Category: Automation Testing

Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGq_Chw5w7M&feature=youtu.be

While working with UI test automation, Selenium being most popular choice, people use it quite heavily.

However out of many best practices, the Webdriver clean up process is also critical.

Why?

1. If WebDriver is not closed properly, it still remains active in the system and consumes memory, which leads the system slow.
2. This issue becomes bottleneck while working with massive parallel tests and the system can not handle tests properly due to memory leakage happened due to these unattended WebDriver processes.
3. Even though we use driver.quit(), it will only get executed if the test gets executed till the end , but if the test fails abruptly due to some issue, the quit() method do not close the WebDriver process.

Solution:

Just like we write driver.quit() for each Test we also need to include the process termination code.
Mainly we launch fresh WebDriver instances every time for each Test hence we keep driver.quit() in @AfterMethod.

However we can not keep Terminate process code here because, if we are running parallel Tests, it might kill those too. So it is better to keep the process termination script at the very end, when all the Tests are executed.

This can be in @AfterSuite .
Below is the code for Java:

  public static void terminateWebDriverProcess() {
        log.info("<<< WebDriver process cleanup >>>");
        try {
            if (System.getProperty("os.name").contains("Windows")) {
  Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("taskkill /F /IM chromedriver.exe /T");
  process.destroy();
  log.info("All active WebDriver processes terminated !");
            } else {
                log.info("No active WebDriver process found!");
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            log.info("<<< Error occured while cleaning up WebDriver process." + e);

        }

Note:
– you can alter the script if you are on Mac or Linux.
– Replace log.info() with SYSOUT if logger is not implemented.

While working with jmeter, I faced an issue of character encoding in http sampler request.

My problem:

I had to send a POST request with json request body , which had different characters from different languages.
I was able to send request successfully using postman but the same request when I added to jmeter, it was throwing below error:

Invalid UTF-8 middle byte 0x3f

I tried to searching on web but none of the solutions worked.

What did I try?

1. Set the jmeter properties file: sampleresult.default.encoding=UTF-8 (Didn’t work)
2. Set the header Content-Type=application/json;UTF-8 ( Didn’t work)
3. Tried preProcessor ( Didn’t work)
   

def requestBody = sampler.getArguments().getArgument(0).getValue();
byte[] utf8Bytes = requestBody.getBytes("UTF-8");
sampler.getArguments().getArgument(0).setValue(new String(utf8Bytes));

Then I found a field in http request screen, Content encoding. ( Silly than I didn’t see at first, but it worked )

Sometimes, the solution lies in front of eyes but we keep searching for it somewhere else 🙂

CSV is one of the fastest way to read and write data during test automation.

Benefits of CSV over Excel:

CSV is better than Excel in many cases, specially when it comes to test data or any data that we store to use within test framework.
Below are few reasons where CSV is better than Excel:

1. CSV is lightweight and faster than excel with respect to read / write operation
2. CSV takes up less space than Excel
3. CSV is compatible with versioning systems like Git as Excel is not suitable for Git to track changes
4. CSV can be used by the test automation script while it is open , Excel sheet needs to be closed before running test script.

<dependency>
	<groupId>com.opencsv</groupId>
	<artifactId>opencsv</artifactId>
	<version>5.2</version>
</dependency>

Read CSV file and return 2D Object array:

public static Object[][] readCsv(File file) throws JsonProcessingException {
        Object obj[][]=null;
        try {

            // Create an object of filereader
            // class with CSV file as a parameter.
            FileReader filereader = new FileReader(file);
            //Skipping Header
            CSVReader csvReader =
                    new CSVReaderBuilder(filereader).withSkipLines(1).build();

            List<String[]> allData = csvReader.readAll();

            int rowCount = allData.size();
            System.out.println("Row count= " + rowCount);

            String[] headers = allData.get(0);

            int colCount = headers.length;
            System.out.println("Col count=" + colCount);

            obj = new Object[rowCount][colCount];

            for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < rowCount; i++) {
                while (j < colCount) {
                    String[] rowData = allData.get(i);
                    for (String cell : rowData) {
                        System.out.print("Row: " + i + "Cell= " + j);
                        obj[i][j] = cell;
                        System.out.println(" | " + obj[i][j]);
                        j++;
                    }
                }
                j = 0;
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        //To print 2D array
	System.out.println("CSV Data : "+Arrays.deepToString(obj));
        return obj;
    }

Know More about CSV operation: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/reading-csv-file-java-using-opencsv/

While working with TestNG , we deal with multiple set of test data to test various scenarios.

