Skip to content

SOAP plugin

  • Plugin name: soap
  • Plugin class: io.gatehill.imposter.plugin.soap.SoapPluginImpl

This plugin provides support for SOAP web services, via WSDL files.

Features

  • Creates mock SOAP web service endpoints from WSDL 1.x and WSDL 2.0 files.
  • Generates responses based on the schema/XSD of the web service invoked.
  • Supports custom responses, headers, status codes etc. based on SOAP operation/binding/action and more.
  • Also supports script-driven responses for maximum control, in either JavaScript or Groovy.

Using the plugin

A great way to use this plugin is to take advantage of the request/response types defined in the WSDL types or referenced XSD files. These allow the mock server to generate a response without custom configuration or code, just by parsing the schema of the response message specified in the WSDL types/XSD.

This plugin will match the operation using a combination of:

  • matching URI/path
  • matching HTTP method
  • matching SOAPAction (if required)
  • matching XML schema type of the root element within the request SOAP envelope body

Imposter will return the first response found that matches the above criteria. You can, of course, override the behaviour by setting the response body (see below).

Typically, you will use the configuration file <something>-config.yaml to customise the response, however, you can use the in-built script engine to gain further control of the response data, headers etc. (see below).

Example

Here is an example configuration file:

# petstore-config.yaml
---
plugin: soap
wsdlFile: petstore.wsdl

In this example, we are using a WSDL file (petstore.wsdl) containing the following service:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<description xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl"
             xmlns:tns="urn:com:example:petstore"
             xmlns:wsoap="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl/soap"
             targetNamespace="urn:com:example:petstore" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
             xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl/soap http://www.w3.org/2002/ws/desc/ns/soap.xsd">

    <documentation>
        This is a sample WSDL 2.0 document describing the pet service.
    </documentation>

    <types>
        <xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
                   xmlns="urn:com:example:petstore"
                   targetNamespace="urn:com:example:petstore">

            <xs:import namespace="urn:com:example:petstore"
                       schemaLocation="schema.xsd"/>
        </xs:schema>
    </types>

    <interface name="PetInterface">
        <fault name="Error1" element="tns:fault"/>

        <operation name="getPetById" pattern="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl/in-out">
            <wsoap:operation soapAction="getPetById" style="document"/>
            <input messageLabel="In" element="tns:getPetByIdRequest"/>
            <output messageLabel="Out" element="tns:getPetByIdResponse"/>
        </operation>
    </interface>

    <binding name="SoapBinding" interface="tns:PetInterface"
             type="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl/soap"
             wsoap:protocol="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap/bindings/HTTP/"
             wsoap:mepDefault="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap/mep/request-response">
        <operation ref="tns:getPetById"/>
    </binding>

    <service name="PetService" interface="tns:PetInterface">
        <endpoint name="SoapEndpoint"
                  binding="tns:SoapBinding"
                  address="http://www.example.com/pets/"/>
    </service>
</description>

A few things to call out:

  • We’ve defined the service PetService at the SOAP endpoint /pets/
  • We’ve said it has one operation: getPetById
  • A request and response ('input' and 'output') message is defined using an external schema (schema.xsd)

Start Imposter with the SOAP plugin

The SOAP plugin is bundled with the core Imposter distribution.

Let's assume your configuration is in the directory: examples/soap/simple. Here are a few ways to start a mock running on port 8080.

CLI example:

imposter up -p 8080 ./examples/soap/simple

Docker example:

docker run --rm -ti -p 8080:8080 \
    -v $PWD/examples/soap/simple:/opt/imposter/config \
    outofcoffee/imposter-all

Java JAR example:

java -jar distro/soap/build/libs/imposter-all.jar \
    --configDir ./examples/soap/simple

This starts a mock server using the SOAP plugin. Responses are served based on the WSDL file and its referenced XSD file schema.xsd.

Using the example above, you can interact with the APIs in the SOAP web service at their respective endpoints under http://localhost:8080/pets/.

Send a SOAP request to the /pets/ path defined in the configuration file to see the example response:

$ curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/pets/" \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/soap+xml' \
    -d '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
        <env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope">
            <env:Header/>
            <env:Body>
                <getPetByIdRequest xmlns="urn:com:example:petstore">
                    <id>3</id>
                </getPetByIdRequest>
            </env:Body>
        </env:Envelope>'

Tip: don't forget the trailing quote at the end of the string!

