fix(#821): Allow direct access to path/jsonPath in variables

core/citrus-api/src/main/java/com/consol/citrus/context/TestContext.java

@@ -59,10 +59,11 @@
 import com.consol.citrus.spi.ReferenceResolverAware;
 import com.consol.citrus.util.DefaultTypeConverter;
 import com.consol.citrus.util.TypeConverter;
-import com.consol.citrus.util.VariableExpressionIterator;
+import com.consol.citrus.variable.VariableExpressionIterator;
 import com.consol.citrus.validation.MessageValidatorRegistry;
 import com.consol.citrus.validation.matcher.ValidationMatcherRegistry;
 import com.consol.citrus.variable.GlobalVariables;
+import com.consol.citrus.variable.SegmentVariableExtractorRegistry;
 import com.consol.citrus.variable.VariableUtils;
 import com.consol.citrus.xml.namespace.NamespaceContextBuilder;
 import org.slf4j.Logger;
@@ -175,6 +176,11 @@ public class TestContext implements ReferenceResolverAware, TestActionListenerAw
      */
     private LogModifier logModifier;
 
+    /**
+     * SegmentVariableExtractorRegistry
+     */
+    private SegmentVariableExtractorRegistry segmentVariableExtractorRegistry;
+
     /**
      * Default constructor
      */
@@ -225,7 +231,7 @@ public Object getVariableObject(final String variableExpression) {
         } else if (variables.containsKey(variableName)) {
             return variables.get(variableName);
         } else { 
-            return VariableExpressionIterator.getLastExpressionValue(variableName, this);
+            return VariableExpressionIterator.getLastExpressionValue(variableName, this, segmentVariableExtractorRegistry.getSegmentValueExtractors());
         }
 
     }
@@ -236,7 +242,6 @@ public Object getVariableObject(final String variableExpression) {
      *
      * @param variableName the name of the new variable
      * @param value        the new variable value
-     * @return
      * @throws CitrusRuntimeException
      */
     public void setVariable(final String variableName, Object value) {
@@ -652,6 +657,22 @@ public void setAfterTest(List<AfterTest> afterTest) {
         this.afterTest = afterTest;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Obtains the segmentVariableExtractorRegistry
+     * @return
+     */
+    public SegmentVariableExtractorRegistry getSegmentVariableExtractorRegistry() {
+        return segmentVariableExtractorRegistry;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Specifies the segmentVariableExtractorRegistry
+     * @param segmentVariableExtractorRegistry
+     */
+    public void setSegmentVariableExtractorRegistry(SegmentVariableExtractorRegistry segmentVariableExtractorRegistry) {
+        this.segmentVariableExtractorRegistry = segmentVariableExtractorRegistry;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Gets the global message processors for given direction.
      * @return

core/citrus-api/src/main/java/com/consol/citrus/util/IsJsonPredicate.java

@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+package com.consol.citrus.util;
+
+import java.util.function.Predicate;
+
+/**
+ * Tests if a string represents a Json. An empty string is considered to be a
+ * valid Json.
+ */
+public class IsJsonPredicate implements Predicate<String> {
+
+    public static IsJsonPredicate INSTANCE = new IsJsonPredicate();
+
+    @Override
+    public boolean test(String toTest) {
+
+        if (toTest != null) {
+            toTest = toTest.trim();
+        }
+
+        return toTest != null && (toTest.length() == 0 || toTest.startsWith("{") || toTest.startsWith("["));
+    }
+}

core/citrus-api/src/main/java/com/consol/citrus/util/IsXmlPredicate.java

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+package com.consol.citrus.util;
+
+import java.util.function.Predicate;
+
+/**
+ * Tests if a string represents a XML. An empty string is considered to be a valid XML.
+ */
+public class IsXmlPredicate implements Predicate<String> {
+
+    public static IsXmlPredicate INSTANCE = new IsXmlPredicate();
+    @Override
+    public boolean test(String toTest) {
+
+        if (toTest != null) {
+            toTest = toTest.trim();
+        }
+        return toTest!=null && (toTest.length() == 0 || toTest.startsWith("<"));
+    }
+}

core/citrus-api/src/main/java/com/consol/citrus/variable/SegmentVariableExtractor.java

@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2006-2010 the original author or authors.
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+package com.consol.citrus.variable;
+
+import com.consol.citrus.context.TestContext;
+import com.consol.citrus.exceptions.CitrusRuntimeException;
+import com.consol.citrus.spi.ResourcePathTypeResolver;
+import com.consol.citrus.spi.TypeResolver;
+import org.slf4j.Logger;
+import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
+
+import java.util.Collection;
+import java.util.Collections;
+import java.util.Map;
+
+/**
+ * Class extracting values of segments of VariableExpressions.
+ *
+ * @author Thorsten Schlathoelter
+ */
+public interface SegmentVariableExtractor {
+
+    /** Logger */
+    Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SegmentVariableExtractor.class);
+
+    /** Segment variable extractor resource lookup path */
+    String RESOURCE_PATH = "META-INF/citrus/variable/extractor/segment";
+
+    /** Type resolver to find custom segment variable extractors on classpath via resource path lookup */
+    TypeResolver TYPE_RESOLVER = new ResourcePathTypeResolver(RESOURCE_PATH);
+
+    /**
+     * Resolves extractor from resource path lookup with given extractor resource name. Scans classpath for extractor meta information
+     * with given name and returns instance of extractor. Returns optional instead of throwing exception when no extractor
+     * could be found.
+     * @return
+     */
+    static Collection<SegmentVariableExtractor> lookup() {
+        try {
+            Map<String, SegmentVariableExtractor> extractors = TYPE_RESOLVER.resolveAll();
+            return extractors.values();
+        } catch (CitrusRuntimeException e) {
+            LOG.warn(String.format("Failed to resolve segment variable extractor from resource '%s'", RESOURCE_PATH));
+        }
+
+        return Collections.emptyList();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Extract variables from given object.
+     * @param object the object of which to extract the value
+     * @param matcher
+     */
+    boolean canExtract(TestContext testContext, Object object, VariableExpressionSegmentMatcher matcher);
+
+    /**
+     * Extract variables from given object. Implementations should throw a CitrusRuntimeException
+     * @param object the object of which to extract the value
+     * @param matcher
+     */
+    Object extractValue(TestContext testContext, Object object, VariableExpressionSegmentMatcher matcher);
+
+}