It is difficult to provide test data set using List , Map as these needs maintenance and efforts.

Most popular way of providing test data is using Excel.
Check this article on how to use Excel in Data provider.
Now we will discuss another way using CSV file.

Why CSV ?

CSV is better than Excel in many cases, specially when it comes to test data or any data that we store to use within test framework.
Below are few reasons where CSV is better than Excel:

1. CSV is lightweight and faster than excel with respect to read / write operation
2. CSV takes up less space than Excel
3. CSV is compatible with versioning systems like Git as Excel is not suitable for Git to track changes
4. CSV can be used by the test automation script while it is open , Excel sheet needs to be closed before running test script.

So now lets look at the code on how to read csv file line by line and provide it to data provider.

Read CSV file and return 2D Object array:

public static Object[][] readCsv(File file) throws JsonProcessingException {
        Object obj[][]=null;
        try {

            // Create an object of filereader
            // class with CSV file as a parameter.
            FileReader filereader = new FileReader(file);
            //Skipping Header
            CSVReader csvReader =
                    new CSVReaderBuilder(filereader).withSkipLines(1).build();

            List<String[]> allData = csvReader.readAll();

            int rowCount = allData.size();
            System.out.println("Row count= " + rowCount);

            String[] headers = allData.get(0);

            int colCount = headers.length;
            System.out.println("Col count=" + colCount);

            obj = new Object[rowCount][colCount];

            for (int i = 0, j = 0; i < rowCount; i++) {
                while (j < rowCount) {
                    String[] rowData = allData.get(i);
                    for (String cell : rowData) {
                        System.out.print("Row: " + i + "Cell= " + j);
                        obj[i][j] = cell;
                        System.out.println(" | " + obj[i][j]);
                        j++;
                    }
                }
                j = 0;
            }
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        //To print 2D array
	System.out.println("CSV Data : "+Arrays.deepToString(obj));
        return obj;
    }

Now you can use this Object to create data provider:

        @DataProvider(name = "athleteData")
	public Object[][] getathleteData() throws IOException, InvalidFormatException {
		File filePath = new File("./src/test/resources/ExcelData/TestData.csv");
		Object obj[][] = UtilsReadFile.readCsv(filePath);

		return obj;
	}

To use data provider in Test:

@Test(dataProvider = "athleteData",dataProviderClass = DataProvider.class){
public void testCsvDataProvider(String email, String password){
      System.out.println(email + password)
     // Use this data in Test
   }
}

What is contract testing?

Contract testing is a way to ensure that services (an API provider, a client etc.) can communicate with each other.

The contract is between a consumer (for example, a client who wants to receive some data from an app) and a provider (for example, an API on a server that provides the data the client needs). In a microservice architecture, the terms client and server are not always suitable to encapsulate the connectivity between services. Communication methods are different, and the hierarchy of roles is not as clear. For this reason, we stick to consumer and provider in this article.

What is consumer-driven contract testing?

With contract testing, we want to ensure that a service works between a consumer (same as the client) and an API provider (the provider).

What happens when the provider changes a part of the service? You will need to know if the consumer can still use the service and whether the changes still meet the demands of the consumer’s contract. This is when you need to perform consumer-driven contract testing.

Since these contracts are written and managed exclusively by consumers, providers must first obtain permission from consumers before they can make any changes. If providers need to implement new features, they can see which consumers would be affected by the change(s) by looking at the status of the consumer’s contract tests.

Tools for Contract testing:

• Postman (Best to start with and has great feature )
• Pact ( Specialist in this field,Supports all languages, but limited for free version)
• JsonSchema validator / everit ( With Rest assured )

POSTMAN:

• Read this article where I have described how to do schema validation using POSTMAN via ajv library.
• This is another article which explains beautifully an advanced way of contract testing using postman

PACT:

I was studying about contract testing and I bumped on a brilliant conference by Atlassian where two amazing guys discuss how contract testing is very crucial and beneficial in API testing. ( Pretty funny video too 🙂 )

Karthik explains here beautifully about how to implement pact in API testing.

