Introduction

This chapter explores how to access and use common types of external data that you are likely to need in SoapUI test scenarios, for example, files, SQL databases, NoSQL databases, and JMS. While there isn't scope to cover every possible type or implementation, the building blocks learned here can be adapted to different situations and used as the basis for later recipes.

In terms of data-driven testing, we'll see how to support the pattern shown in the following image:

In terms of options for reading the test data, we'll look only at those for the open source version of SoapUI. The pro version's data-driven features, for example, DataSource, DataSink, and DataLoop TestSteps are designed to be straightforward to use and receive adequate coverage in the online help (see http://www.soapui.org/Data-Driven-Testing/functional-tests.html), whereas achieving similar results in the open source version generally requires a little more initial setup, creativity, and often a higher level on technical understanding and/or skills, but that's the fun part, right? A key enabler is the Groovy TestStep, which is an important part of this chapter and several others. Some more advanced examples of testing with custom Groovy data sources can be found in Chapter 9, Data-driven Load Testing With Custom Datasources.