Stopping Karate mock server at the end of Integration testing

Question

I am using Karate to do integration testing for a Spring Boot app. The app consumes two other services (Service A and Service B) . I have written Karate mocks for Service A and B. My integration tests are written as two different feature files. One of the feature is tested using Mocks for service A and B. Another feature uses Mocks for service B and Spring Contract Stubs for service A.

Feature with only mocks

 Feature: Test Some feature

  Background:
    * configure headers = { Content-Type: 'application/json' }
    * url baseUrl

 #Start up the mocks
  Scenario: Start the Mocks
    * karate.start({ mock: '../mock/service/service-a.feature', port: 9000})
    * karate.start({ mock: '../mock/service/service-b.feature', port: 9001})

Feature with mocks and Spring Contract stubs

 Feature: Test Some more features

  Background:
    * configure headers = { Content-Type: 'application/json' }
    * url baseUrl

 #Start up the mocks
  Scenario: Start the Mocks
    # Service A will use Spring Contract stubrunner. 
    * karate.start({ mock: '../mock/service/service-b.feature', port: 9001})

Now, when we run the tests, the second one fails saying that the port is already used. I tried using karate.stop(9000) at the end of the feature file which is running first, but it does not help. Also, I am not sure about the behaviour of this stop method. Any suggestions to solve this problem ? Why the mock service is still running even after the tests are done ?

Answer 1

As far as I know, the mock should stop when the JVM exits - so I can't explain what's going on in your case. So maybe you should create a way to replicate and file a bug: https://github.com/intuit/karate/wiki/How-to-Submit-an-Issue

I personally recommend starting your mocks from the unit-test Java code (typically the JUnit class) which means you can keep a reference to the mock and then call stop() on it. Even here, normally it is not mandatory, as the mock should terminate along with the JVM. Read the docs here: https://github.com/intuit/karate/tree/develop/karate-netty#embedding

Then, note that best-practice is to dynamically provision a port and then pass that to the test or any other consumers. Especially in CI-CD pipelines, this avoids the problem of the port in use or taking too much time to de-allocate.

And maybe the direct answer you are looking for. When you call karate.start() you get an object back which is of type MockServer . So you can keep a reference to it and call stop() on it when needed: https://github.com/intuit/karate/tree/develop/karate-netty#within-a-karate-test

For example:

* def server1 = karate.start('mock1.feature')
* def port1 = server1.port
# do some tests
* server1.stop()