Using CA Service Virtualization › Using the Workstation and Console with CA Service Virtualization › Creating Service Images › Create a Service Image from Request-Response Pair › Sidecar Files with Request-Response Pairs

Sidecar Files with Request-Response Pairs

When VSE creates a service image from request/response pairs, the system can use another file with the request/response pairs named a sidecar file. A sidecar file is a properties file in which you can add key/value pairs that need to be added to the metadata of certain requests, responses, or both. You can add some files that are generic for all requests and responses. 

An example:

A directory that is named soap has request/response pair files that are named abc-req.xml and abc-rsp.xml. You add the sidecar files with the naming convention of abc-req-meta.properties, abc-rsp-meta.properties, and so on. If you intend to add a property to the meta of all requests and responses in that directory, use the file names meta-req.properties and meta-rsp.properties. The entries in the transaction-specific sidecar files (abc-req-meta.properties and abc-rsp-meta.properties) override anything that is found in the global sidecar files (meta-req.properties and meta-rsp.properties).  Therefore, you can have the set of all the defaults in the global files and then override the defaults for specific transactions with transaction-specific sidecars.

For example, if you have three requests/responses (abc1-req.xml/abc1-rsp.xml, abc2-req.xml/abc2-rsp.xml, and abc3-req.xml/abc3-rsp.xml, you can have a common sidecar file, rsp-meta.properties, that has:

Content-type=text/plain

and an abc3-specific sidecar file, abc3-rsp-meta.properties, that has:

Content-type=text/html

In the service image, the metadata for responses abc1 and abc2 has the Content-type meta property set to "text/plain", but the abc3 response has the value "text/html".