Karate Framework: Let’s make API Tests great again
Tags: softwarequalityassurance, apitests, karateframework
Published: 2020-01-24 11:03:44

---
title: Karate Framework: Let’s make API Tests great again
published: true
tags: Software Quality Assurance, API tests, Karate Framework
canonical_url: https://apiumhub.com/tech-blog-barcelona/karate-framework-api-tests/
---

I’ve recently talked about a [testing framework called Cypress](https://apiumhub.com/tech-blog-barcelona/cypress-framework-swiss-knife-tests/). In this article I will talk about another one: a pretty simple testing framework for **REST API Automation** called [Karate](https://github.com/intuit/karate). In order to best describe it, here’s a pretty descriptive excerpt from the official source:

> _Karate Framework is the only open-source tool to combine API test-automation, mocks and performance-testing into a single, unified framework. The BDD syntax popularized by Cucumber is language-neutral, and easy for even non-programmers. Besides powerful JSON & XML assertions, you can run tests in parallel for speed – which is critical for HTTP API testing._

First, let’s compare **Karate** test with Cucumber and [REST-Assured](http://rest-assured.io).

Karate:

![Karate Test](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/karate-test-1024x246.jpg)

Cucumber: + we must implement steps and POJO:

![Cucumber Test](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cucumber-test-1024x193.jpg)

Rest-assured:

![Rest Assured](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/rest-assured-1024x303.jpg)

Advantage of Karate: BDD in one place (compared with Cucumber + steps + business logic + POJOs). If you need complexity Karate has Javascript support for this.

For pre-conditions use, Karate proposes to use another feature files:

![Karate Preconditions](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/karate-preconditions1-1024x248.jpg)

Since Karate is written in Java, it has java integration.

Calling Java method from API test, e.x generate uniqueId:

![Generate uniqueId](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/generate-uniqueid-1024x137.jpg)

Another advantage of using Karate is its assertion capabilities:

![Karate Assertion Capabilities](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/karate-assertion-capabilities-1024x334.jpg)

Schema validation. User friendly formating of response validation. Reusing json as a variable. Karate markers. DDT. Similar to Cucumber, but compared to Cucumber, where variables are static in the table, in Karate we can import a csv file with data. Can be user e.x. in boundary testing of api endpoint.

![Boundary Testing](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/boundary-testing-1024x330.jpg) ![Boundary Testing](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/boundary-testing2-1024x417.jpg)

Parallel execution. Running with Junit5. In the example we run all tests/feature files with tag @regression.

![Parallel Execution](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/parallel-execution-1024x275.jpg)

Reporting. Allure, Cucumber report. From the box Karate propose the report like next one:

![Karate API Test](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/karate-api-test-1.jpg)

But also we can easily integrate Cucumber report or also Allure ![😉](https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f609.png)

In case of Cucumber Report we can obtain something like:

![Karate Framework API Test](https://apiumhub.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/karate-api-test-2.jpg)

Some other cool features of Karate Framework: Json Path, UI step-to-step debug, Integration with CI, Build-in ENV switcher, etc.


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