Abstract: An architecture that allows target service interactions to be realistically simulated in a development environment. The architecture includes a proxy service, an interaction recorder, an interaction store and an emulator service. The proxy service delegates service requests received from a client component to a target service. If it is in “record” mode, the proxy service routes any interaction data corresponding to the interaction (between the target service and the client component) to the interaction recorder. Upon receipt, the interaction recorder records the interaction data in the interaction store. Later, the proxy service can be placed in “replay” mode so that a subsequent service request for the target service is delegated to the emulator service. Upon receipt, the emulator service retrieves the corresponding interaction data from the data store and replays the same to emulate/simulate the target service.

Abstract: Recording and replaying service interactions permits developers to evaluate, iteratively build and test middle-tier and other software components using realistic interaction data and quality of service (QoS) characteristics without requiring constant access to a resource operating in a production environment. Typical service execution sequences can be recorded once by the system administrator/deployer, then replayed as many times as necessary by developers iteratively building and testing middle-tier components.