SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – News in SP19

SP19 comes with enhancements in the monitoring area as well as the new functions message preprocessing and an dataset editor.

Monitoring

Test messages in Message Overview and Performance monitors are marked as such and selectable now. The new column Test Message in the table Selection Details indicates whether the processed messages are test messages.

You can include or exclude test messages from the display list by checking “Include test messages” checkbox in the Custom Settings area of the Table Settings dialog.

Test Dataset Editor

With the dataset editor, you can now display the content of extracted test data and perform basic modifications.  While the editor allows you to change the test message list of a dataset, it does not provide any means to change payload or dynamic header values. In case you are interested in such changes, please have a look at our message preprocessing feature which offers an alternative way of doing this.

Please keep in mind that test datasets and their test messages are immutable. In order to ensure that continuous test verifications with a dataset produce meaningful, comparable and consistent results, we do not allow any modifications. Consequently, you can only create new datasets with the editor. Even when you save a modified dataset, you do not update the object. Instead the editor internally replaces it with a corresponding new object. In fact, the save-functionality just offers you a shortcut for deleting an existing – and so far unused –  dataset and creating a new one with a modified test message list and the previous name.

In case you would like to create a modified variant of a dataset which is already used in run configurations, just change it in the editor and then select Save As in the File menu. A regular Save is not possible in this case because such a dataset cannot be deleted and replaced. Therefore, after creating the new modified dataset, you will need to close the original editor without saving. Using the Save As functionality, it is of course also possible to create unmodified copies of existing datasets.

You can merge test data set and transfer test messages with copy, cut, and paste between data sets only if the datasets are compatible. Two datasets are compatible if they reference the same configuration object and are extracted from the same test system.

Copy: adds the selected test messages to an internal clipboard.

Paste: adds the test messages from the internal clipboard to the dataset.

Cut: deletes the selected test messages from the dataset and adds them to an internal clipboard.

Delete: deletes the selected test messages from the dataset.

Use the find functionality if you are interested in a particular message identifier which you ideally have already copied to the clipboard, for example from the NWA message monitor. The text field also offers an input-assist to complete identifiers in case you can memorize the first 2 or 3 digits.

Copy Test Case

It is possible now to create a copy of a Test Case using the Save As menu item in SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio (NWDS) . To copy a test case open it and select the menu File -> Save As. A new dialog opens and you can provide a new name. It must be a new, unique name. You can also decide if existing datasets should be taken over to the new Test Case as well.

Message Preprocessing

Message preprocessing allows you to replace values in the payload or values of dynamic headers on the fly before the message is injected in the target system. The replacement can be valid for all system combinations or only for one specific system.

Message preprocessing can be defined as part of a test case. You must create a preprocessing ruleset to define substitution rules to apply to the message.

Each preprocessing ruleset contains at least one preprocessing rule. The rule is applicable to a specified area – currently you can choose between payload or dynamic header. It contains at least one preprocessing instruction with a specified substitution flavor.

Each preprocessing instruction must contain either for the ‘Payload’ area a valid Xpath expression which points to an XML node or for the ‘Dynamic Header’ name and namespace.

You can combine preprocessing instructions pointing to the same or to different Xpath expressions/headers within one preprocessing rule.  At runtime, a value will be only replaced, if the corresponding XML node/header is found in the message and there is a suitable instruction for it. It is not possible to add or to remove an XML node or header into/from the message. A preprocessing instruction supports the usage of “*” wildcard which means ‘arbitrary value´.

Select this option to apply an existing replacement rule. If there are no replacement rules defined for the test case, this option is unavailable.

In the run configuration you can decide which preprocessing ruleset should be used at runtime. Only one preprocessing ruleset can be used per run.

The verification logs whether a message was modified by the preprocessing logic are also impacted. In the target system, its Before Mapping version will be different than in the source.

Payload preprocessing can also have implications on the outgoing message version, namely when the value from the incoming message is taken over to the outgoing message during mapping. Such differences are not exempted by default and must be exempted manually.

More Information about the PIT can be found in SAP Help Portal with direct links to

Message Preprocessing and Dataset Editor.

and please have also a look at the other blogs for the SAP Process Integrated Test Tool.

SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – First Steps

SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – Create and Execute a Test Case

SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – News in SP15

SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – News in SP16

SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – News in SP17

SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – News in SP18