RESTful Java client with Apache HttpClient for Post

Apache HttpClient is a robust and complete solution Java library to perform HTTP operations, including RESTful service. In this tutorial, we show you how to create a RESTful Java client with Apache HttpClient, to perform a  “POST” request.

Post Apache HttpClient

Apache HttpClient is available in Maven central repository, just declares it in your Maven pom.xml file.

File : pom.xml

<dependency>
 <groupId>org.apache.httpcomponents</groupId>
 <artifactId>httpclient</artifactId>
 <version>4.1.1</version>
</dependency>

Apache HttpClient to send a “POST” request.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.entity.StringEntity;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;

public class ApacheHttpClientPost {

 public static void main(String[] args) {

   try {

  DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
  HttpPost postRequest = new HttpPost(
   "http://localhost:8080-------------Restful API");

  StringEntity input = new StringEntity("{\"qty\":200,\"name\":\"item\"}");
  input.setContentType("application/json");
  postRequest.setEntity(input);

  HttpResponse response = httpClient.execute(postRequest);

  if (response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode() != 201) {
   throw new RuntimeException("Failed : HTTP error code : "
    + response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode());
  }

  BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(
                        new InputStreamReader((response.getEntity().getContent())));

  String output;
  System.out.println("Output from Server .... \n");
  while ((output = br.readLine()) != null) {
   System.out.println(output);
  }

  httpClient.getConnectionManager().shutdown();

   } catch (MalformedURLException e) {

  e.printStackTrace();

   } catch (IOException e) {

  e.printStackTrace();

   }

 }

}

Setup Selenium WebDriver Grid with Docker

Integration tests are an integral part of any modern web application, you’ll likely be running selenium tests. While Selenium tests are easy to write and execute on your local workstation. Now you’re stuck with two bad options like SaaS provider like SauceLabs and BrowserStack etc. or running your own Selenium Grid and managing a multitude of machines and browser versions. This is going to make you CI process with slow builds.

In this article, you’ll see how easy it is to set up a Selenium Grid with Docker, how easy it is to maintain, and how to extend and grow your Selenium grid to satisfy your team’s needs.

Challenges :

If you use Selenium Grid for running you test, You must have to install so many configurations and tools on each machine which your test depends on like Java, Selenium WebDriver, Test Browsers, VNC etc. Maintaining machines in grid are sometimes costly and time consuming to maintain.

Why Docker :

With containerized test executors, the test suites can be executed on any platforms without library dependencies. Selenium Grid is distributed system of nodes for running tests. Instead of running your grid across multiple virtual machines, using Docker we can run them all Test’s parallel and fast on a single large machine using Docker.

Selenium Grid Hub and Nodes in Docker :

To set up Selenium WebDriver Grid we need to download a couple of Selenium Images step by step:

#Step 1: Download Selenium/hub

Use docker pull command to download the Selenium/hub

docker pull selenium/hub

#Step 2: Download Selenium/node-chrome

Use docker pull command to download the Selenium/node-chrome, Chrome browser image.

docker pull selenium/node-chrome

#Step 3: Download Selenium/node-firefox

Same like above use docker pull command to download the Selenium/node-firefox, Firefox browser image.

docker pull selenium/node-firefox

#Step 4: Check Docker Image after Download

After downloading the images we can check the downloaded Images using the docker command and see all the images on the list.

docker images

#Step 5: Start Selenium Hub

As we have downloaded the images and we can now start the Selenium Hub. So the process is generally starting Hub first and then joining other nodes to the Hub.

docker run -d -p 4444:4444 -P --name selenium-hub selenium/hub

Run docker ps to check the container details

After that we can verify that selenium grid is running or not by navigating to the URL:
http://localhost:4444/grid/console

#Step 5: Start Selenium Node

As the Hub is started and listening on Port No:4444 we are ready to start nodes and connect with Selenium Hub.

