SAP Integration Suite Pipeline Concept Testing with Int4 Suite

How to test the SAP Pipeline concept end-to-end with Int4 Suite

The SAP Pipeline concept in SAP Integration Suite splits a single logical interface into a chain of iFlows, where a message is handed from an entry iFlow through several processing iFlows before reaching the target iFlow. This guide shows how to validate that entire chain with a single Test Case in Int4 Suite: inject the input at the entry iFlow, and fetch the output from the target iFlow after all transformations have run. The technique relies on pairing two Automation Objects - one for the injection point, one for the read point.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Understand the single-Test-Case principle

Before configuring anything, understand what makes pipeline testing different.

1. In an inbound scenario, the input is the payload the external system originally sent into the pipeline. This is captured at the entry iFlow.

2. The output is taken from the target iFlow - the one that sits after all the transformations.

3. No matter how many steps the message makes across the pipeline iFlows, a single Test Case covers the whole chain from entry to target.

2. Configure the input Automation Object (injection point)

The pipeline process always requires two Automation Objects. The first is the one bound to the Test Case, and it defines where the message is injected.

1. Create the input Automation Object and set the Integration Flow ID to the entry iFlow - the iFlow where the message is injected.

2. Define where the input payload is taken from: either the payload block or the attachment name.

3. Provide the adapter details of the entry (sender) iFlow, for example IDoc, XI, HTTP, etc.

⚠️ Note: This first Automation Object is the one that gets bound directly to the Test Case. It holds everything needed to inject the message and read the input.

3. Configure the output Automation Object (read point)

The second Automation Object defines where the result is fetched from, after the pipeline has finished executing.

1. Create the output Automation Object and set its Integration Flow ID to the target iFlow - the iFlow that runs after all the logic is executed.

2. Specify the block or the attachment name from which the output payload should be fetched.

With this pairing in place, the input comes from one iFlow and the output from another, both combined into a single Test Case. This is what makes direct validation of the SAP Pipeline concept possible.

4. Create the Test Cases

Test Case creation follows exactly the same concept as in standard testing.

1. Fetch the messages you want to turn into Test Cases using one of the available methods:

   • The Int4 robotic crawler

   • The Message Selector

   • The AI agent

2. Select the messages you are interested in and save them. One Test Case is created per selected message.

Each resulting Test Case contains the input message from the entry iFlow and the output from the target iFlow, and all of them are assigned to the same Automation Object because they belong to the same interface.

5. Execute the Test Cases

Validating the pipeline works exactly the same as running any other test type.

1. Select the Test Cases you want to run.

2. Execute them on the specific environment.

During execution, Int4 Suite injects the message into the entry iFlow configured in the input Automation Object, lets the whole pipeline run, and then fetches the output from the target iFlow configured in the output Automation Object. The only difference from a standard test is this split between the injection iFlow and the read iFlow - everything else in the workflow is identical

Troubleshooting