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This tutorial describes the creation of the Gradle Java Project to test Rest API using Cucumber BDD and Rest-Assured.

In this tutorial, I will explain creating a framework for the testing of Rest API in Cucumber BDD. This framework consists of:

1. Cucumber – 6.8.1 or above
2. Java 8 or above
3. JUnit 4
4. Gradle 6.6.1 (Build Tool)
5. Rest Assured 4.3.3

Steps to set up Gradle Java Project for API Testing using Rest-Assured and Cucumber

1. Download and Install Java on the system
2. Download and setup Eclipse IDE on the system
3. Setup Gradle on System
4. Create a new Gradle Project
5. Add Rest-Assured and Cucumber dependencies to the Gradle project
6. Add Configuration to build.gradle
7. Add Gradle Cucumber Task to build.gradle
8. Create a feature file under src/test/resources
9. Create the Step Definition class or Glue Code for the Test Scenario
10. Create a Cucumber Runner class
11. Run the tests from JUnit
12. Run the tests from Command Line
13. Cucumber Report Generation

Project Structure

Step 1- Download and Install Java

Cucumber and Rest-Assured need Java to be installed on the system to run the tests. Click here to know How to install Java.

Step 2 – Download and setup Eclipse IDE on the system

The Eclipse IDE (integrated development environment) provides strong support for Java developers. Click here to know How to install Eclipse.

Step 3 – Setup Gradle

To build a test framework, we need to add several dependencies to the project. This can be achieved by any build tool. I have used Gradle Build Tool. Click here to know How to install Gradle.

Step 4 – Create a new Gradle Project

To create a new Gradle project, go to the top left side and select File -> New Project -> Gradle -> Gradle project -> Next -> Enter Project Name and Project Location ->Next ->Select Gradle Version ->Next ->Review the Configuration -> Finish.

Click here to know How to create a Gradle Java project. Below is the structure of the Gradle project.

Step 5 – Add Rest-Assured and Cucumber dependencies to the Gradle project

This syntax is used for Gradle 5.0 and higher.

dependencies {
    // This dependency is exported to consumers, that is to say found on their compile classpath.
    api 'org.apache.commons:commons-math3:3.6.1'

    // This dependency is used internally, and not exposed to consumers on their own compile classpath.
    implementation 'com.google.guava:guava:29.0-jre'
    
    testImplementation 'io.cucumber:cucumber-java:6.8.1'
    testImplementation 'io.cucumber:cucumber-junit:6.8.1'
    testImplementation 'io.rest-assured:rest-assured:4.3.3'

If you are using Gradle 4.10.3 or older, use the below dependency block to build.gradle.

dependencies {
    testCompile 'io.cucumber:cucumber-java:6.8.1'
}

Step 6 – Add Configuration to build.gradle

The below configuration is added to build.gradle when Gradle is 5.0 or higher version.

configurations {
    cucumberRuntime {
        extendsFrom testImplementation
    }
}

If Gradle is 4.10.3 or older, use the below configuration.

configurations {
    cucumberRuntime {
        extendsFrom testRuntime
    }
}

Step 7 – Add Gradle Cucumber Task to build.gradle 

task cucumber() {
    dependsOn assemble, testClasses
    doLast {
        javaexec {
            main = "io.cucumber.core.cli.Main"
            classpath = configurations.cucumberRuntime + sourceSets.main.output + sourceSets.test.output
            args = ['--plugin', 'pretty', '--glue', 'com.example.gradle.apidemo', 'src/test/resources']
        }
    }
}

Once you have added dependencies, configurations, and Gradle cucumber task, Right-click on the project, Hover to the Gradle option, and click Refresh Gradle Project. Eclipse does not automatically update the class path if the build.gradle file is updated. Select Gradle  Refresh Gradle Project from the context menu of the project or from your build.gradle file for that.

