How to use soapUI to review ListData.svc

sIntroduction
SoapUI is a free tool that can be used to test out of the box ListData.svc service provided by sharepoint. This service is available at /_vti_bin/ListData.svc for any of your sharepoint site. Here is how we can try it out using SoapUI.
Step1: Install sopa UI and click on File > New SoapUI Project. Add some project name and check "Add REST Seervice:" like shown in following figure and then click OK

Step2: After clicking on OK another window will open like following, just click on OK

Step3: New REST resource window will appear. In resource name enter site url and in resource path/endpoint provide list/document library name and click on "Extract params" button. Following is the screen that shows sample data.

Step4:That will automatically create a new request called Request 1.This request will automaticlaly detect endpoint and path to your list/document library. If it is not, just click on"-no endpoint set-" and click on add new endpoint. Enter site url in the dialog again.

Step5: Maximize "Request 1" window in soapUI. In botton left corner you will see " ... ", click on it and you will be able to provide sharepoint authentication details there.

Step6: Once you are done with authentication details you can click on execute icon at top left corner of "request 1" window (marked in above figure) to execute the request and you will be able to see response at right hand side window.
Step7: ListData.svc can also return json data in response out of the box. Just try to provide accept = application/json like shown in figure below:

If you have any questions you can reach out our SharePoint Consulting team here.

SMTP Server For Development Farm – smtp4dev

Developing for SMTP can be a time consuming hell. One can work out encoding issues the hard way – with a proper SMTP server installed – or skip all that and make it easy. Enter SMTP4Dev's, which emulates an SMTP server, and allows one to see what's being sent around in much easier way.
Scenario:
I am working for the alert me functionality for the list and List Items modification and deletion but due to some configuration problem in my development environment,
I did not receive e-mail in consistent manner
After some goggling I have found one very useful project in codeplex for testing local smtp functionality without any installation.
Smtp4dev.exe does not require any installation.

• Double click and open smtp4dev.exe
• Click on option button and go to server tab
• Set domain name anything you like for example: local.abc.com
• Click Ok.

Now Open your Central Administration

• Go to System Settings à Configure outgoing e-mail settings
• Provide that same name of your domain name in Outbound SMTP server
• Provide anything with domain name as from address. For example: test@ local.abc.com
• Provide anything with domain name as Reply-To address. For example: Reply@ local.abc.com

Note: Make sure that the domain name provided in smtp4dev and the domain name in from address and to address are same.
Next,

• Open C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc
• Open local file with administrator rights using any text reading software like notepad.
• Enter entry like à 127.0.0.1 local.abc.com
  (Make sure, this name must be same as Domain name in smtp4dev.exe)
• Save and close

Now whenever your share point server will send any mail, it is captured and displayed as shown in screenshots below.

This is a mail sent by share point which you can Inspect, in order to see the contents of the email sent, check the encoding, etc.:

If you want to get fancier, the proxy server allows for customizing the way it behaves:

If you have any questions you can reach out our SharePoint Consulting team here.