Response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope">
    <env:Header/>
    <env:Body>
        <getPetByIdResponse xmlns="urn:com:example:petstore">
            <id>3</id>
            <name>string</name>
        </getPetByIdResponse>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

It works! Your mock is returning an example SOAP response at the path /pets/, all from Imposter understanding the WSDL file.

Once you're finished, stop the server with CTRL+C.

For more working examples, see:

Conditional responses

You can control response behaviour based on the value of the request path, SOAP binding, SOAP operation, SOAPAction or body content.

# custom-response-config.yaml
---
plugin: soap
wsdlFile: petstore.wsdl

resources:
  # return custom response body for a given operation
  - path: "/pets/"
    operation: getPetById
    response:
      file: getPetByIdResponse.xml

  # return HTTP 400 response if SOAPAction matches a specific value
  - path: "/pets/"
    soapAction: "invalid-pet-action"
    response:
      statusCode: 400

First example

Here we expect the content of the file: getPetByIdResponse.xml.

$ curl -v -X POST http://localhost:8080/pets/ \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/soap+xml' \
    -d '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
        <env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope">
            <env:Header/>
            <env:Body>
                <getPetByIdRequest xmlns="urn:com:example:petstore">
                    <id>3</id>
                </getPetByIdRequest>
            </env:Body>
        </env:Envelope>'

Response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope">
    <env:Header/>
    <env:Body>
        <getPetByIdResponse xmlns="urn:com:example:petstore">
            <id>3</id>
            <name>Custom pet name</name>
        </getPetByIdResponse>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>

Second example

Here we expect an HTTP 400 status code, given the matching SOAPAction.

$ curl -v -X POST http://localhost:8080/pets/ -H 'SOAPAction: invalid-pet-action'
HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request

Scripted responses (advanced)

For more advanced scenarios, you can also control Imposter's responses using JavaScript or Groovy scripts.

See the Scripting section for more information.

For a simple script, see examples/soap/scripted-example for a working example.

Additional context objects

This plugin adds objects to the script context:

Object Type Description
binding io.gatehill.imposter.plugin.soap.model.WsdlBinding The SOAP binding for the request.
operation io.gatehill.imposter.plugin.soap.model.WsdlOperation The SOAP operation for the request.
soapAction String? The SOAPAction from the request, if supplied by the client.

Example

Here we set the response.scriptFile property in the configuration file:

# scripted-soap-config.yaml
---
plugin: soap
wsdlFile: petstore.wsdl
response:
  scriptFile: example.groovy

As a reminder, you can use either JavaScript (.js) or Groovy (.groovy) languages for your scripts.

Now, example.groovy can control the responses, such as:

  1. the content of a file to return
respond().withFile('some-file.xml')
  1. a literal string to return
respond().withContent('''<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/2001/12/soap-envelope">
    <env:Header/>
    <env:Body>
        <getPetByIdResponse xmlns="urn:com:example:petstore">
            <id>3</id>
            <name>Custom pet name</name>
        </getPetByIdResponse>
    </env:Body>
</env:Envelope>
''')

Examples

Configuration reference

In addition to the standard configuration file options, the following additional properties are supported.

Configuration name Purpose Default value
path (Optional) A string to prepend to each operation's path. Empty
wsdlFile (Required) path to WSDL file (see below). Empty

WSDL file locations

WSDL files are provided as a relative path, using the directory containing the referencing configuration file as a base.

Some examples:

A file in the same directory as the configuration file:

plugin: soap
wsdlFile: sample_service.wsdl

A file in a subdirectory relative to the configuration file:

plugin: soap
wsdlFile: ./services/sample_service.wsdl

XSD file locations

XSD files are often used to describe the schema used by the operations in the WSDL file. When parsing a WSDL file, Imposter loads the content of all XSD files in the same directory as the WSDL file. This means that all XSD types defined in those files are used to support resolution of types referenced from the WSDL file.

For example:

$ ls
imposter-config.yaml  service.wsdl  schema.xsd  another_schema.xsd

If the imposter-config.yaml file is as follows, then both XSD files will be read to build the schema for the mock SOAP service.

plugin: soap
wsdlFile: service.wsdl