Stubbing settings for MQ transport

Specify the required stubbing mode and configure the queue settings for a transport for IBM® WebSphere® MQ.

By using the Stubbing tab, you can specify the stubbing settings.

The Stubbing page of the MQ transport.
Field/Check box Description

Stubbing Mode

Select one of the available modes for routing messages.

  • Direct: Select this option to enable HCL OneTest API to subscribe to a queue like any other client and consume messages directly. If the real application is running, it is a race condition whether HCL OneTest API or the real application receives a message.
Note: There are no other configuration parameters to specify for the Direct stub mode in this page.
  • Use Sift & Pass Through with Dynamic Queues: Use this option to use the API exit to route messages to HCL OneTest API instead of placing them on the real queue. The messages are sent to dynamic queues that are created when the stub is run and this can be accessed by only one stub at a time. For each message received, HCL OneTest API either responds to it or writes it to the intended queue. For information about configuring a message-based stub properties, see Creating message-based stubs.
    Note:
    • If you use this option when stubbing shared queues in a z/OS queue sharing group, only messages from a single queue manager are diverted. To virtualize messages in a z/OS queue sharing group with HCL OneTest API, use Use Sift & Pass Through with Fixed Queues instead of this one.
    • Stubbing takes priority over recording. If a stub is intercepting messages for a queue, and if a recording session is also active for the queue, the stub processes the message, and the message is not captured by the recording session.
  • Use Sift & Pass Through with Fixed Queues: This option is similar to the Sift and Pass Through option, but the messages are sent to the fixed queues that are already created and configured with the specific suffix. With this option, you can run multiple stub copies to improve performance. When stubbing shared queues in a z/OS queue sharing group environment, create the .DIVERT and .STUB queues as shared queues.
Note: Stubbing takes priority over recording. If a stub is intercepting messages for a queue, and if a recording session is also active for the queue, the stub processes the message, and the message is not captured by the recording session.
To specify a default stub mode for each new WebSphere® MQ transport, do the following actions:
  1. Click Project > Preferences.
  2. In the Preferences dialog box, click Virtualization.
  3. On the Virtualization page, select the required mode from the Default WebSphere® MQ Stubbing mode list.

To enable sift-and-pass-through stubbing, create a diverted queue rules namelist for any HCL OneTest API API exits deployed on the queue manager. For more information, see Configuring a queue manager to support sift-and-pass-through stubbing.

Stub Queue, Diverted Queue areas

Sift-and-pass-through for WebSphere® MQ requires two queues: a stub and a diverted queue. Both of these queues are created automatically in dynamic mode but needs to be created in fixed mode.
  • Stub queue: This is the queue from which the stub will consume messages.
  • Diverted queue: This queue holds the details of messages that have been diverted so that they can be forwarded to the live system if the stub deems it necessary.
If Use Sift & Pass Through is clicked in the Stubbing Mode list, you can:
  • Dynamic mode: Configure the model queues used to create the queues that are required to configure sift-and-pass-through (the defaults are configured, but it is possible to override these).
  • Fixed mode: Configure the suffix that is used for the stub and the divert queue.
  • Specify how messages that are not dealt with by a stub should be handled. The options are to either discard them (default) or pass through to the "real" queue.

Pass through queue

If any of the Use Sift & Pass Through options are selected as the stubbing mode, the transport is set to MQOO_SET_ALL_CONTEXT option for opening the pass through queue.

Model Queue for Dynamic mode (Stub, Diverted queues)

In Dynamic mode, the stub queue should be created from a model queue that creates a temporary dynamic queue. This is because only the stub needs to be able to read from this temporary queue, which must be deleted when the connection is closed.

The diverted queue should be created as a permanent dynamic queue because multiple connections need to be able to read from, and write to, it.

When a queue manager is created, suitable model queues are created:
  • SYSTEM.DEFAULT.MODEL.QUEUE is used as the default to create the stub queue.
  • SYSTEM.DURABLE.MODEL.QUEUE is used as the default for creating the diverted queue.

HCL OneTest API uses temporary queues for recording.

Select the Use Default Model Queue check box (by default, it is selected) if you want to specify SYSTEM.DEFAULT.MODEL.QUEUE or SYSTEM.DURABLE.MODEL.QUEUE (as applicable) as the object from which to copy attributes.

If you want to specify a different model queue, clear the Use Default Model Queue check box and enter a queue name in the Model Queue field.

If you are using HCL OneTest API 8.5.0.1 or later, the prefixes used by HCL OneTest API when creating WebSphere® MQ model queues for the sift-and-pass-through capability have been changed to be more consistent.

Model queue prefixes System
"AMQ.RIT.STUB" WebSphere® MQ on distributed platforms
"AMQ.RIT.DIVERTED" WebSphere® MQ on distributed platforms
"AMQ.RIT.STUB" WebSphere® MQ on IBM® z/OS®
Suffix for Fixed mode (Stub, Diverted queues) You must manually create the stub and the divert queues with appropriate suffix before running the stub. By default, .STUB and .DIVERT suffix is used by HCL OneTest API for identifying these queues, which can be changed, if required.

For example: To run a stub using queue Q1, you must manually create Q1.STUB and Q1.DIVERT before you run the stub.

Open Options (Stub, Diverted, Pass Through queues)

You can override default options when opening the queues. To specify a different open options:
  1. Click to select one, or more, open options that are supported for the operation.
  2. Click OK. The selected open options are converted into a decimal value, which is displayed in the field.

Pass through unhandled messages on stub completion

To pass the queue messages that were not handled by the stub to the "real" queue, select this check box.

Clear this check box to discard the queue messages that were not handled by the stub.