I am having trouble with REST Assured API POST request

Question

When I execute the below code in a java file in normal java project in eclipse it is running successfully:

given()
.log().all()
.contentType("application/json")
.auth().basic(APIKEY, PASSWORD)
.body("{\"customName\":\"name\",\"customGender\":\"male\",\"customDateofBirth\":\"2010-12-08\",\"customRelationship\":\"child\"}")
.when()
.post("https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/companyName/v1/employees/1420/tables/customDependants(IN)")
.then().assertThat().statusCode(200);

After executing successfully it adds a new record in the specified table;(customDependants(IN), the table here).

Whereas, when I run the same in a spring boot project am getting an error saying:

java.lang.AssertionError: 1 expectation failed. Expected status code <200> but was <400>.

FYI: I have tried with other request params in place of contentType("application/json") like: headers("Content-Type", ContentType.JSON) .

Error log:

 HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request Server: nginx Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8 Transfer-Encoding: chunked Connection: keep-alive X-BambooHR-Error-Messsage: Malformed XML X-BambooHR-Error-Message: Malformed XML Cache-Control: no-cache Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2019 02:45:30 GMT X-BambooHR-Error-Message: Malformed XML X-BambooHR-Error-Messsage: Malformed XML

Request log:

Request method: POST 
Request URI:    https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/companyName/v1/employees/1420/tables/customDependants%28IN%29
Proxy: <none>  
Request params: <none>  
Query params: <none> 
Form params: <none>  
Path params: <none>  
Headers: Accept=*/* Content-Type=application/json ; charset=UTF-8  
Cookies: <none>  
Multiparts: <none>  
Body: {
     "customName": "name",
     "customGender": "male",
     "customDateofBirth": "2010-12-08",
     "customRelationship": "child"  
    }

Spring Boot code where I am getting this error:

private void employeeDependents(int empId) {
        /*Employees Repository*/ 
        TaBhr taBhr = taBhrRepository.findByBhrId(empId);
        /*Grabbing an employee of given ID from Employees Repository*/ 
        Optional<Employee> employee = employeeRepository.findById(taBhr.getEmpId());
        Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().serializeNulls().create();
        List<EmployeeDependent> list = employee.isPresent()
                ? employeeDependentRepository.findByDependentsEmpnumber(employee.get().getNumber())
                : null;
        if (list != null) {
            for (EmployeeDependent employeeDependent : list) {
                /*Sets the Data Transfer Object*/ 
                EmployeeDependentDTO employeeDependentDTO = new EmployeeDependentDTO();
                employeeDependentDTO.setFirstName(employeeDependent.getEdName());
                employeeDependentDTO.setDateOfBirth(employeeDependent.getEdDateOfBirth());
                employeeDependentDTO.setRelationship(employeeDependent.getDependentGender().getEdRelationshipType());
                employeeDependentDTO.setGender(employeeDependent.getDependentGender().getGender());
                TaBhr tabhr = taBhrRepository.findByEmpId(employee.get().getId());
                if (tabhr != null) {
                    #LOG.info("BHR ID: {}", empId);#
                    given().log().all().contentType("application/json").auth()
                            .basic(APIKEY, PASSWORD)
                            .body(gson.toJson(employeeDependentDTO)).when()
                            .post("https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/companyName/v1/employees/1420/tables/customDependants(IN)")
                            .then().log().ifError().assertThat().statusCode(200);
                }
            }
        }
    }

When I run, it goes till the LOG that is surrounded by #s and then when the API is hit, the response is Malformed XML. The value of gson.toJson(employeeDependentDTO) is {"customName":"abcd","customGender":"male","customDateofBirth":"2010-12-08","customRelationship":"child"} .

Moreover, here I set the content type as JSON and not XML and even the payload is in JSON format which works in postman and non-spring boot project.

FYI: All get requests are working perfectly in spring boot application and when I try to hit API with a post then only am getting the above error, whereas, if I execute the same in a non-spring application everything works fine. The same is working fine in postman.

Please help me with why it is failing to execute in spring boot application.

Answer 1

I have used an alternative solution here using HttpURLConnection in java and it is working perfectly, here is the code which replaces above Rest Assured code:

              try {
                    String rawData = "{\"customName\":\"success\",\"customGender\":\"male\",\"customDateofBirth\":\"2010-12-08\",\"customRelationship\":\"child\"}";
                    String url = "https://api.bamboohr.com/api/gateway.php/companyName/v1/employees/1420/tables/customDependants(IN)";
                    URL obj = new URL(url);
                    HttpURLConnection myURLConnection = (HttpURLConnection) obj.openConnection();

                    String userCredentials = APIKEY:PASSWORD;
                    String basicAuth = "Basic " + new String(Base64.getEncoder().encode(userCredentials.getBytes()));

                    myURLConnection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", basicAuth);
                    myURLConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");
                    myURLConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/json");
                    myURLConnection.setRequestProperty("Accept", "application/json");
                    myURLConnection.setDoOutput(true);
                    byte[] outputInBytes = rawData.getBytes("UTF-8");
                    OutputStream w = myURLConnection.getOutputStream();

                    w.write(outputInBytes, 0, outputInBytes.length); 
                    w.close();

                    int responseCode = myURLConnection.getResponseCode();

                    BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(myURLConnection.getInputStream()));

                    String inputLine;
                    StringBuffer response = new StringBuffer();

                    while ((inputLine = in.readLine()) != null) {
                        response.append(inputLine);
                    }

                    in.close();

                    System.out.println("Response code : " + responseCode);
                    System.out.println(response.toString());

                    // Use Jsoup on response to parse it if it makes your work easier.
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }

It would be useful if someone could share their solution for the former approach.