Using CA Service Virtualization › Understanding CA Service Virtualization › Service Images

Service Images

A service image is a recording of the interaction between the client and server as created by CA Service Virtualization. A virtual service model references a service image. After a service image is recorded, it is used to deliver the appropriate response to the client in the absence of the server.

A service image contains the following sets of information:

• A list of conversations (requests and responses) recorded as a conversation tree
• A list of stateless transactions (requests and responses)
• The responses to send when unknown conversational or stateless requests are encountered

You can view, edit, or create a service image with the Service Image Editor.

You can visualize a conversation as a series of stateful transactions. However, multiple conversations (from multiple sessions) can be recorded in the same service image. Similar request structures are merged into a single transaction to create a tree, as the following graphic shows.

For example, if multiple users log in to the system with login() transactions, all these transactions are merged into a single transaction. But if one user logs in with login() and another user logs in with acquireAuthToken(), the transactions are not merged.

Imported Transactions

You can import the following XML documents into a service image being recorded:

Raw Transactions

The XML document represents raw traffic as if coming directly from the network, characterized by a root element of <rawTraffic>.

For an example, see LISA_HOME\examples\VServices\raw-traffic.xml.

Conversational Traffic

The XML document represents traffic that is rearranged into conversations, stateless transaction sets, or both. The traffic is organized into linear lists of transactions, each of which represent a "real" conversation and has a root element of <traffic>.

For an example, see LISA_HOME\examples\VServices\traffic.xml.