Tools Test Web Service Interoperability

The Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS- I ) Wednesday announced two tools for testing the interoperability of the WS-I Basic Profile.

The new tools, called the Web Service Communication Monitor and the Web Service Profile Analyzer, come in both Java and C# flavors and were developed by the WS-Is Test Tools working group, WS-I officials said. The organization has made pre-release versions of the tools available and is requesting public comment on the tools, WS-I officials said.

The Web Service Communication Monitor captures messages exchanged between Web services and the software that invokes them and stores the messages for later analysis. For instance, the software captures HTTP-based Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) messages. Meanwhile, the Web Service Profile Analyzer analyzes messages captured by the monitor tool and then checks the services Web Services Description Language (WSDL) definitions, XML schema files, and Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registration, WS-I said. The analyzer also issues a report on the interoperability of the Web service and whether it meets the interoperability requirements of the WS-I Basic Profile.

"WS-Is testing tools are a critical part of their promised offerings because the testing tools make the WS-Is work concrete," said Jason Bloomberg, an analyst with ZapThink LLC, a Cambridge, Mass., market research firm. "Up to this point their output has been the interoperability profiles, usage scenarios and guidelines, but with the testing tools, companies now have a way to show interoperability. In other words, with the testing tools, the WS-I is putting their money where their mouth is."

In a statement, Jacques Durand, chair of the Test Tools Working Group and director of industry relations at Fujitsu Software Corp., said the test tools will help developers know if their Web services are up to the WS-I guidelines. "The tools have been designed in such a way to allow for expansion and extension, so they can accommodate the Basic Profile as well as future profiles," Durand said.