This release includes the following enhancements:

Release date: October 10, 2023

API Test Scenario Generation with OpenAI

In this latest release, Parasoft SOAtest introduces seamless integrations with OpenAI and Azure OpenAI LLM providers, enhancing its API testing capabilities. With these integrations, SOAtest’s AI-assisted test scenario generation now allows users to generate API tests based on OpenAPI/Swagger definitions and natural-language instructions. 

Key Features

• Users can provide OpenAPI/Swagger service definition files and text-based instructions.
• SOAtest’s OpenAI integration proposes test scenarios tailored to specified requirements, simplifying the test creation process.
• Generated test scenarios seamlessly incorporate SOAtest's comprehensive toolset, ensuring thorough and efficient testing. 

With these enhancements, SOAtest continues to provide users with efficient, intelligent testing solutions, enabling them to achieve their testing goals with precision and ease. For more information about creating AI-assisted test scenarios, see Creating Tests from an OpenAPI/Swagger Definition.

Code Coverage for Microservices

Parasoft is expanding its capabilities to collect code coverage for applications based on distributed microservices architecture. In today's continuously evolving digital landscape, complex microservices ecosystems are the norm, and it can be a challenge to ensure their reliability and quality. Parasoft's code coverage capabilities now extend to include distributed architectures, providing users with a powerful tool to enhance their test confidence and increase efficiency. 

Key Features

• Comprehensive Code Coverage Analysis

• • Parasoft calculates test code coverage for Java and .NET components across a distributed microservices architecture. Parasoft CTP’s flexible REST APIs can be used to integrate these capabilities with external functional testing tools or automation frameworks. 
  • Parasoft DTP provides users with a quality snapshot of the overall application at component level granularity and test association. 

• Flexible System Definition

• • Parasoft offers a clean web-based user interface for defining and configuring distributed systems via Parasoft CTP’s Environment Manager module. Additionally, users can define automated system configurations for dynamic deployments via YAML or JSON files. 
  • Parasoft CTP continuously monitors the health of the system and the readiness of the environment for testing and capturing code coverage. 

• Test Impact Analysis

• • Microservices are designed to support a fast-paced development and release workflow. The Parasoft Platform can be used to detect changes in individual microservice components and identify component or end-to-end tests that need to be re-run to validate those changes. This allows a user to execute only a subset of tests rather than a complete regression cycle, saving precious time. 

By offering a comprehensive view of code coverage, Parasoft empowers users to make data-driven decisions about their application's quality. Efficiency in testing efforts is paramount, and Parasoft's accurate impact analysis ensures focused validation, saving valuable time and resources. 

Web Accessibility Scan

The Web Accessibility Scan tool is an essential addition to your testing toolkit, to help in achieving adherence with web accessibility guidelines such as WCAG 2.1. It checks browser content during playback of web UI tests and can be easily integrated into your existing tests. This release brings several capabilities to support accessibility testing. 

Key Features

• Easily chain the Web Accessibility Scan tool to your Browser Playback tests. 
• Use an integrated set of accessibility rules to cover alt attributes, ARIA roles, form elements, links, and more based on the WCAG 2.1 AA standard. 
• Customize scans by limiting the scope to specific elements using element properties, XPath, or Scripts. 
• Exclude specific elements and rules to refine accessibility testing, improving the accuracy of your results.

For more information about the Web Accessibility Scan tool, see Adding a Web Accessibility Scan.

Virtualize Learning Mode

In this release, Parasoft is introducing Learning Mode for Virtualize. With this feature Virtualize will learn and emulate responses recorded from a live HTTP endpoint and update a virtual asset to the most current state. The virtualized endpoint can then be used as a reliable failover when the real endpoint is not available. This minimizes the set-up efforts associated with service virtualization and reduces maintenance costs. 

Key Features 

• Supports primary and secondary connections. 
• Supports Reverse and Forward Proxy types. 
• Supports enabling or disabling learning mode by right clicking the proxy and switching the mode to "Learn responses: Enable all" or "Learn responses: Disable all". 

For more information about learning mode, see Request/Response Files.

Updated Message Proxy Connection Settings

The Message Proxy Connection Settings UI view has been updated for easier configuration and an improved user experience. This includes a simplified URL field for routing traffic, and an additional failover filter for valid response codes. See HTTP Reverse Proxy Configuration and HTTP Forward Proxy Configuration for more information.

Enhanced Kafka Support

Parasoft enhanced its Kafka extensions to support the most complex and demanding event-driven and streaming use cases. Parasoft now supports the Avro message format and Confluent Schema Registry, seamlessly integrated into both SOAtest and Virtualize. 

Key Features

• Avro Message Format Support: Parasoft's Kafka extensions now seamlessly work with Avro, a sophisticated data serialization. This support enables you to handle complex data structures efficiently, ensuring seamless communication within your Kafka ecosystem. 
• Confluent Schema Registry Integration: Our enhanced Kafka extensions are fully compatible with the Confluent Schema Registry. Now you can effortlessly manage your schema evolution and validation, enhancing the reliability and consistency of your Kafka messages. 
• Unified Testing Experience: Whether you are using SOAtest for functional testing or Virtualize for service virtualization, the Avro message format support is seamlessly integrated into both platforms. 

For more information, see Apache Avro Extension and Kafka Extensions.

Additional Updates

• Added support for Apple Silicon (aarch64) processors on macOS.
• The ability to delete CTP test execution job reports is now limited to administrators only.

• Users can now customize a message proxy's failover behavior so that it succeeds with HTTP response codes outside the 2xx range. See HTTP Reverse Proxy Configuration and HTTP Forward Proxy Configuration.

• Parasoft Recorder can now record API traffic without going through a proxy so you don't have to relax your Chrome security settings to record API traffic and convert them into tests.
• Removed support for Salesforce and Guidewire in Parasoft Recorder. No further updates will be released in support of these applications.

• JWT authentication for CTP is deprecated and will be removed in a future version. 

• The ability to send MIME and DIME attachments with SOAP messages is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.
• Emulation options for the XML Encryption and XML Signer tools are deprecated and will be removed in a future version.
• MySQL 5.7 support is deprecated in CTP and will be removed in a future update. Consider upgrading to MySQL 8.
• Oracle 12c support is deprecated in CTP and will be removed in a future update. Consider upgrading to Oracle 21c.
• Tomcat 8.5 support is deprecated and will be removed in a future update. Consider upgrading to Tomcat 9.

• The configuration setting report.generate_htmls= is removed. Users should use the report.format= setting to generate HTML reports. See Configuring Settings for more information.

• Addressed Apache ActiveMQ (CVE-2023-46604), Apache Tomcat (CVE-2023-42794), and Apache Santuario - XML Security for Java (CVE-2023-44483) vulnerabilities in version 2023.2.1.

Resolved PRs and FRs