Patent ID: 7603658

Claim:
A framework residing on a computer suitable for use to test an application programming interface (API), the framework comprising: a metadata provider arrangement, the metadata provider arrangement being arranged to store a first declarative metadata in a first format in a memory of the computer; a metadata provider interface arranged to obtain the first declarative metadata associated with a first test of the API from the declarative metadata provider; a first test adapter, the first test adapter being arranged to include logic used to transform the first declarative metadata from the first format to a second format, wherein the second format is different from the first format; a diagnostic test interface, the diagnostic test interface being arranged to cooperate with the first test adapter to execute the first test, wherein the first test adapter is effectively interfaced with the diagnostic test interface; a diagnostics execution engine, the diagnostics execution engine being arranged to communicate with the diagnostic test interface to cause the first test to be executed using the first declarative metadata in the second format; and a specification of a pipelined datum, the pipelined datum being arranged to be accessed by the first test as well as a second test, wherein the pipelined datum is one of an input to be read by the second test from an in-memory data structure and an output to be written by the first test into the in-memory data structure.