Everit
https://github.com/everit-org/json-schema

Everit is better than JsonSchema validator as it gives better error debugging info in failure.

<dependency>
	<groupId>org.everit.json</groupId>
	<artifactId>org.everit.json.schema</artifactId>
	<version>1.5.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
	<groupId>io.rest-assured</groupId>
	<artifactId>rest-assured</artifactId>
	<version>4.2.0</version>
</dependency>

Lets take and example of a Rest assured request which will return the below json body .
We will validate this response using json schema.

{
    "id": 1,
    "username": "Avishek"
}

Now we need to convert this json to json schema. There are many online tools available. We will use below website :
https://jsonschema.net/
Paste the json on the left pane and click submit, it will generate the schema.
Save the schema in a .json file ( Lets name it as UserSchema.json ). it will look something like below:

{
    "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft-07/schema",
    "$id": "http://example.com/example.json",
    "type": "object",
    "title": "The root schema",
    "description": "The root schema comprises the entire JSON document.",
    "default": {},
    "examples": [
        {
            "id": 1,
            "username": "Avishek"
        }
    ],
    "required": [
        "id",
        "username"
    ],
    "properties": {
        "id": {
            "$id": "#/properties/id",
            "type": "integer",
            "title": "The id schema",
            "description": "An explanation about the purpose of this instance.",
            "default": 0,
            "examples": [
                1
            ]
        },
        "username": {
            "$id": "#/properties/username",
            "type": "string",
            "title": "The username schema",
            "description": "An explanation about the purpose of this instance.",
            "default": "",
            "examples": [
                "Avishek"
            ]
        }
    },
    "additionalProperties": true
}

Here is the method for validating schema using everit:

 public static boolean validateJsonSchema(String jsonSchemaFilePath, String jsonString) {
        boolean validationFlag = false;
        try {
            JSONTokener schemaData = new JSONTokener(new FileInputStream(new File(jsonSchemaFilePath)));
            JSONObject jsonSchema = new JSONObject(schemaData);

            Schema schema = SchemaLoader.load(jsonSchema);
            schema.validate(new JSONObject(jsonString));
            validationFlag = true;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Schema validation failed: \n" + e);
        }
        return validationFlag;
    }

Now we will make a request with Rest assured and validate the response with above method:

 Response resp = given()
                .log().all()
                .when()
                .get("/userInfo")
                .then()
                .log().all()
                .assertThat().statusCode(200)
                .extract().response();
        Assert.assertTrue(validateJsonSchema("UserSchema.json", resp.asString()));

Jsonschema validator:

If we want to validate using JsonSchema validator:

 given()
                .log().all()
                .when()
                .get(ApiPath.getAthlete)
                .then()
                .log().all()
                .assertThat().statusCode(200)
                .body(matchesJsonSchemaInClasspath("UserSchema.json"));

Credits:
https://saucelabs.com/blog/intro-to-contract-testing-getting-started-with-postman

https://medium.com/@liran.tal/a-comprehensive-guide-to-contract-testing-apis-in-a-service-oriented-architecture-5695ccf9ac5a

https://saucelabs.com/blog/intro-to-contract-testing-getting-started-with-postmanhttps://medium.com/@liran.tal/a-comprehensive-guide-to-contract-testing-apis-in-a-service-oriented-architecture-5695ccf9ac5a

https://medium.com/@liran.tal/a-comprehensive-guide-to-contract-testing-apis-in-a-service-oriented-architecture-5695ccf9ac5a

While working with API test automation we use tools like rest assured with Java.
We have many ways to parse json and extract values but rest assured has in-built methods which supports json value extraction from Response object.

