same may get affected in such situations. Functionality testing checks the software for such adverse occurrences.
4. Often, it may so happen that the product is being utilized for a long period of time. This may cause overloading of the system which in turn affects functionality. Functional testing checks how the product works even after prolonged utilization.
5. Functionality testing checks how the system is behaving when a wide range of valid inputs are supplied to it in a chronological or haphazard method to see whether it provides the correct output or not.
6. At times, the end users may end up feeding the product with invalid inputs. The behaviour of the product in such cases is also tested by functionality testing.
7. Apart from testing the individual components of the software, functional testing also checks how the system is working as a whole when the various components will have to depend on each other.
8. It also checks the system of the product to see whether it delivers the desired results.
9. Another major job of the functional testing is to detect all the simple failures that may cause rejection of the product at the very basic level.
10. Functional testing is done to check the modifications that will make the product more acceptable to the targeted customers. It basically concentrates more on how to satisfy the customers with the functional aspect of the product than the designing aspect.

While you are performing a functional test on the system, it is best to keep the above objectives in mind in order to get the maximum output from the procedure. However, there are many more aspects which you can take heed of while performing the test apart from those mentioned in the article.