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Welcome to the XMLTester!
The XMLTester is an open-source platform for system-level testing of message (including query/response) based XML applications.
This software provides a reference implementation of a draft standard defined by The TestXML Standards Group. The first schema defined by this group is called XRT - "Xml Requirements and Test". XRT (pronounced "exert") documents define system validation models and test cases which can be processed by an automated testing framework like the XMLTester.
Rigorous validation for complex applications
In contrast with JUnit, XMLTester is meant for black box testing of large, complex systems for which you can produce some formal specification in terms of XML documents. The most familiar example today is a large-scale B2B system which processes inbound and outbound messages (such as purchase-orders, RFPs, etc.) to and from various trading partners.
Standards compliance verification
Using the XMLTester, you can verify that your system meets a set of formal requirements. One example of formal requirements can be found in modern web and e-business standards produced by groups such as: The XMLTester is particularly well suited to testing applications which rely on these message standards.
Online Demo
An online demo of the XMLTester is available. It demonstrates the use of XMLTester to execute about 180 XSLT conformance tests against the Apache Xalan stylesheet processor. You will need to register before logging in.
Design approach
Technically, the goal of this project is to provide a repository based test plan/result management application, combined with a flexible framework for executing tests and collecting data. The execution and validation model of XRT provides some of the benefits of logic-programming in a formal testing environment, while also providing users the flexibility to cook up quick-and-dirty test drivers in Java, Beanshell, Tcl, Python, C#, or whatever. The drivers can be started and stopped independently of the main XMLTester server. This means that, at least in theory, it is straightforward to use the XMLTester even in rugged development environments where programs crash or hang frequently.
The configuration of XMLTester is done entirely using XML (and XSL), and the XMLTester implementation is written completely in Java. XMLTester runs on top of the open-source Peruser application framework. The "fat" version of the XMLTester download includes peruser.jar and all other required libraries.
Connecting to your implementation
Through its pluggable-driver mechanism, XMLTester can communicate bidirectionally with just about any target system, including of course .NET systems accessible via SOAP or other "WebServices".
Licensing and Downloading
Our software is copyright by the contributors, but is provided free of direct monetary cost for you to use and extend, provided you maintain our copyright notices. Our software uses various open source components in its implementation - each of these components has it's own licensing terms which you will need to review before you reproduce this software. This software is provided without warranties of any type - examine and use it at your own risk. Specifically, we use an Apache/BSD/MIT-style open source license. Here is a good informal description of the terms of an Apache-style license.
By downloading the software, you legally indicate acceptance of the terms of the license, so you should read the license before downloading! You should also read the license for all of the supporting components included with XMLTester. Here is a list of acknowledgements for these components.
If you agree to the terms of the license for XMLTester and all its supporting components, then you can download XMLTester here, together with the license and all the documentation and examples.
Alternatively, you can start by reading our online documentation, or see what users and developers are saying in our archived discussion lists.
To get involved, please contact us at contribute@xmltester.org
For support, please contact us at support@xmltester.org