Example using jsonPath() :
To extract the email from below response in rest assured:

{
    "id": "89094da8-4bdf-42f5-a767-5b347070342e",
    "email": "user_any01@yopmail.com",
    "firstName": "AdminUser",
    "lastName": "UMS",
    "country": "IN",
}

String email = given()
                .when()
                .get("/user")
                .then()
                .getBody().jsonPath().get("email");

Example using xmlPath() :
To extract the email from below response in rest assured:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<User>
    <country>IN</country>
    <email>user_any01@yopmail.com</email>
    <firstName>AdminUser</firstName>
    <id>89094da8-4bdf-42f5-a767-5b347070342e</id>
</User>

String email = given()
                .when()
                .get("/user")
                .then()
                .getBody().xmlPath().get("User.email");

Many a times when we run automated test using selnium in IE browser, we get below error:
org.openqa.selenium.remote.SessionNotFoundException: Unexpected error launching Internet Explorer. Browser zoom level was set to 125%. It should be set to 100%

Reason:
When the default zoom is set not at 100% and due to which, the IEDriverServer throws exception as it is expecting the value as 100% so that it can click at the middle.

Solution:

1- Using Internet options (Selenium)

2- Using IE Browser setting
https://www.softwaretestingmaterial.com/failed-to-launch-ie-driver-using-selenium/

3- Using javascript executor
driver.executeScript(“document.body.style.zoom=’100%'”);

4- Using key actions
driver.findElement(By.tagName(“html”)).sendKeys(Keys.chord(Keys.CONTROL, “0”));

5- Using Desired capabilities ( Deprecated )

DesiredCapabilities caps = DesiredCapabilities.internetExplorer();
caps.setCapability("ignoreZoomSetting", true);
aDriver = new InternetExplorerDriver(caps);

Conclusion:
So which one should we use?
In my opinion,
– we must choose one that works for not only IE but also other browsers too (Even though not required).
– We should use a solution which is compatible with remote machines without doing any extra level of setting ( IE browser setting is ruled out , as it needs extra setup )
– we do not want our code to be changed when we change our browser type.
And also we do not want to use deprecated solution as it might create issue in future due to incompatibilities after updated dependencies. (#5 is ruled out )

So we are left with #3 (javascript executor ) and #4 (Key action) which works well for all browsers and no extra setup needed.

Let me know your thoughts , if you have any better solution, write me in the comments.

OAuth 2.0 is the industry-standard protocol for authorization. OAuth 2.0 focuses on client developer simplicity while providing specific authorization flows for web applications, desktop applications, mobile phones, and living room devices.

While testing API , authentication mechanism is a crucial part to deal with and there are many ways of authenticate a service depending on the application and its requirements.

We will discuss few mostly used scenarios used with OAuth2.0.

We will use below website to create OAuth2 based test application and understand how it works, so that we will be able to test efficiently the authentication scenarios.

Website: http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/

1- Create a test application which implements Oauth2 using above url

1. Sign up and create an application from API page as below:

2. Provide name,redirect url ( an invalid url, so that we will be able to see the URL)

It will crate an application along with below details:

• Client id
• client secret

3. Navigate to authentication tab and select the above created application. It will display all the details on how to access the api.

2. Understanding OAuth parameters

• client_id :
  It is a unique id assigned to a client or application who wants to use the authentication service provider. It is a public identifier.
  In this case, COOP is the Auth service provider and our Test application is a client who will use this Authentication. Similar scenarios is also seen in case of google or facebook. Many application has integrated google and facebook as a Oauth2 identity service. So all those application have unique id given by Google or facebook.
• client_secret:
  It is also a unique passcode provided to each client based on client_id. So client_id and client_secret both combined can have a unique identity of an application
• grant_type:
  In OAuth 2.0, the term “grant type” refers to the way an application gets an access token. There are several types of grant_type used.
  The Authorization Code Grant Type is probably the most common of the OAuth 2.0 grant types that you’ll encounter. It is used by both web apps and native apps to get an access token after a user authorizes an app.
  
  It differs from most of the other grant types by first requiring the app launch a browser to begin the flow. At a high level, the flow has the following steps:
  
  – The application opens a browser to send the user to the OAuth server
  – The user sees the authorization prompt and approves the app’s request
  – The user is redirected back to the application with an authorization code in the query string
  – The application exchanges the authorization code for an access token
  More details in this article.
  
  client_credentials:
  The simplest of all of the OAuth 2.0 grants, this grant is suitable for machine-to-machine authentication where a specific user’s permission to access data is not required. It does not require any web browser action or any code.
  redirect_url:
  User will be redirected to this url on successful login.
  
