Rational Integration Tester reference

Rational® Integration Tester is a scripting-free environment for developing tests for service-oriented architecture (SOA) messaging and business process integration projects. Tests can be built by recording existing system behaviors or from requirements, by entering the data to send and the data that is expected in return.

Rational Integration Tester is compatible with a number of enterprise messaging solutions (for example, JMS, TIBCO EMS) by using a collection of protocol-specific or format-specific plug-ins. The following is about Rational Integration Tester, its environment, and its configuration – it does not discuss specific messaging technologies (for example, TIBCO EM, JMS implementations). If you want to familiarize yourself with such technologies, refer to the documentation that is provided by the relevant companies or individuals.

The following provides details of how to use Integration Tester. Rational Integration Tester is compatible with a number of enterprise messaging solutions (for example, JMS, TIBCO EMS) by using a collection of protocol-specific or format-specific plug-ins.

Rational Integration Tester projects: Getting started
When you launch Rational Integration Tester, a welcome dialog is displayed that you can use to create a new project or open an existing one. All work is organized into individual projects, similar to a development IDE. This organization allows for simpler organization of complex test scenarios.
Rational Integration Tester workbench
The main window of Rational Integration Tester is a workbench that contains several dockable windows. These windows are organized in a logical way, providing an intuitive, easy-to-use central workspace. You can view the workbench from one of several perspectives: Architecture School, Recording Studio, Test Factory, Test Lab, and Results Gallery.
Tags for dynamic data access
Tags are like data variables in Rational Integration Tester, consisting of a name and a default value. Tags can be used throughout the application to allow for dynamic data access. Tags can be used in most fields within Rational Integration Tester (for example, message headers, body elements, function definitions).
Environment properties, bindings, and tasks
Environments are typically used to create configurations for different parts of a product workflow (for example, Development, QA, UAT).
Test cycles overview and management
A test cycle is a container for tests and test suites that spans multiple users and projects. The result of each test that is executed inside a Test Cycle is persisted to the database, regardless of whether the test is inside a suite or not. To work with test cycles, you use the Test Cycle Manager window.
Project settings and tasks
You can view the project settings by selecting Project > Project Settings from the main Rational Integration Tester menu. You can view and edit the properties for project, server settings, date formats, change management, quality management, permission settings, permissions, results publishers, and APM preferences. You can also create an email publisher or switch users on a project.
Changing application preferences
Much of Rational Integration Tester behavior can be customized in the application preferences.
Messages
Rational Integration Tester can publish and subscribe to messages as part of a test. A message normally consists of two parts: a header and a body. The header usually adheres to a predefined logical construction, while the structure of the body can be more arbitrary.
Types of schema resources
Rational Integration Tester can handle many types of content. For the product to be able to interpret this variety of content types, it must associate a content format description, or schema with the content.
Actions in a test step
Actions are the building blocks of a test. A test consists of a series of steps and each step is an action. Actions can be defined for tests and stubs.
The Add Numbers service
The Add Numbers service, included with Rational Integration Tester, provides a simple way to generate messages that you can observe with topology discovery or capture in Recording Studio.
Scripting within tests and stubs
You can write scripts in Rational Integration Tester by using the Rational Integration Tester legacy scripting language, ECMAScript (such as JavaScript), or a third-party scripting language that you install.
Database resources, connections, and bindings
Rational Integration Tester can interact with any database that supports connectivity through the JDBC specification, or through COBOL DB2® program on z/OS®. These interactions can be used to extract or update data where necessary, and test data sets can be taken directly from database table content.
Creating and configuring identity stores
An identity store can group a collection of one or more certificates that can be used in IBM® Rational Integration Tester to validate and authenticate connections that use SSL. After you create an identity store, you can use it to enable SSL communications in various messaging transports.
Running and viewing test artifacts with external tools
Rational Integration Tester is primarily GUI-based, but you can also run or view tests, suites, and stubs outside of the Integration Tester GUI.
Formatting and parsing date-time patterns
For some fields in Rational Integration Tester, you can define patterns for date-time formatting. Pattern letters are repeated, as their number determines the exact presentation of the date-time information that they represent.
Creating a behavior
Behaviors are reusable units that make available a utility or business logic for use within Rational Integration Tester.

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