R1-Developing and using custom Groovy libraries In SoapUI

Scenario

So maybe you’ve built up some useful Groovy code for over time that you use again and again, spread across your projects, but would rather manage it from one place? If so, this recipe shows how you can create and import them via jar files so that you can reuse them from SoapUI objects like Groovy TestSteps, Setup/Teardown Scripts and Script Assertions.

Why bother?

• This way of packaging your Java/Groovy code promotes reuse and can ease the maintainability of your commonly used test code.
• It is possible to use these libraries to override existing SoapUI code/functionality i.e. create patches.
• Whilst various recipes in the SoapUI Cookbook show how to use prebuilt Java/Groovy libraries, I felt this was a valid recipe and building block in its own right.

TIP: Quick Start – People who already have a suitable Java/Groovy library and just want to know how to use it in SoapUI, can jump in at step #6

Prep

This recipe uses Groovy and Gradle (v2.12) to compile and package the example Groovy class as a jar file. If you haven’t got Gradle, please refer to http://www.groovy-lang.org/download.html and https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/installation.html

For mac/linux I used SDKMAN! (http://sdkman.io/) e.g.

sdk install gradle
sdk install groovy (This is optional, useful if you want to run some Groovy without SoapUI)

Steps

1.Create the following directory structure

soapuilib/src/main/groovy/custom

2.Get some Groovy code

For this example, I have knocked together a simple script to generate sequential ids. It may be of little practical use, but I wanted something with a simple public static method to call. Since the method is static, there will be no need to instantiate the class before calling it in step #8.

package custom

import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong

public class SequentialIdGenerator {
public static final long counterSeed = 1000
public static final String prefix = "id"
private static AtomicLong counter = new AtomicLong(counterSeed)

public static String nextId() {
return prefix + counter.incrementAndGet()
}
}

• create the above script as a text file called SequentialIdGenerator.groovy
• copy it to soapuilib/src/main/groovy/custom

3.Create Gradle build script

For this part, there are plenty of options to build the code and package it, such as Maven, Ant or just running the right shell commands! The following minimal Gradle script allows us to compile and package the code as a jar in one easy statement.

apply plugin: 'groovy'

version = '1.0'

jar {
classifier = 'library'
manifest {
attributes 'Implementation-Title': 'SoapUI Sample Groovy Library', 'Implementation-Version': version
}
}

repositories {
mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
compile 'org.codehaus.groovy:groovy:2.1.7' //Matches Groovy in SoapUI 5.2.1
}

• Create the above Gradle script as soapuilib/build.gradle

5.Compile it & Create jar file

Now we’re ready to use the Gradle script to compile the sample script from step #2 and package it as a jar file.

• Open a shell/command prompt at soapuilib/
• gradle clean build jar

You should then see output like:

tests-MacBook-Pro:soapuilib test$ gradle clean build jar
:clean
:compileJava UP-TO-DATE
:compileGroovy
:processResources UP-TO-DATE
:classes
:jar
:assemble
:compileTestJava UP-TO-DATE
:compileTestGroovy UP-TO-DATE
:processTestResources UP-TO-DATE
:testClasses UP-TO-DATE
:test UP-TO-DATE
:check UP-TO-DATE
:build

BUILD SUCCESSFUL

Total time: 5.499 secs

This build could be faster, please consider using the Gradle Daemon: https://docs.gradle.org/2.12/userguide/gradle_daemon.html

and our new library jar file created under the directory:

soapuilib/build/soapuilib-1.0-sample.jar

6.Add jar file to SoapUI

To make our new Groovy library jar available for use in SoapUI, it should be added in SoapUI Home under the following external library directory:

Or the Windows equivalent e.g. C:\Program Files\SmartBear\SoapUI-5.2.1\bin\ext

7.Verify jar file is imported

When SoapUI is restarted, you should see the following log entry indicating that the jar file has been successfully added to the SoapUI classpath:

8.Call the code

Our SequentialIdGenerator has a public static method nextId() that we can call, so to do this we can either import the class (Example 1)  or just prefix the class with its package (Example 2). See below:

• Example 1 – Call from Groovy TestStep:

import custom.*

log.info SequentialIdGenerator.nextId()

Gives output like:

Thu May 12 16:49:20 BST 2016:INFO:id1001

• Example 2 – Call from Property Expansion:

${= custom.SequentialIdGenerator.nextId()}

More

This section may evolve over time e.g. include details of further use-cases and examples. Anything you’d like to see, please ask!

Links

No links yet.