You can substitute the content portion of a protocol request
with the contents of a file. This feature is only supported in certain
sections of a test, depending on the protocol. For example, HTTP
tests support file content substitution only in the POST data section
of a request. SOA tests support file content substitution for MIME
and DIME attachments, XML node values and fragments, and text content.
File content substitution works in the same manner as other substitutions.
All standard test data sources such as test variables, datapools,
and references can be used. The data from the source is treated as
a full path to a file. The file is opened, its contents are read,
and then those contents are used in the substitution.
Before you begin
You must copy the files that contain the substitution content
to the agent computers. You must record a test with locations for
substitution from a file. For example, record an HTTP test that contains
multipart MIME data in a POST request.
Procedure
- Create a data source that contains the full path to the
file from which you want to substitute content. Specify
an absolute path to the file. Use path separator characters appropriate
to the operating system of the agent computer running the test. Optionally,
specify a character set to use in reading the file. The existence
of the file is not validated. If the file cannot be opened when the
test runs, a message is written to the test log. If you use path separator
characters that are not appropriate for the operating system of the
agent computer, the substitution cannot be completed. For example,
if you use a path of D:\DataFiles\file1 on an
agent computer running Linux, the substitution cannot be completed, because Linux uses forward slashes as path separator
characters.
- In the test editor, navigate to the request where you want
to substitute content, and then select the request data that you want
to substitute.
- Right-click, and then select .
- Select the data source that contains the path to the file
from which you want to substitute.
- Right-click the substitution site, and then select File Contents Substituter.
Results
When the test runs, the content in the protocol request is
substituted with the specified file contents.
HTTP POST data is
displayed in the test editor in chunks. You can create a file contents
substitution in the POST data of an HTTP POST request by selecting
the data chunk that you want to correlate, and then clicking Substitute. The test data source that you select is automatically
treated as a file contents substituter. The entire data chunk is replaced
with the contents of the file when the test runs, even if only a portion
of the text in a text data chunk is selected by the substituter.