Run Chrome Node and Link it to Hub:

docker run -d --link selenium-hub:hub -P --name chrome selenium/node-chrome

Run Firefox Node and Link it to Hub:

docker run -d --link selenium-hub:hub -P --name firefox selenium/node-firefox

Verify Nodes in Browser Console:

http://localhost:4444/grid/console

#Step 6: Run Test on Chrome:

All our Test should be pointing to the URL: http://localhost:4444/wd/hub

As the Hub is running on port:4444, so we will direct all the test on this port and Hub will work as load balancing and redirecting the request to proper browser and node.

import java.net.URL;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.DesiredCapabilities;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class RunningTestOnDocker {

    @Test
    public void runTestOnDocker() throws Exception {
        DesiredCapabilities dcap = DesiredCapabilities.chrome();
        String driverPath = System.getProperty("user.dir") + "/exe/chromedriver";
        System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", driverPath);

        // Hub Port at 4444
        URL gamelan = new URL("http://localhost:4444/wd/hub");
        WebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(gamelan, dcap);
        // Get URL
        driver.get("https://www.google.com/");
        // Print Title
        System.out.println(driver.getTitle());
    }
}

Output:

Google

As we are using the Chrome Browser and running a simple Test which is to open Google.com and print the website title. You can also create a simple Test in Firefox and run the both Test parallel.

You can use the selenium/node-chrome-debug as a debug image because It is bundled with realVNC and you can see the Browser and test at run time. You can read articles about debugging container Images with realVNC here.

How to use Dependencies in TestNG?

Sometimes we have steps or tests which are depended on each other and can not be performed alone. For example: To update Facebook account details, User should be logged in already.I personally do not recommend making test cases dependent upon each other and should be independent.
To make dependencies between test, TestNG provides dependsOnMethods or dependsOnGroups attributes which can be used in the @Test. As per the TestNg documentation, there are two types of dependencies:

• Hard dependencies: If a dependent method failed, all the test methods will be skipped (not failed)
• Soft dependencies: Run all the methods even if the dependent methods failed. To make soft dependencies in our test we have to use «alwaysRun=true» in your @Test.

Let’s see some working examples to understand the concept:

#dependsOnMethods

Let’s make two @test methods where the second method depends on the first method.

secondTestMethod() is declared as independent on method firstTestMethod(), which guarantees that firstTestMethod() will always be invoked first.

package com.tutorial.testng.dependencies;

import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DependsOnMethodsTest {

    @Test()
    public void firstTestMethod() {
        System.out.println("First test method");
    }

    @Test(dependsOnMethods = { "firstTestMethod" })
    public void secondTestMethod() {
        System.out.println("Second test method");
    }
}

Output:

Let’s change our test class and make the dependent method firstTestMethod() failed. Now in results dependent method firstTestMethod() should be FAILED but our method secondTestMethod() should be SKIPPED.

package com.tutorial.testng.dependencies;

import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DependsOnMethodsTest {

    @Test()
    public void firstTestMethod() {
        System.out.println("First test method");
        Assert.assertTrue(false);
    }

    @Test(dependsOnMethods = { "firstTestMethod" })
    public void secondTestMethod() {
        System.out.println("Second test method");
    }
}

Output:

How to use ‘alwaysRun’ and make Soft dependencies:

Let’s change our test class again and add alwaysRun = true in the second method. Now in results dependent method firstTestMethod() should be FAILED but our method secondTestMethod() should be Running and PASSED.

alwaysRun attribute is a boolean type, so only accepted values are true and false.

package com.tutorial.testng.dependencies;

import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DependsOnMethodsTest {

    @Test()
    public void firstTestMethod() {
        System.out.println("First test method");
        Assert.assertTrue(false);
    }

    @Test(dependsOnMethods = { "firstTestMethod" }, alwaysRun = true)
    public void secondTestMethod() {
        System.out.println("Second test method");
    }
}

Output:

#dependsOnGroups

We have two test methods which are part of a Group and TestMethodDependOnGroup() is dependent on the group testGroup itself. So If any of the tests failed from the group, all the @test dependent on the group would be SKIPPED.

package com.tutorial.testng.dependencies;

import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DependsOnGroupsTest {

    @Test(groups = { "testGroup" })
    public void firstGroupMethod() {
        System.out.println("First Group method");
    }

    @Test(groups = { "testGroup" })
    public void secondGroupMethod() {
        System.out.println("Second Group method");
    }

    @Test(dependsOnGroups = { "testGroup" })
    public void TestMethodDependOnGroup() {
        System.out.println("test method depending on group");
    }
}

Output:

Let’s change above class and mark one test method from the group as Failed and our dependent method TestMethodDependOnGroup() should be marked as SKIPPED.

package com.tutorial.testng.dependencies;

import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DependsOnGroupsTest {

    @Test(groups = { "testGroup" })
    public void firstGroupMethod() {
        System.out.println("First Group method");
    }

    @Test(groups = { "testGroup" })
    public void secondGroupMethod() {
        System.out.println("First Group method");
        Assert.assertTrue(false);
    }

    @Test(dependsOnGroups = { "testGroup" })
    public void TestMethodDependOnGroup() {
        System.out.println("test method depending on group");
    }
}

Output:

Working example of DataProvider in TestNG?

