In this section:

About the Extensions

The ISO 8583 Extensions are custom extensions for Parasoft's continuous testing solutions. On the client side, they can be used to send and receive custom ISO 8583 messages. On the server side, they can be used to create and send custom virtualized responses.

The following custom extensions are provided for ISO 8583 integration:

• ISO 8583 Message Format: A message format used to convert from native ISO to XML ISO and vice versa.
• ISO 8583 Transport: A transport protocol for sending and receiving custom ISO 8583 messages.
• ISO 8583 Message Listener: A message listener used to listen for custom ISO 8583 messages and generate virtual responses.

Using Variables

If you intend to run the ISO 8583 extension in Load Test, note that the test_suite_loc variable is the only variable that can be used in input fields. Load Test does not support the project_loc and workspace_loc variables for Parasoft Marketplace extensions used in .tst projects. The test_suite_loc variable enables you to specify an external file path relative to the location of the .tst project file, for example:

${test_suite_loc}\Packager\GenericExamplePackager.xml

Implementation

This extension suite is implemented as com.parasoft.soavirt.iso8583.main-<version>.jar, which depends upon the following jars provided with the distribution:

jPOS

• jpos-2.1.1.jar

JDOM

• jdom2-2.0.6.jar

ISO-8583 Extensions

• com.parasoft.soavirt.messages.iso8583.jar
• com.parasoft.soavirt.transport.iso8583.jar
• com.parasoft.virtualize.listener.iso8583e.jar

Requirements

• SOAtest and/or Virtualize 9.5.x or higher.

Installation

The extensions can be installed from the UI or command line.

UI Installation

1. Choose Parasoft > Preferences.
   
   
2. In the System Properties preferences page, click Add JARs.
   
   
3. In the file chooser that opens, select com.parasoft.soavirt.iso8583.main.jar. All required dependencies will be loaded.
4. Restart SOAtest/Virtualize.

Command Line Installation

Add the com.parasoft.soavirt.iso8583.main.jar file to the system.properties.classpath property in your localsettings properties file.

For example:

system.properties.classpath=<path to jar>/com.parasoft.soavirt.iso8583.main.jar

Once the classpath is modified, all of the required dependencies will be loaded.

Usage

SOAtest

1. Right-click on a test suite and choose Add New> Test. 
2. Two ISO 8583 clients with the same name will be available in the Add Test wizard. Choose ISO 8583 Client in the Common Tools category and click Finish. The other ISO Client is the built-in tool shipped with SOAtest that the ISO 8583 extensions replace.   
   
   
   
   
3. Click the Transport tab and choose Custom Extension from the Transport drop-down menu.
4. Choose ISO 8583 from the Select Implementation drop-down menu to configure the tool. Packager options are configured on both the Conversion Options tab and in the transport settings under Packager Settings.
   
   

ISO 8583 Message Listener Settings

You can configure the following settings for the ISO 8583 Message Listener.

Channel Settings

Packager Settings

Header Settings

Connection Management Settings

ISO 8583 Message Format Settings

You can configure the following settings for the ISO 8583 Message Format.

ISO 8583 Transport Settings

You can configure the following settings for the ISO 8583 Transport.

Channel Settings

Packager Settings

Header Settings

Packagers

Packagers define how ISO 8583 messages are structured, including the number of fields in the message and the field data types. They allow the binary data of an ISO 8583 message to be consumed into a generic ISO message that can be easily manipulated and formatted by different packagers. A number of packers are provided by default, and customer packagers can be used to support special cases.

They also provide extensibility to the jPOS API in that custom packagers can be defined to describe custom ISO 8583 messages making it possible to support virtually any type of ISO 8583 message.

Default Packagers

Custom Packagers

Custom packagers can be implemented in two ways to provide support for custom ISO 8583 messages.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE isopackager PUBLIC
	"-//jPOS/jPOS Generic Packager DTD 1.0//EN"
	"http://jpos.org/dtd/generic-packager-1.0.dtd"> 

<isopackager>
	<!-- ISO Field Definitions -->
</isopackager>

<isofield
	id="0"
	length="4"
	name="MESSAGE TYPE INDICATOR"
	pad="true"
	class="org.jpos.iso.IFB_NUMERIC"/>

<isofieldpackager
	id="127"
	length="255"
	name="FILE RECORS(S) ACTION/DATA"
	class="org.jpos.iso.IFB_LLHBINARY"
	packager="org.jpos.iso.packager.GenericSubFieldPackager"/>


<!-- ISO Field Definitions -->
</isofieldpackager>

Channels

Channels define how the ISO 8583 client and server communicate with each other. They ensure that the generic ISO messages are properly formatted before they are sent over the wire and are properly reconstructed at the other end. The channel handles the connections and the protocols used to transfer the ISO 8583 messages between client and server. As with the packagers, the jPOS library provides many channels that should handle most cases. However, if the proper channel does not exist, custom ISO 8583 channels can be implemented by extending the BaseChannel class.

The following channels are provided by default:

Third-party Content

This tool set includes items that have been sourced from third parties as outlined below.

• jPOS (GNU AGPL v3.0)
• JDOM library (JDOM license)

Parasoft's ISO extensions are being released under the GNU AGPL v3.0 license.

Additional license details are available in this plugin's licenses folder.