How do I POST an XML string to a webservice for testing?

Question

We have developed a RESTful web service which expects an XML string to arrive as "parameter". For QA to test the web service, I am looking for a simple way to POST an XML string to a URL, then display the XML response from the server.

Is there an easy way to POST an XML string to a URL?

Possible duplicate: [How do I manually fire HTTP POST requests with Firefox or Chrome?](https://stackoverflow.com/q/4797534/3357935) — Stevoisiak, Nov 14 '17 at 20:26

score 22 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 07 '09 at 13:33

22

Get the Firefox Poster add-on.

A developer tool for interacting with web services and other web resources that lets you make HTTP requests, set the entity body, and content type. This allows you to interact with web services and inspect the results.

edited Aug 07 '09 at 13:33

Tomalak

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answered Aug 07 '09 at 12:36

ohnoes

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There's Chrome Poster too. It doesn't support POST variables - not sure if the FF one does. – Steve Bennett Feb 28 '12 at 05:05
1

Firefox Poster is not compatible with Firefox 57 (Quantum). – Stevoisiak Nov 14 '17 at 20:07

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 07 '09 at 12:34

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I used wget for that, there are Windows and Linux versions. Not GUI either but no need of graphical interface for such simple task.

For example:

wget "http://url_of_my_web_service?param1=123&param2=abc" --post-file="xmlTestFile.xml" --header="Content-Type:text/xml"

Where the xmlTestFile.xml it's an xml file in the same directory you run the wget command.

If you want to send a xml string instead of a xml file, use --post-data="string"

answered Aug 07 '09 at 12:34

David Aleu

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You probably want Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded if, per the OP, you're POSTing a parameter. – Harold L Aug 08 '09 at 07:38
Use `--output-document=`FILE and perhaps `--server-response` – Jeremy Stein May 11 '11 at 20:22

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 07 '09 at 13:35

5

soapUI has support for RESTful services, as well as for SOAP-based services.

answered Aug 07 '09 at 13:35

John Saunders

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score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 07 '16 at 21:40

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Chrome's DHC by Restlet is pretty good. For some reason the "form" and "transformation" options are disabled for me though.

edited Feb 07 '16 at 21:40

josliber

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answered Feb 28 '12 at 05:07

Steve Bennett

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score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 07 '09 at 13:36

2

SOAPUI is very nice tool for testing web services (with gui)

answered Aug 07 '09 at 13:36

jle

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 07 '09 at 12:29

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not a gui, but curl is a popular tool.

answered Aug 07 '09 at 12:29

Pierre

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curl -d@filename.xml 'http://url' – Harold L Aug 08 '09 at 07:36

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 14 '13 at 14:09

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Obviously an old question, but google brought me here so I wanted to add another resource:

http://www.hurl.it/

Tell it where to send the info, how you want it posted and the data you want to send and it will print out the response from the website.

answered Jan 14 '13 at 14:09

helgatheviking

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score 1 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 29 '14 at 07:53

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Just an addition to the Firefox add-on, since Poster seems out of date, you may try HttpRequester.

answered Aug 29 '14 at 07:53

Giraldi

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score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Feb 02 '10 at 22:39

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If you're on OSX, HTTP Client App is incredibly useful for debugging HTTP services..headers, XML, whatever you like.

http://ditchnet.org/httpclient/

answered Feb 02 '10 at 22:39

alexknowshtml

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 07 '15 at 19:52

HttpMaster can be used for this testing scenario.

It supports XML posting (with possible parameters, if you need multiple requests in one batch) and viewers (raw and friendly) to view response. If you need only simple post and get, then it's quite possible that such full-fledged tools are simply too much; maybe some browser plugin could be sufficient for simple requests.

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 28 '11 at 23:04

If you're using Eclipse, it has a built in Web Services client. I had to switch to the Java EE perspective and then find the right button on the main menu bar to launch it.

Once it's up, create a new WSDL page, enter the WSDL url, and then from there you can browse the web service and make requests. If you click the source button in the top right you can manually enter the XML you want to send.

http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/jst/components/ws/M4/tutorials/WebServiceExplorer.html

How do I POST an XML string to a webservice for testing?

11 Answers11