SOAtest, Virtualize, and CTP 2025.1

This release includes the following enhancements.

Release date: Month Day, 2024

Using the AI Assistant to Create Tests

The AI Assistant can analyze RESTful service definitions and automatically create SOAtest tests and data sources for you, including suggesting multiple test scenarios, parameterizing payloads, and even populating payload data for you. See Creating Tests with the AI Assistant for more information.

Manual Testing in CTP

The Manual Testing module allows you to import manual tests from a CSV file and associate them with a CTP system so you can refer to them later when executing test sessions. In addition, you can start a session for any of the environments in the Manual Testing module to use when doing your manual tests. See Manual Testing for more information.

Dependency Management Feature for Asset Transfer

This feature streamlines the process of transferring assets from a local server to a remote server by automatically managing and uploading their associated dependencies. When an asset is copied from a local server, it often relies on various external files or resources, such as data sources, scripts, request/response files, or configuration settings. Traditionally, users would need to manually identify and upload each of these dependencies to ensure the asset functions correctly on the remote server.

With this feature, when an asset is copied to a remote server, the local server automatically detects and uploads all associated dependencies to the remote server alongside the asset. This automation saves time and minimizes the risk of missing dependencies, ensuring the asset works correctly on the remote server.

gRPC client support for token-based authentication

The gRPC client now supports calls requiring token-based authentication. See gRPC Transport for more information.

OAuth 2.0 Configuration Improvements

You can now configure your OAuth 2.0 authentication to use a built-in call back for the Redirect URI. This way, SOAtest can get the authorization code directly without having to explicitly set up a data bank extraction in your login suite or redirecting to another web application which may consume the authorization code. To make this easier, you can now also configure your OAuth 2.0 authentication with a convenient wizard. See OAuth Authentication for more information.

Additional Updates

• SOAtest and Virtualize now ship with Eclipse 2025-03.
• Support for Windows Server 2025 has been added and support for Windows 10 has been deprecated.
• Support for the Java Virtualization Agent marketplace extension is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
• Support for Oracle 18c and 21c and MySQL 5.7 in CTP has ended.
• CTP's licensing tiers for coverage agents has changed. All users now have access to up to five coverage agents, with seven new tiers allowing access to between 25 and 500 coverage agents.  
• The CTP Asset Utilization Report now includes coverage agents.

• Explicit support for Parlay / Parlay-X has been removed. If needed, it can still be achieved by using custom XPath correlations in the Call Back tool.

• CTP now supports Oracle RAC Fast Application Notification (FAN) events for Fast Connection Failover when the Oracle database connection is configured using a JDBC URL. Be aware that you will need to supply the following three jars and all three must be from the same version and provider source: ojdbc11.jar, ons.jar, and ucp11.jar. 
• The SOAtest and Virtualize WAR server can now force virtual assets to be deployed on unique basepaths using the virtual.asset.deployment.path.enforce.unique.basepaths configuration option.
• The misc.hide.masked.variables setting has been changed to mask.sensitive.data and now also hides authorization request headers in displayed traffic and, in SOAtest, password input fields in HTML browser contents. This option can also be set in the UI by enabling Sensitive Data in the Miscellaneous Settings. See Additional Preference Settings.
• -loadtestserver command line option for Load Test is now -agent. See Load Test Command Line Interface.
• You can now configure how many days CTP retains Virtualize hit summary data to prevent your database from growing out of control while still providing useful information for actions like determining your current Virtualize Hits/day licenses needs.

Breaking Changes

• The Parasoft JDBC driver now supports applications compiled against Java 11 or later. It will no longer support older Java versions.
• The Attachment Handler will now pass a DataHandler input to Extension Tools instead of a String. See Attachment Handler for more information.

Resolved PRs and FRs