Step 8 – Create a feature file under src/test/resources

A new Gradle Project is created with 4 folders – src/main/java, src/main/resources, src/test/java and src/test/resources. Features are created under the src/test/resources directory. Create a folder with name features. Now, create the feature file in this folder. The feature file should be saved with extension .feature. This feature file contains the test scenarios created to test the application. The Test Scenarios are written in Gherkins language in the format of Given, When, Then, And, But.

Below is an example of a Test Scenario where we are using the GET method to get the information from the API.

Feature: Validation of get method
 
@GetUserDetails
  Scenario Outline: Send a valid Request to get user details
 
  Given I send a request to the URL to get user details
  Then the response will return status 200 and id <id> and salary <employee_salary> and name "<employee_name>" and age <employee_age> and message "<message>"
 
Examples:
    |id  |employee_salary|employee_name |employee_age  |message                                  |
    |1   |320800         |Tiger Nixon   |61            |Successfully! Record has been fetched.   |
   

Step 9 – Create the Step Definition class or Glue Code for the Test Scenario

Step Definition acts as an intermediate to your runner and feature file. It stores the mapping between each step of the scenario in the Feature file. So when you run the scenario, it will scan the step definition file to check matched glue or test code.

import io.restassured.http.ContentType;
 
import io.restassured.response.ValidatableResponse;
 
import static io.restassured.RestAssured.given;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.equalTo;
 
import io.cucumber.java.en.Given;
import io.cucumber.java.en.Then;
 
public class API_GETDefinitions {
     
 
    private ValidatableResponse validatableResponse;
 
    private String endpoint = "http://dummy.restapiexample.com/api/v1/employee/1";
  
    @Given("I send a request to the URL to get user details")
    public void sendRequest(){
        validatableResponse = given().contentType(ContentType.JSON)
                .when().get(endpoint).then();   
         
        System.out.println("Response :"+validatableResponse.extract().asPrettyString());
    }
  
  
    @Then("the response will return status {int} and id {int} and salary {int} and name {string} and age {int} and message {string}")
    public void verifyStatus(int statusCode, int id, int emp_Salary, String emp_name, int emp_age, String message ){
         
        validatableResponse.assertThat().statusCode(statusCode);
         
        validatableResponse.assertThat().body("data.id",equalTo(id));
         
        validatableResponse.assertThat().body("data.employee_salary",equalTo(emp_Salary));
         
        validatableResponse.assertThat().body("data.employee_name",equalTo(emp_name));
         
        validatableResponse.assertThat().body("data.employee_age",equalTo(emp_age));
         
        validatableResponse.assertThat().body("message",equalTo(message));      
         
    }
}

In order to use REST assured effectively, it’s recommended to statically import methods from the following classes:

import io.restassured.RestAssured.*
import io.restassured.matcher.RestAssuredMatchers.*
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.*

given() method is imported from package:

import static io.restassured.RestAssured.given;

equalTo() method is imported from package:

import static org.hamcrest.Matchers;

Step 10 – Create a Cucumber Runner class 

A runner will help us to run the feature file and acts as an interlink between the feature file and step definition Class. To know more about Runner, refer to this link.

import org.junit.runner.RunWith;

import io.cucumber.junit.Cucumber;
import io.cucumber.junit.CucumberOptions;

@RunWith(Cucumber.class)

@CucumberOptions(plugin ="pretty",features= {"src/test/resources/features/API_GET.feature"}, glue= {"com.example.gradle.apidemo"})

public class CucumberRunnerTest {

}

Step 11 – Run the tests from JUnit

You can execute the test script by right-clicking on Test Runner class -> Run As JUnit.

Step 12 – Run the tests from Command Line

Run the following Gradle task from the directory path where build.gradle file is located. To know more about this report, refer here.

gradle cucumber

Below is the screenshot of the execution of Cucumber tests in Command-Line.

Step 13 – Cucumber Report Generation

To get Cucumber Test Reports, add cucumber.properties under src/test/resources and add the below instruction in the file.

cucumber.publish.enabled=true

Below is the image of the Cucumber Report.

We are done! Congratulations on making it through this tutorial and hope you found it useful! Happy Learning!!