Before you can use a transaction monitor, you must add a Service definition for each of the services that provide operations for the transaction to the Services tab in JaxView. You then add the SOAP transaction monitor in the Transactions object tree. You use the Transactions object tree action menu to add and edit monitor definitions.
The Add Transaction form for the SOAP Transaction type is divided into four sub panels. You use these panels to edit the transaction definition. The following figure shows an example of the Edit Transaction panel showing the sub panels in their default collapsed state.
The first sub panel is the Transaction Steps section. This section also contains sub panels. These are used to define the steps of the transactions and define expressions for extracting information from the messages exchanged for each step. You add all the operations for the transaction in the Transaction Steps section, identifying the “initial” and "end" operations. When the end operation is called then the transaction is considered to be completed.
It is common in Web services that transactions are coordinated by using a transaction context that is exchanged as part of the messages of the transaction. If the system you want to monitor using the heat beat transaction requires the use of context data, this data will have to be supplied as part of the SOAP messages entered in the Step Request fields of the applicable steps.
Web service transaction context can be handled in several ways. In cases where the service operations are as provided within the same organization, the transaction context may be the same for each step of the transaction. In the case that one or more operations are services provided by a partner or other organization, the context may change from one step of the operation to another. You will need to know if context data is required by the systems you are testing.
Reporting the status of a transaction is more complex than reporting the status of a single Web service exchange. With a call to a single Web service operation, the status can be set according to a single criteria. For example, if the call to the Web service operation is being monitored for response time, the status is set based on the time it took to respond. If the operation is being monitored for content, the status is set on whether the content matched the criteria given.
With the need for coordination between Web service producers and consumers, transactions need to communicate more information about the progress of the transaction. This is to account for the possibility that the transaction request can not be completed due to a violation of business logic (for example, inventory is not available) or a failure of one of the systems required to complete the transaction. Transaction status in JaxView can be set to report an error on the following criteria:
Error condition threshold for the individual operations in the transaction. These can be Step response time for an individual operation or total transaction response time for completion of the transaction
Failure to match any step Response Match Value expression for any step of the transaction. Response Match Value expressions should be designed to match values that indicate a successful operation. If the
Creating a new Multi-step HeartBeat Transaction Definition in JaxView requires the configuration of multiple transaction steps. The number of transaction steps will depend on the business process and how it is implemented in the SOA environment.
Note: Each service endpoint and operation used in the business logic of the transaction must be added as a separate object to the Services object tree in JaxView before you can create a transaction that uses those service producers and operations.
The following describes the steps you use to configure a Multi-step HeartBeat Transaction monitor definition.
To add a new Multi-step HeartBeat Transaction definition
Select the Transactions tab from the Main View navigation menu
Click on the Transactions root node in the left side object tree menu
Right-click the mouse to display the action menu for the node and select Add New Transactions. The Add Transactions page is displayed in the right panel
Select the Multi-step HeartBeat Transaction type from the Add Transactions list by clicking on the monitor type name. The Add Transaction configuration page is displayed in the right panel.
Configure the steps for the transaction using the numbered Step sub panels in the Transaction Steps section of the Add Transaction form. Click the up or down arrow icon on the sub panel title bar to reveal the configuration panel for that step. Use the following steps to add steps to the transaction:
Use the drop down menu for the Operation Name field to select the Web service operation name for this step in the transaction. This will be the name of the operation as it appears in the JaxView Services object tree.
If necessary, add any special HTTP header name-value pairs into the Step Request Header field for the step. You may include multiple entries but enter only one name-value pair per line. If you have configured a previous step to match and retain header values, these retained values will be automatically added to the HTTP header of this step without the use of reference variables. See the steps below for examples.
Enter the entire SOAP envelope content for this step into the Step Request field. Generally, you will need to cut and paste this from another reference and then make any necessary changes in the text area of the form.
If this is not the first step of the transaction and successful completion of this step requires one or more values returned by the service in the previous step, you must add the appropriate content matching patterns to the previous step. You then include the matched values from the previous step into the current step by using the special reference variables inside the SOAP envelope content in this Step Request field. To include the value from the first matched expression in the previous step, you place the string [RESPONSE_VAL](0) at the position in the SOAP message where you want the value to be included. To include the second matched value, use the string [RESPONSE_VAL](1) in the SOAP message for this step.
Enter one or more pattern matching expressions into the Response Match Value field. You can use regular expressions or XPath expressions. Separate multiple expressions with "XPATH:" or “REGEX:” to indicate the beginning of each expression string. For example, two XPath expressions can be entered as: XPATH://Post[@onlineResource]XPATH://Get[@onlineResource]. See the section JaxView Tools for examples of regular expression syntax. The order that the expressions are entered is critical to reference any retained values to be used in the next step of the transaction, as noted in the step above.
Enter the names of the HTTP header values that you want to include in the HTTP header of the next step into the Response Header For Next Step field. You use this to retain HTTP header values that need to persist from one transaction step to another. The requirements are:
Header values matched and retained by this step will automatically be added as header name-value pairs to the HTTP header of the next transaction step.
Repeat these steps to add other step definitions to the transaction.
Complete the Transaction Settings section as indicated. If the transaction implementation uses a common context meta data for all of the steps of the transaction, enter the XPath expression(s) or regular expression(s) for extracting the context data in the corresponding Transaction Context field.
Complete the Threshold and optional Baseline settings sections of the Add Transaction form as indicated.
Click the Save button near the bottom of the form. After a short refresh cycle, the new transaction monitor definition is added to the Transactions object tree.
The Multi-step HeartBeat Transaction properties form is divided into four sections as described below.
The Transaction Steps section includes 10 Transaction step sub panels that you use to configure how JaxView will monitor the individual operations that comprise the Transaction. Some properties could be the same for every step. Each step has the following property settings:
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[RESPONSE_VAL](n)
where [RESPONSE_VAL](n) will be replaced with the nth matched value from the expression(s) in the Response Match Value field of the previous step. The first matched value will be n=0
where [RESPONSE_STEP](n)will be replaces with the 1st matched value for the n step. This is good when you need to pass a variable from another step to this step of the transaction
Note: The scope of the replacement variables is limited to the step immediately before the current step.
Use this section to configure optional measurement baseline calculations. This feature allows you to use statistical trending to dynamically set the event thresholds for the monitor based on other measurements taken during a previous interval. See the section Monitor Baselining in JaxView for more information.
Use this section to set the event thresholds for the monitor. The monitor status is set according to the threshold settings. See the Setting Monitor Thresholds section for more information about threshold settings.