Say you have the following scenario:
- A SoapUI REST Project defining a Service / Resource / Method / Request
- Have generated lots of REST Request TestSteps from it
- Then later you need to update the request content in the service definition
- And need all related TestSteps to also have their request content updated across all your TestSuites and TestCases in the project?
Then you could manually update them, maybe write a script or even edit the project definition XML… or you could try this new SoapUI Plugin!
What It Does
- Adds a new menu item under the REST request menu
- When clicked this finds all TestSteps that were generated from the REST request
- Replaces the found TestSteps request content with the content from the REST request
- Only the request content for matching TestSteps is replaced, no other objects are changed
Usage
Here’s an example:
1. Consider the following small sample REST project:
- There are 4 requests under resource1, lets pick Request 4.
- Request 4 has two related REST Test Request TestSteps, both called Method3 – Request 4, one under TestCase 1 and the other under TestCase 2.
- Then we edit the request content for Request 4.
2.Then to replace the request content in the 2 related TestSteps with the Request 4 request content:
- Right-click on Request 4
- Select the new menu item Replace Request In All TestStep(s)
3. Then you should see the the following message:
At this point:
- The 2 Request 4 related TestSteps should have their request content replaced with Request 4s
- No other TestSteps should be affected.
4. Alternatively, if you try this on a request with no related TestSteps (like Request 2), then you should see the message:
At this point nothing will be changed.
Installation
- Please refer to the build and deployment steps on the GitHub project page https://github.com/bearsoftware/ReplaceRequestInAllTestStepsAction
- The first time you run the build, lots of SoapUI dependencies will be automatically downloaded and tests run, this might take a couple of minutes.
- I tested the custom action against SoapUI 5.3.0, but it should work on other versions.
Development Approach
The approach I am going to take is:
- Phase 1 (Done!) : First develop and trial the functionality as a SoapUI custom Action extension – this has allowed me to focus on the getting the core functionality ready for evaluation with the minimum focus on packaging.
- Phase 2 (Future Option) : Repackage the functionality as a SoapUI Plugin jar as a slightly neater option.
- Phase 3 (Future Option) : If the functionality seems popular and useful, I could make a pull request integrate the action code directly code into the SoapUI GitHub project as standard functionality.
Notes
In terms of limitations / further thoughts:
- At this stage this functionality should really be referred to as a SoapUI custom Action, rather than a plugin – I decided to call it a plugin because I may soon provide a way to repackage it as one (Phase 2).
- Currently only the request content gets replaced, not changes to the the parameters or media type – if this would be useful it could be added?
- I haven’t done any performance tests e.g. replaced 100 TestSteps, although I can – please let me know if you see any problems.
I’ve linked to this blog article from the SoapUI O/S Feature Request. Please let me know if there are any questions / issues / suggestions that you have either here or on the feature request. Thanks!