diff --git a/sharepoint/api/src/test/java/de/muehlencord/shared/sharepoint/api/BaseTest.java b/sharepoint/api/src/test/java/de/muehlencord/shared/sharepoint/api/BaseTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b707a1c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sharepoint/api/src/test/java/de/muehlencord/shared/sharepoint/api/BaseTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+package de.muehlencord.shared.sharepoint.api;
+
+import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.security.KeyManagementException;
+import java.security.NoSuchAlgorithmException;
+import java.util.logging.Level;
+import java.util.logging.Logger;
+import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
+import org.junit.Before;
+
+/**
+ *
+ * @author jomu
+ */
+public class BaseTest {
+
+    protected SPContext context = null;
+
+    @Before
+    public void init() throws MalformedURLException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, KeyManagementException, JAXBException {
+        // FIXME - needs to be implemented using mock; replace with real data but make sure password is not commited
+        NtlmAuthenticator credentials = null;
+        context = null;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * reads a file availabe in the test source path and returns its content
+     *
+     * @param fileName fhe filename to read. This is the name realative to the path of class calling this method (the JUnit testclass)
+     * @param encoding the encoding to use while reading
+     * @return the filecontent as string
+     *
+     * @throws java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException
+     */
+    public static String readFileContentFromTest(String fileName, String encoding) throws UnsupportedEncodingException, IOException {
+        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
+        InputStreamReader irs = null;
+        InputStream is = null;
+        BufferedReader br = null;
+        String line = null;
+        try {
+            is = BaseTest.class.getResourceAsStream(fileName);
+            irs = new InputStreamReader(is, encoding);
+            br = new BufferedReader(irs);
+            while (null != (line = br.readLine())) {
+                sb.append(line);
+                sb.append("\n");
+            }
+        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException ex) {
+            Logger.getLogger(BaseTest.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
+            throw ex;
+        } catch (IOException ioex) {
+            Logger.getLogger(BaseTest.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ioex);
+            throw ioex;
+        } finally {
+            try {
+                if (br != null) {
+                    br.close();
+                }
+            } catch (IOException ex) {
+                Logger.getLogger(BaseTest.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
+            }
+
+            try {
+                if (irs != null) {
+                    irs.close();
+                }
+            } catch (IOException ex) {
+                Logger.getLogger(BaseTest.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
+            }
+            try {
+                if (is != null) {
+                    is.close();
+                }
+            } catch (IOException ex) {
+                Logger.getLogger(BaseTest.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
+            }
+        }
+
+        return sb.toString();
+    }
+
+}