Service Virtualization

I am trying to virtualize a rest service which has two transactions: 

1- Post call with Customer Name and token

2- Get call with the token to retrieve the data

I was wondering if someone could help me and tell me how I can select the token from the first request and connect it to the second call. 

Hello Ali, 

While you are creating a VSI you can select the conversation starter and specify the token. Below the link to the documentation, please take a look at Conversation Starter Transactions and Token Identification area:

HTTP/S Transport Protocol - DevTest Solutions - 10.1 - CA Technologies Documentation 

You can also use the Request Data Manager DPH to set a session key.

Request Data Manager Data Protocol - DevTest Solutions - 10.1 - CA Technologies Documentation 

VSM and VSI "kioskV5" under the Examples project is an example of stateful service.

Hope it helps.

Heloisa

Hi Maria,
Thanks for your response. I checked those links but I couldn't figure it out. Let me give you more details. In the first request (POST), there are two fields: CustomerName and RequestID. The response to the POST call is static ("Request Received"). The second call (GET) only has one argument "RequestID" and the response has customer information of "CustomerName". I have two challenges to virtualize this service:
1- RequestID is a random number that requester system generates at run time, so I can't have the right value for it in my request/response pairs when I am creating the image.

2- The second call only has the RequestID. So, I should use RequestID to get the name from the first call and return the information for that name. Since RequestID is only part of the request, I can't access it in the "Token Identification Area"

Thanks for your help.

Ali

Ali, add the "Request Data Manager" data protocol when you do the recording.  There is an option to copy a request argument as the "LISA Session Key".  I believe this will do what you need.

Thanks Robert. I defined a new action to copy the RequestID to LISA Session Key. Now I can see that both calls are part of the same conversation session but I can't access the CustomerName argument from the first call in the matching script of the second call.

Check the "Magic String" checkbox in the service image editor next to the customer name argument, then save and redeploy.

Robert, I did mark the name as "Magic String" but it didn't work. I have attached RRpairs for a conversation. Hopefully these files can clarify the issue. Each customer has a different address. When I am creating the VSI, I don't know what will be the RequestID on the requests for each customer so the values in my RRpairs are dummy. In order to send the right response to the second call, I need to know the customer name for that RequestID from the first call. I thought using the RequestID as the session key can help me to access the CustomerName on the first call, but it doesn't work.

Ali,

Wondering if the "Name in Session" field in the VSI under Request Data would help you.

You can try giving a name under the "Name in Session" field in the first transaction and then use this name in the next transaction - using double curly braces.

Thanks Maria. Your suggestion was really helpful. Is there anyway that I can use the same "Match Script" for all transactions in the second call or I should add the same script to all of them?

Ali,

You will need to add the match script to the transactions you want, but if you are using the same match script in every transaction, maybe it will be a good idea to have that script in the VSM, before the VS Image Response selection step.

Heloisa

I put an "Execute script" node before my "VS Image Response Selection" node and I added the script there. When I test it, it doesn't work (can't find vse request). How should I add the script on the model properly?

Thanks for your help.

You'd have to add the match script onto each response in the service image.  There's no way to globally apply it.

Match scripts execute slowly and I don't generally recommend them.  Use a different approach if you can, for instance a Data Protocol to reformat the incoming request.

Is it necessary to connect the both together?

The first call will only need the Virtual Service to respond with an acknowledgement. This is straightforward and done.

The second call will need the Virtual Service to respond according to the request ID, this is having issue? Have you tried using Data-Driven Virtual Service? Since the the request token is sent by the upstream system, the Virtual Service should only perform up to just matching and responding to the request.

Create Data-Driven Virtual Services - DevTest Solutions - 10.0 - CA Technologies Documentation 

Yes, we need to connect them together.