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Streamline Integration Testing With Karate: A Comprehensive Tool For SDET Engineers

Based on an SDET Propel Workshop Presentation And Live Client-Site, Hands-On Demonstration led by: Veda Vyas Prabu, Lead Software Development Engineer In Test and Oleksii Lavrenin, Senior Q&A Test Engineer @ InRhythm on July 12th, 2023

Overview

In the world of software development, integration testing plays a crucial role in ensuring that individual components seamlessly work together. However, the complexity of integration testing often poses challenges for SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) engineers. 

Enter Karate, a powerful open-source tool that simplifies and enhances integration testing by combining API testing, mocking, and UI automation into a single framework. 

In Veda Vyas Prabu and Oleksii Lavrenin’s Overview Of Karate presentation at our recent SDET Propel Workshop, we will explore the features, capabilities, and best practices of Karate for SDET integration testing:

  • Overview
  • Understanding Karate
  • Getting Started With Karate
  • Enhancing SDET Integration Testing Principles With Karate
  • Best Practices And Advanced Techniques
  • Closing Thoughts

Understanding Karate

1. Overview And Philosophy

Karate is a testing framework that combines API testing, UI automation, and performance testing into a unified package. It follows the principles of simplicity, reusability, and readability, enabling SDET engineers to write expressive and robust test scenarios.

2. Key Features

  • Unified Testing: Karate integrates API testing and UI automation seamlessly, allowing for end-to-end testing of integrated software components
  • BDD Syntax: Karate uses a Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) syntax, making tests readable and understandable for both technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • Built-in Mocking: Karate simplifies API mocking and stubbing, enabling isolated testing of individual components
  • Test Data Management: Karate provides various methods for managing test data, including data tables, external files, and dynamic payloads

Getting Started With Karate

  • Installation And Setup

Learn how to install and set up Karate in your testing environment, ensuring a smooth integration with your existing development tools and frameworks.

  • Writing Tests With Karate

Explore the intuitive syntax of Karate’s DSL, enabling SDET engineers to write expressive test scenarios using simple, English-like statements. Understand how to define HTTP requests, validate responses, and perform assertions using built-in matchers, and JSONPath expressions.

  • Data-Driven Testing

Discover Karate’s powerful data-driven testing capabilities. Utilize data tables, external files (such as CSV or JSON), and dynamic payloads to create tests that cater to various scenarios and input variations.

Enhancing SDET Integration Testing Principles With Karate

  • Comprehensive Testing

Karate empowers SDET engineers to achieve comprehensive test coverage by seamlessly integrating API testing and UI automation. This allows for end-to-end testing of integrated software components, ensuring their proper behavior and functionality.

  • Collaboration And Communication

Karate’s BDD syntax promotes collaboration between technical and non-technical stakeholders. Test scenarios written in a human-readable format help foster clear communication, shared understanding, and collaboration among developers, testers, and business stakeholders.

  • Isolated Component Testing

Karate’s built-in mocking and stubbing capabilities enable SDET engineers to isolate the testing of individual components. This ensures that each component behaves as expected and validates their integration into the larger system.

  • Reusability And Maintainability

Karate promotes reusability by providing a modular and structured approach to test development. SDET engineers can create reusable test functions, making it easier to maintain and update test suites as the application evolves.

Best Practices And Advanced Techniques

  • Test Organization And Structure

Follow best practices for organizing and structuring your Karate test suite. Group tests logically, utilize features and tags, and establish naming conventions to improve test maintainability and readability.

  • Reporting And Integration

Utilize Karate’s built-in reporting capabilities to generate detailed test reports that provide valuable insights into test execution and results. Integrate Karate with popular collaboration tools, CI/CD pipelines, and reporting frameworks to enable seamless testing workflows and effective team collaboration.

Closing Thoughts

Karate is a powerful testing framework that enhances SDET integration testing principles by combining API testing, UI automation, and performance testing into a single package. By leveraging Karate’s intuitive syntax, comprehensive testing capabilities, and collaborative nature, SDET engineers can achieve comprehensive test coverage, promote clear communication and collaboration among stakeholders, and validate the behavior and integration of software components with ease. With Karate, you can streamline your testing efforts, improve software quality, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your SDET integration testing processes.

Embrace Karate as your go-to testing framework and elevate your testing practices to new heights.

Browser Extensions and Bookmarklets: InRhythm’s Learning and Growth Newsletter

April 23rd: Do You Control Your Browser?

Stanley Kubrick predicted first contact in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey and introduced a now-iconic, silver-tongued psychopathic A.I. by the name of “HAL” (1 character below “IBM”—get it?), but all we got in our own 2001 was United States v. Microsoft Corp. Some liked it and some didn’t but what everyone agreed on was that our freedom to choose our own browser would be integral to the Web’s success. 

This week we’re focusing on how two technologies—browser extensions and bookmarklets—can expand our ability to make use of the web by customizing our browsers. Distinguished IR engineer Pat Needham documents his recent adventures in building a Chrome extension, warts and all. We’ve all been there, Pat (spoiler alert: it’s published!).

Are you an extension evangelist? How have extensions and bookmarklets changed the way you experience the web? Tell us what you think @GetInRhythm or on the InRhythmU blog. 

Thanks and Keep Growing,

Gunjan Doshi
CEO, InRhythm

Adventures in Chrome Extension Building

(4 min. read)

“Curious about the process behind developing your own Chrome extension? InRhythm breaks down the steps from ideation to publishing as an individual engineer.”

What We’re Reading Around the Web

Bookmarkhuh?
How-to Geek
“”Did you know that browsers have had superpowers since about 1996? They have! When he was developing JavaScript for Netscape, Brendan Eich ‘invented the javascript: URL along with JavaScript in 1995, and intended that javascript: URLs could be used as any other kind of URL, including being bookmark-able.’ That means you could write a script into a link (e.g. Bookmark Me!), bookmark that script (put a little button on the browser’s bookmark bar, for instance), and run that code on any page you’re browsing. Check out this subreddit for some fun examples.”

Mobile AR Experiences in Unity
(7 min. read)
Thoughtbot
“Browser extensions are like apps for your browser. Unlike bookmarklets, these are vendor-specific toolkits for extending browser functionality. Those ad blockers you keep hearing about are typically browser extensions; LastPass, a popular (and recommended) password manager is another. For-profit companies like ActiveInbox depend on browser extensions. At InRhythm we’re thinking hard about how to help our clients using these powerful tools. Thoughtbot offers a great write-up on how to dive in and start creating—Chrome and Mozilla offer detailed guidance as well.”

R.I.P Bookmarklets
(9 min. read)
Medium
“Brian Donohue, former CEO of Instapaper (a company that bookmarklets essentially made possible) laments that ‘Bookmarklets are Dead (we just don’t know it yet)‘. Written in 2014, this important article was mainly reacting to security-focused technical changes that would cripple the power of bookmarklets in certain scenarios. While the reports of this demise were somewhat exaggerated, it’s true that these powerful customizations remain beholden to the goodwill of browser vendors, and there’s a risk in that. Run out and make some bookmarklets while you still can!”

Are Extensions Safe?
(5 min. read)
Brian Madden
“Browser extensions are deeply integrated into the browser experience, which means they can ‘see’ pretty much anything you do on the Web, and have access to a lot of your data. This is their power, and when used well they function as useful apps. Extensions, just like apps, must ask for certain permissions prior to installation, and that’s good. But the vetting process for extensions is not as robust as it is for, say, Apple’s App Store. Bad actors are always searching for weaknesses, and browser extensions are not immune. But let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater—you can be a good actor, and build powerful tools for your customers and friends that only bring value.””