In the Automation Testing we see a lot of time that the we can use the same Testing method with different Parameter to cover the maximum test coverage and we can cover the boundary conditions as well

Data Provider is a method on your class that returns an array of array of objects.

How to pass String parameter in DataProvider:

package com.tutorial.testng.parameters;

import org.testng.annotations.DataProvider;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DataProviderInTest {

 @Test(dataProvider = "userDetails")
 public void testUserDetails(String user, String password) {
  System.out.println("Test User: " + user + " Password: " + password);
 }

 @DataProvider(name = "userDetails")
 public Object[][] userDetails() {

  return new Object[][] {
   { "user1", "password1" },
   { "user2", "password2" },
   { "user3", "password3" } };
 }
}

Output:

Test User: user1 Passsword: password1
Test User: user2 Passsword: password2
Test User: user3 Passsword: password3

I have used String here in this example but you can pass other data types also using the data provider.

How to pass Class Object in DataProvider:

Using DataProvider you can pass Class object parameters.So we need to create multiple objects of a particular Class and passed as DataProvider to our @Test method.

Step 1: Create a User Class POJO which has User and Password Value.

package com.tutorial.testng.parameters;

public class User {

 private String user;
 private String password;

 public String getUser() {
  return user;
 }

 public String getPassword() {
  return password;
 }

 public User setUser(String user) {
  this.user = user;
  return this;
 }

 public User setPassword(String password) {
  this.password = password;
  return this;
 }
}

Step 2: Now create a Test Class with DataProvider and pass multiple User.java object and print the user details in our TestCase.

package com.tutorial.testng.parameters;

import org.testng.annotations.DataProvider;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DataProviderWithObjectTest {

 @Test(dataProvider = "userDetails")
 public void testUserDetails(User users) {
  System.out.println("Test User: " + users.getUser() + " Password: " + users.getPassword());
 }

 @DataProvider(name = "userDetails")
 public Object[][] userDetails() {

  return new Object[][] {
   { new User().setUser("user1").setPassword("password1") },
   { new User().setUser("user2").setPassword("password2") },
   { new User().setUser("user3").setPassword("password3") }, };
 }
}

Output:

Test User: user1 Password: password1
Test User: user2 Password: password2
Test User: user3 Password: password3
PASSED: testUserDetails(com.tutorial.testng.parameters.User@2f686d1f)
PASSED: testUserDetails(com.tutorial.testng.parameters.User@69ea3742)
PASSED: testUserDetails(com.tutorial.testng.parameters.User@3159c4b8)

What If you pass wrong No of arguments in DataProvider:

DataProvider expectes you to pass and receive the same set of arguments, If there is a mismatch in the arguments, It will thrown an exception and TestCases will not Run.

There is org.testng.internal.reflect.DataProviderMethodMatcher class in testNG used for verification, using a method getConformingArguments() for verifying the no of arguments.

@Override
public Object[] getConformingArguments(){
  if (ThreeStateBoolean.NONE.equals(getConforms())) {
    conforms();
  }
  if (matchingMatcher != null) {
    return matchingMatcher.getConformingArguments();
  }
  throw new MethodMatcherException("Data provider mismatch", getContext().getMethod(), getContext().getArguments());
}
}

In this Example below we will pass an extra Argument from the DataProvider but will not accept that argument in our @Test method and Test will fail with exception.

package com.tutorial.testng.parameters;

import org.testng.annotations.DataProvider;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;

public class DataProviderFailure {

 @Test(dataProvider = "userDetails")
 public void testUserDetails(String user, String password) {
  System.out.println("Test User: " + user + " Password: " + password);
 }

 @DataProvider(name = "userDetails")
 public Object[][] userDetails() {
  return new Object[][] { { "user1","password1","extraValue" },
                   { "user2","password2","extraValue" },
                   { "user3","password3","extraValue" } };
 }
}

Output Exception:

org.testng.internal.reflect.MethodMatcherException:
Data provider mismatch
Method: testUserDetails([Parameter{index=0, type=java.lang.String, declaredAnnotations=[]}, Parameter{index=1, type=java.lang.String, declaredAnnotations=[]}])
Arguments: [(java.lang.String)user1,(java.lang.String)password1,(java.lang.String)application]