Providing context in functional testing of web services

1. A method for providing context in functional testing of web services, comprising:

categorizing methods of a web service into predefined categories defining interaction flows on the web, based on a semantic analysis of names of the web methods; and

for each categorized web method, creating a testing context for the web method according to its category in the form of a sequence of one or more other methods of the web service that provide an appropriate context for testing the web method.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the predefined categories defining interaction flows on the web are the categories of “create”, “retrieve”, “update” and “delete” operations.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2 , wherein categorizing web methods of a web service into predefined categories defining interaction flows on the web, based on a semantic analysis of the names of the web methods includes:

receiving a file that includes a plurality of web methods of the web service;

grouping the web methods according to their suffixes; and

semantically analyzing prefixes of each web method in a given suffix group to classify the prefixes in one of the predefined categories defining interaction flows on the web.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein grouping the methods according to their suffixes optimises a minimal number of groups with the similarity between suffixes of each method being maximal.

5. The method as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising:

determining a confidence score for the classifying of each prefix; and

filtering low confidence scores by removing the category for web methods having prefixes with low confidence scores.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein if there is no classification of a method, creating a testing context by building random sequences of methods.

7. The method as claimed in claim 3 , further comprising:

iterating over the plurality of web methods using the classification of the prefixes to map to a sequence of methods.

8. The method as claimed in claim 7 , wherein the sequence of methods is a sequence of methods in the same suffix group other than the web method for which the testing context is being created.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising:

if the categorization of a method is a “delete” category, building method sequences of the form create-delete, create-update-delete, create-retrieve-delete, create-update-retrieve-delete, and create-retrieve-update-delete, wherein the create, update, retrieve methods are filled with methods classified in these categories in a same suffix group.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising:

if the categorization of a method is an “update” category, building method sequences of the form create-update, create-retrieve-update, wherein the create, retrieve methods are filled with methods classified in these categories in a same suffix group.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8 , further comprising:

if the categorization of a method is a “retrieve” category, building method sequences of the form create-retrieve, create-update-retrieve, wherein the create, update methods are filled with methods classified in these categories in a same suffix group.

12. A system for providing context in functional testing of web services, comprising:

a memory and a processor configured to perform a method comprising:

using semantic analysis of method names to categorize them into predefined categories defining interaction flow on the web and creating an appropriate context for a web method according to its category in the form of a sequence of methods providing appropriate contexts for testing the web method.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the predefined categories defining interaction flows on the web are the categories of “create,” “retrieve,” “update,” or “delete” operations.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to perform a method further comprising:

receiving a file having a plurality of methods;

grouping the methods according to their suffixes;

semantically analyzing the prefixes of each method in a given suffix group to classify the prefixes in one of the predefined categories defining interaction flow on the web.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein grouping the methods according to their suffixes optimizes a minimal number of groups with the similarity between suffixes of each method being maximal.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured to perform a method further comprising:

determining a confidence score for the classifying of each prefix; and

filtering low confidence scores by removing the category for methods having prefixes with low confidence scores.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the processor is further configured to perform a method further comprising:

iterating over the input methods using the classification of the prefixes to map to a sequence of methods.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the sequence of methods is a sequence of other methods in the same suffix group.

19. A computer program product for providing context in functional testing of web services, the computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method, including:

categorizing methods of a web service into predefined categories defining interaction flows on the web, based on a semantic analysis of names of the web methods; and

for each categorized web method, creating a testing context for the web method according to its category in the form of a sequence of one or more other methods of the web service that provide an appropriate context for testing the web method.