This topic explains how to integrate third-party tools in the SOAtest and/or Virtualize environment.

Sections include:

Understanding the Definition of an External Tool

You can integrate any third-party (external) tool into SOAtest and/or Virtualize by creating an External tool for it, then configuring that tool appropriately. External tools are only available as transport header outputs.

Integrating an External (Third-Party) Tool

You can configure an External tool as follows:

1. Double-click the tool node.
2. Configure the tool as follows:
   1. In the Tool tab’s Name field, enter the tool’s name.

   2. If you want to parameterize the tool with data source values (for example, in the Arguments column), select a data source from the Data Source menu. This menu is only available if a data source was added to the test or Responder suite.

   3. In the Executable field, enter (or browse to) the name and path of the executable file associated with this tool.

   4. If you want to pass any flags or arguments to the tool, click Add, then click Modify and specify the Flag and Argument values in the dialog that opens. If you select a Parameterized value from a data source, each value from the specified data source column will be used as an argument.
      If no flags need to be specified, the Flag column can be left empty.

      Example Using Flags and Arguments

      Assume that you are on Windows and the FTP executable is called as defined in the executable field followed by all flags and values (separated by spaces).

      
      

      With the executable "ftp" and the flags defined as:

      Flag     Value

      -cp         test.jar

      test

      the final executable would be:

      ftp -cp test.jar test  

      
      

      % arguments

      If you do not specify any % arguments, the external tool will start when it is invoked, but it will not operate on any selected files, browser items, and so on.

      
      

      %F: This argument passes the filename and path of the selected item. It allows the tool to operate on the selected item. If you invoke a tool using this argument, the item for which it was invoked will be “ghosted” and assigned a temporary filename. You can avoid this ghosting by using the %u argument, if applicable. %F is the most commonly used argument.

      
      

      %f: This argument passes the filename, but not the path, of the selected item.

      
      

      %u: This argument passes the URL of the selected item. It works on simple URLs (URLs for pages without form submissions) as long as the associated tool can work with URLs.

      
      

      %l: This argument passes any relevant line number information.
   5. If an exit value for this tool indicates the tool’s success, enable Exit value indicates success. If an exit value indicates failure, leave this option disabled.
   6. In the MIME Types field, specify which types of files this tool can work with.
   7. In the MIME Type of Output field, specify the type of output you want this tool to deliver.