TCP Virtual Service Properties

TCP virtual APIs (virtual services) have a set of properties similar to those of other virtual services. To view or change them, select your service in the Navigator panel. You will see the properties in the right part of the ReadyAPI window and in the bottom-left corner of the Navigator panel:

Service virtualization and API testing: Properties of the TCP virtual service

Properties on the Right

The properties are organized into several groups.

Info

Property	Description
Location	The computer where the virtual service resides.
Time running	The duration of the service run. 0 if the virtual service is not running.
Status	Indicates whether the virtual service is running.
Received	The number of incoming requests (including those requests for which the service has no virtual operations).
Sent	The number of responses the virtual service sent to clients.
Port	The port number the virtual service will use for the run. Also, view and change it in the property list in the Navigator panel. Important Always assign a separate port for TCP services, otherwise ReadyAPI will not launch such a service along with with other services on the same port. To start your service from the command line, use the `-m` argument to specify another port.
Virtual service socket	The basic socket you can use to access the virtual service.
Autostart on server	Commands the virtual service to start automatically right after you deploy it to a remote computer.
Enable SSL	Commands the virtual service to always work through secured connections.

Request Delimiter

The delimiter that the TCP virtual service uses to recognize requests in the incoming data stream. Possible values are –

Char/Byte sequence – A specific set of bytes or characters. For example, if 3B is the request delimiter and hexadecimal is the code type, the TCP virt splits the following hexadecimal data stream into 3 separate requests:
```
62 72 61 76 65 3B 20 6E 65 77 3B 20 77 6F 72 6C 64
```
Once the service finds 3B, it identifies all the bytes before the delimiter as request data, and starts listening for another request.
Tip
To learn about the editor displayed for the option, see the TCP Virtual Service description.
Fixed length – The maximum length of the request message, in bytes.
Groovy script – The script you can write to create your own segment processing scenario. See Virtual Service Scripting for information on writing scripts and on the available script objects.
Segment forwarding – If selected, the service treats each TCP segment as a separate request.

Note

Don’t include the request delimiter character in request data when you are editing virtual requests of the TCP virtual service. Doing this will cause incorrect request recognition. For more information on the delimiter role, see Request and Response Dispatching.

Response Delimiter

The delimiter that the TCP virtual service uses to separate responses in the data stream it sends. See Request and Response Dispatching. Possible values are –

Char/Byte sequence – A specific set of bytes or characters. For example, if 3B is the response delimiter, hexadecimal is the code type, and the response is 62 72 61 76 65, the TCP virt will dispatch the following hexadecimal data stream:
```
62 72 61 76 65 3B
```
The service automatically appends 3B to the response data, so the client can identify the response bounds properly.
Tip
To learn about the editor displayed for the option, see the TCP Virtual Service description.
Fixed length – The maximum length of the response message, in bytes.
Groovy script – The script you can write to create your own response sending scenario. See Virtual Service Scripting for information on writing scripts and on the available script objects.
Segment forwarding – If selected, the service treats each TCP segment as a separate response.

Note

Don’t include the request delimiter character in the response data. Otherwise, the TCP virtual service will not be able to detect the incoming request correctly. For more information, see Request and Response Dispatching.

Description

Arbitrary text describing your TCP virtual service. This is the same text you can view and change in the property list in the Navigator.

Start Script

The script that is executed right after the virtual service starts. For information on writing scripts and on the available script objects, see Virtual Service Scripting.

Stop Script

The script that is executed right before the virtual service stops. See Virtual Service Scripting for information on writing scripts and on the available script objects.

OnRequest Script

The script that is executed right after the virtual service receives an incoming request.

Note

The script is executed for all the requests, including those for which your service has no virtual operations.

See Virtual Service Scripting for information on writing scripts and on the available script objects.

AfterRequest Script

The script that is executed after the virtual service replies to the incoming request.

Note

The script is executed for all the requests, including those for which your service has no virtual operations.

See Virtual Service Scripting for information on writing scripts and on the available script objects.

Properties in the Navigator