  More on OAuth2 here.

3. Lets see in action using postman

We will use Postman to generate OAuth2 token from above details shown in image.

• grant_type: authorization_code
  Paste the URL in browser , it will redirect to login page and after user provides username and password it will ask for authorization as below image:
  http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/authorize?client_id=TestApplication_avi&response_type=code&scope=eggs-count&redirect_uri=http://localhost.com

It shows the application name requesting permission and what permission. Once user authorizes, it will generate a code in url present in address bar.

• We can now use this code to generate access token
• POSTMAN cURL request: (import it as raw text in postman)

curl --location --request POST 'http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/token' \
--header 'charset: utf-8' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded' \
--header 'Cookie: __cfduid=d7c80c980d3753d41846a2155bf6d658d1594820771; oauth_server=4ks4fmrpfvm878g7s28mcddr60' \
--data-urlencode 'client_id=Avishekapp1' \
--data-urlencode 'client_secret=xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx' \
--data-urlencode 'grant_type=authorization_code' \
--data-urlencode 'redirect_uri=http://localhost' \
--data-urlencode 'code=c9c4b6ab50c6ad2d5c6039ae708ea4f829a98847'

We will get token and other details like refresh token, scope and expiry time.

We can now test this token by calling Get profile endpoint.
Make a GET request with below details in postman:

GET: http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/api/me
Header:
Authorization:Bearer <use token received from above request>

It will give the user profile details from whom we got the code while authorization in browser.

Now that we know how to get code , token and get profile details we can automate the end to end flow.
Summary of the steps to be performed:

1. Navigate to authorization url in browser to let the user authorize after login. We can achieve this via Selenium (Running selenium in headless mode)

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.silentOutput", "true");
        ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();
        options.addArguments("--headless");
        options.addArguments("--disable-gpu");
        options.addArguments("window-size=1920,1080");
        options.setPageLoadStrategy(PageLoadStrategy.NORMAL);

        WebDriverManager.chromedriver().setup();
       driver = new ChromeDriver(options);       

        String emailLocator="form-email";
        String pwdLocator="form-password";
        String loginLocator="//button[@class='btn btn-primary']";
        String authorizeBtnLocator="//a[@class='btn btn-default']";
 
WebDriver driver = getDriver();
        driver.get("http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/authorize?client_id=Avishekapp1&response_type=code&scope=profile&redirect_uri=http://localhost");
        driver.findElement(By.id(emailLocator)).sendKeys("email of the user who will authorize");
        driver.findElement(By.id(pwdLocator)).sendKeys("password of the user who will authorize");
        driver.findElement(By.xpath(loginLocator)).click();
        Thread.sleep(4000);
        driver.findElement(By.xpath(authorizeBtnLocator)).click();
        Thread.sleep(5000);
        String fullUrl= driver.getCurrentUrl();

2. After authorization code will be generated in browser url, we need to fetch the url via selenium and extract the code using String method

String code= fullUrl.substring(fullUrl.indexOf("code=")+5,fullUrl.indexOf("&"));
driver.quit();

3. Once we get the code, we can send the token request to get the access token. This can be achieved via Rest assured

         String token= given()
                .formParam("client_id", client_id)
                .formParam("client_secret", client_secret)
                .formParam("grant_type", "authorization_code")
                .formParam("code", code).log().all()
                .when()
                .post("http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/token")
                .then().log().all().extract().path("access_token");

4. Once we get the token we will pass the token in get profile endpoint to get the user profile details, this can also be achieved in rest assured.

          given()
                .header("Authorization","Bearer "+token)
                .when()
                .get("http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/token")
                .then().log().all();

References:
OAuth2 provider: http://coop.apps.symfonycasts.com/
OAuth2.0 : https://oauth.net/2/
Grant_type: https://developer.okta.com/blog/2018/04/10/oauth-authorization-code-grant-type