It is a couple of weeks ago that service package 21 was released on the service marketplace and it contains as usual new features for PIT.
Maybe you experienced following situation already yourself. You want to use PIT first time, maintain connection data, and enter a correct HTTPs URL to the PIT server. Your user has all necessary permissions, you are sure that you typed your password correct. But even though you see only the following error and the door stays closed:
The security check in PIT is strong and does not allow a secured connection if server’s certificate is not known or the chain of trusted certificates is incomplete. So far, there was only one recommended option to resolve this error - import the servers certificate into the trust store of the Java VM (for details check out question & answer 2 in FAQ: SAP Process Integration Test tool (PIT)). However, in case of a very strict security policy in your company this might become a challenge.
With SP21 we added a new way to provide the certificate in the NWDS itself. Use the dialog Preferences -> General -> Security -> Personal Certificates and upload a public certificate of the PIT server, select “Apply” and close the dialog. If you use your NWDS instance to connect to many different PIT systems, it is recommended to upload one of the root certificates, which is part of the trusted chain for all required systems.
PIT will use this certificate to validate the secured connection and to get the door opened. For further options concerning establishing HTTPs connection, please consult SAP Note 3019564.
With the previous service package 20 we introduced a new test strategy in PIT and added support for negative tests and the possibility to extract failed messages from the source system. Even if the recommendation is to keep datasets homogeneous (means, containing either successful or failed messages), it is possible to extract also mixed datasets.
Until now, only negative tests were supported for a mixed data set. With SP 21 you can choose a mixed data set also for a positive test. But keep in mind, that not all messages with errors are suitable for a positive test. A message must contain at least one after-mapping version in order to be suitable for a validation in a positive test. Otherwise validation for this message will fail with the error message “Source msg cannot be used for verification”.
For all other messages – successful or erroneous but with AM version the content validation can be executed in well-known way.
By the way, you can use the editing functionalities of the test dataset editor (cut, paste, copy and merge) to create a new homogenous test dataset out of a mixed dataset. Please check out the documentation for details on all features of the data set editor.
With the service package 19 message preprocessing feature was introduced. 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. So far message preprocessing was supported only for messages with XML payload. Now, you can apply message preprocessing also for messages having a text payload.
Add a new Preprocessing Ruleset and define a new Preprocessing Rule with Area ‘Payload’ and Content Type ‘Text’. Select the substitution type and fill-in-support, if desired. As text content is typically not modeled in ESR, option ‘Interface from ESR’ is not available for text payloads.
Add at least one instruction to the instruction list. You can either enter source and target values directly or use source value F4 help to select the content from the sample message. You mark the text to be substituted directly in the message preview or search for it using the search text box. The selected text is taken over as source value when you confirm the dialog with OK.
If you want to replace different values add multiple instructions to cover them all.
Maintain a target value which should replace the source value.
If you want to check that message preprocessing is defined and applied correctly, go to the second wizard page showing message preprocessing test mode.
If you want to know more about message preprocessing check out Message Preprocessing chapter in the documentation and the previous blog.
Last but not least good news is that PIT is now supported also on dual-usage type systems. That means, you can install PIT also on a dual-usage type machine and do not need an extra AEX system for it. Still there is no change regarding supported target scenarios, they are limited to Java-only configuration (Integration Flow and Integrated Configuration) as before.
As in Java-only case, you need to execute CTC Configuration Wizard ‘PI Test Tool’ as technical prerequisite to use PIT (see Prerequisites).
More Information about PIT can be found in SAP Help Portal and our other PIT series blogs:
SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – First Steps
SAP Process Integration Test Tool (PIT) – Create and Execute a Test Case
Improved Connection to PIT Server Using HTTPs
Maybe you experienced following situation already yourself. You want to use PIT first time, maintain connection data, and enter a correct HTTPs URL to the PIT server. Your user has all necessary permissions, you are sure that you typed your password correct. But even though you see only the following error and the door stays closed:
Error during login when connecting using HTTPs
The security check in PIT is strong and does not allow a secured connection if server’s certificate is not known or the chain of trusted certificates is incomplete. So far, there was only one recommended option to resolve this error - import the servers certificate into the trust store of the Java VM (for details check out question & answer 2 in FAQ: SAP Process Integration Test tool (PIT)). However, in case of a very strict security policy in your company this might become a challenge.
With SP21 we added a new way to provide the certificate in the NWDS itself. Use the dialog Preferences -> General -> Security -> Personal Certificates and upload a public certificate of the PIT server, select “Apply” and close the dialog. If you use your NWDS instance to connect to many different PIT systems, it is recommended to upload one of the root certificates, which is part of the trusted chain for all required systems.
Upload servers certificate
PIT will use this certificate to validate the secured connection and to get the door opened. For further options concerning establishing HTTPs connection, please consult SAP Note 3019564.
Positive Test with a Mixed Data Set
With the previous service package 20 we introduced a new test strategy in PIT and added support for negative tests and the possibility to extract failed messages from the source system. Even if the recommendation is to keep datasets homogeneous (means, containing either successful or failed messages), it is possible to extract also mixed datasets.
Until now, only negative tests were supported for a mixed data set. With SP 21 you can choose a mixed data set also for a positive test. But keep in mind, that not all messages with errors are suitable for a positive test. A message must contain at least one after-mapping version in order to be suitable for a validation in a positive test. Otherwise validation for this message will fail with the error message “Source msg cannot be used for verification”.
For all other messages – successful or erroneous but with AM version the content validation can be executed in well-known way.
Positive test with a mixed dataset
By the way, you can use the editing functionalities of the test dataset editor (cut, paste, copy and merge) to create a new homogenous test dataset out of a mixed dataset. Please check out the documentation for details on all features of the data set editor.
Message Preprocessing for a Text Payload
With the service package 19 message preprocessing feature was introduced. 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. So far message preprocessing was supported only for messages with XML payload. Now, you can apply message preprocessing also for messages having a text payload.
Add a new Preprocessing Ruleset and define a new Preprocessing Rule with Area ‘Payload’ and Content Type ‘Text’. Select the substitution type and fill-in-support, if desired. As text content is typically not modeled in ESR, option ‘Interface from ESR’ is not available for text payloads.
Add new text preprocessing rule
Add at least one instruction to the instruction list. You can either enter source and target values directly or use source value F4 help to select the content from the sample message. You mark the text to be substituted directly in the message preview or search for it using the search text box. The selected text is taken over as source value when you confirm the dialog with OK.
If you want to replace different values add multiple instructions to cover them all.
Select source text to be replaced
Maintain a target value which should replace the source value.
Enter desired target value
If you want to check that message preprocessing is defined and applied correctly, go to the second wizard page showing message preprocessing test mode.
Check message preprocessing in test mode
If you want to know more about message preprocessing check out Message Preprocessing chapter in the documentation and the previous blog.
Use PIT on dual usage type installation
Last but not least good news is that PIT is now supported also on dual-usage type systems. That means, you can install PIT also on a dual-usage type machine and do not need an extra AEX system for it. Still there is no change regarding supported target scenarios, they are limited to Java-only configuration (Integration Flow and Integrated Configuration) as before.
As in Java-only case, you need to execute CTC Configuration Wizard ‘PI Test Tool’ as technical prerequisite to use PIT (see Prerequisites).
More Information about PIT can be found in SAP Help Portal and our other PIT series blogs:
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 SP19
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