Testing client / server interaction with the application engine

Question

I am implementing a client / server application based on the Google engine. My client is implemented in plain old Java. Now I would like to test the connection between the application engine and my java client. To make the tests more realistic, I would like to run a real application server with my application. When the application engine is running, I would like to run automated test cases based on my client communication API. Therefore, my client must connect to the application engine server, and I know if the interaction with the client server works well.

Does anyone know settings where I can test this connection between client and server? Ideally, the solution integrates with maven because I use it as a build tool. But any non maven greetings are also welcome :-)

What I have tried so far is local testing of the application module: http://code.google.com/intl/de-DE/appengine/docs/java/tools/localunittesting.html

But I do not know how to test client / server interaction with local testing. Any clues?

Answer 1

Personally, I suggest you test two sides independently during the testing phase. In other words, check the client and its API calls and make sure everything is correctly configured and it correctly processes good / bad responses. Then check the server side to make sure it handles the known good / bad requests and responds correctly.

Of course, running some functional tests to test for real interactions is also a good idea. You just need to run your development server to be able to run tests, and then use your authorized graphical user interface to run some tests.