在微服务之间执行端到端测试时，如何隔离测试数据或测试流程？

Question

This might seem a little unorthodox way of doing things, but what we're trying to achieve is to find out a way to identify the flow as "test flow" when performing end to end tests in a live environment.

For example, in a e-commerce platform, let's say there are 3 components/microservices involved. (simplifying a lot)

1. Product Authoring
2. Order Management
3. Fulfillment

We want to perform an end to end test and be able to identify this work flow as a test, so that Fulfillment doesn't fulfill this order for real. For that matter, each component may choose to process this request a little differently. The interaction between components are driven through Http requests and events.

Hope I'm clear. Anyone has done this before or any suggestions around this ?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

It is recommended that you write integration tests using fakes/test fixtures, here is a great article that explains: https://enterprisecraftsmanship.com/posts/integration-testing-or-how-to-sleep-well-at-nights/

Also, Martin Fowler's https://martinfowler.com/articles/microservice-testing/

Answer 2

Microservices need to communicate with other microservices to use external functionalities which means that those microservices should be in running state. This is an issue for designing tests since we need to control the output from external services, which we can't control at all. So maybe give Contract Testing a try instead of doing a whole flow end to end testing? Contract testing ensures that a pair of applications will work correctly together by checking each application in isolation to ensure the messages it sends or receives conform to a shared understanding that is documented in a "contract".

I would recommend these articles &terms for your reference:

• https://www.lambdatest.com/blog/testing-challenges-related-to-microservice-architecture/

• https://martinfowler.com/bliki/ContractTest.html

• https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TestDouble.html

• https://circleci.com/blog/how-to-test-software-part-i-mocking-stubbing-and-contract-testing/