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Getting Started
This guide provides an overview and describes the tasks to get you started with HCL OneTest™ API.
Testing methodology
By following four basic guidelines, you can incorporate HCL OneTest™ API into your testing methodology. These guidelines drive efficient and expedient integration testing, and they can be applied to your testing process and infrastructure requirements.
Building tests
HCL OneTest™ API separates the task of learning about the system from the tasks of creating test resources, designing (building models), creating and recording test assets, and running tests.
Options for creating test resources
HCL OneTest™ API includes a number of options for automated resource creation, including topology discovery, synchronization, and recording.

Getting Started
This guide provides an overview and describes the tasks to get you started with HCL OneTest™ API.
- HCL OneTest™ API overview
  You can use HCL OneTest™ API to create, modify, and run service tests.
- Testing methodology
  By following four basic guidelines, you can incorporate HCL OneTest™ API into your testing methodology. These guidelines drive efficient and expedient integration testing, and they can be applied to your testing process and infrastructure requirements.
  - Test approach
    The HCL OneTest™ Studio product suite fits easily into a V-Model approach. The classic V-Model demonstrates each phase in predevelopment and its associated phase in test planning. For example, when the system design is delivered, begin planning for system testing. Testing activities such as design, analysis, planning and execution must happen throughout the entire project life cycle.
  - Test phases
    Apart from being used for driving early test plans, HCL OneTest™ API can be used to shift testing earlier in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) than is traditionally possible with standard test tools that test at the UI level. Soon after you have a local build, you can use HCL OneTest API to do service unit testing.
  - Building tests
    HCL OneTest™ API separates the task of learning about the system from the tasks of creating test resources, designing (building models), creating and recording test assets, and running tests.
    - Options for creating test resources
      HCL OneTest™ API includes a number of options for automated resource creation, including topology discovery, synchronization, and recording.
    - Building system models by using synchronization
      When design-time assets are available, building by using synchronization is the preferred technique. Synchronization builds the system under test for you, which simplifies your testing work.
    - Building a system model manually
      Manual system modeling can be done where synchronization or recording is not possible or there are no service components when synchronized.
    - Test asset creation and recording
      HCL OneTest™ API enables you to record events in the system under test and recorded messages can be used to create tests and stubs more quickly and accurately. This can act as base message and test data for creating ongoing test assets.
    - Test execution
      In HCL OneTest™ API, tests generally consist of one or more inputs into the systems under test (SUT), and then validation of results and side effects. Data from one step of a test can be used to feed the next step. HCL OneTest API is built for testing, so every test step can be validated without scripting.
  - Project structure
    When an HCL OneTest™ API project is created for the first time, the project folder structure is created on a disk.
- Service-oriented architecture (SOA) testing
  A SOA consists of business processes that are implemented by linking individual services. The linking can be done programmatically or with tools based on Business Process Execution Language (BPEL). SOA testing can be challenging because there is no GUI; the focus is on testing interfaces and services.
- Getting started with testing
  You can start using HCL OneTest™ API by completing the preliminary tasks such as creating and running a test, creating and running a stub, recording an HTTP proxy, and running a stub in a Docker container.
- HCL® Quality Server overview
  HCL OneTest™ Virtualization stubs designed in HCL OneTest API are published to HCL® Quality Server, which holds them in a repository.
- HCL OneTest™ API accessibility features
  Users who have a physical disability, such as limited vision, can review the available accessibility features to use HCL OneTest™ API.

Options for creating test resources

HCL OneTest™ API includes a number of options for automated resource creation, including topology discovery, synchronization, and recording.

The resources used in testing are shown in the following table, along with the methods you can use to create them.

Table 1. Methods of creating assets
	Manual	Topology discovery	Synchronization	Recording Studio wizard
Logical and physical transports
Operations
Schemas
Tests
Virtual services (stubs)

Synchronization with an external application or file is the most common method of modeling a system under test. The process automatically adds logical and physical components, dependencies, and interactions. After you have completed synchronization, you can record from any of the transports or operations that it created. For more information, see Building system models by using synchronization.

You can use the Recording Studio wizard to inspect the messages sent to and from a service, as well to create operations, tests, and virtual services. The wizard can create operations and tests at the same time, or operations and stubs at the same time. If the operation already exists, it can create tests only, or stubs only. The wizard always requires a transport, as shown in the first row of the table. For more information, see Using the Recording Studio.

Topology discovery provides an alternative method of creating operations. In addition to creating operations, it can also create logical and physical transports, so it is particularly useful in situations such as those in the following examples:

You do not know in advance the information needed to set up the transport, such as hostname and port.
You have many hosts available to record and do not want to configure them all manually.

For more information about topology discovery, see Topology Discovery overview.