OVERVIEW
Contract testing is an approach to determine how different components within one application system should interact. Teams use this information to create virtual contracts that specify how two microservices should interact. In the future, this contract will serve as a benchmark for testing microservice interactions.
It has been a decade since the tech giants, including Amazon, Facebook, and Google, have been leveraging contract testing for handling their microservices testing. But that doesn't mean it is exclusive only to high-tech MNCs. Any business that deals with applications can benefit it.
Contract testing is a technique that checks every app separately to test an integration point. In other words, it's a testing process that analyzes whether integration points follow a standard contract or agreement in a highly distributed environment.
The aim is to ensure that the messages it communicates adhere to a shared understanding in a well-documented contract.
The code generates the contract and assures timely upgrades and continuous monitoring based on an application’s customization needs and real-time improvements. It helps keep on par with customer and market demands and ensures that no microservice system escapes individual testing.
The core purpose of contract testing is to assist with integration tests. In simple terms, it is essential because integration testing has some loopholes that can cause testers and developers enormous amounts of inconvenience.
Speaking of which, integration testing helps instill confidence that a system flawlessly works as a single unit. It also helps validate that the remotely communicating parts work in cohesion, such as mobile applications, web applications, and microservices.
End-to-end integrated tests, the most common type of integrated tests, have some painful cons. Since they traverse different systems, testers usually run them serially, which takes up a lot of time.
They might also have to create a prerequisite setup like data preparation which can further slow them down. Not only that, but they are also a challenge to maintain and pose a risk of unreliability or flakiness. The remote and distributed nature of the issue makes matters worse.
Things can further entangle with more code getting tested, and along comes an exponentially slower running of test suites. This results in clogged releases in test automation pipelines, leading to a lack of scalability. Of course, when a process takes its own time to find bugs and uncovers them in the later stages, the costs can increase indefinitely, even in the current agile ecosystem.
That is where contract testing comes into the picture. This methodology ensures flawless communication and high compatibility between two independent systems, such as microservices.
By capturing these interactions and making a mandate for the parties involved to be on the same page on the permitted set of interactions, contract testing makes a lot of room for constant evolution. The best thing about this testing is that the QA team can achieve the same outcome as integration testing without all the challenges involved.
Even though contract tests eliminate many challenges with integration testing, the benefits don't end there. In the section, we are going to take a look at some other advantages of contract tests in a broader sense.
Let's check them out
Suppose you're planning on inculcating a deeper grasp on contract tests. Here are some important terms you should know.
Contract testing gives the best results when testers use it with compatible environments such as API. Specific dependencies and information rely on services you should look for after performing a feasibility check. It tests the integration point between different services, such as microservices, APIs, etc.
The most common uses of it include:
There are two main types of contract tests- consumer-driven and provider-driven. Let us take a look at both.
Thus, it helps eliminate integration failures by syncing the documentation and the provider code. However, this method alone isn't a foolproof solution to avoiding integration bugs as it might not fulfill all consumers' expectations.
In this section, we will discuss some scenarios where contract tests can be helpful.
Since microservices typically have many components, maintaining them can become increasingly difficult due to:
Overall, contract testing can help you with
When it comes to running contract tests, there are three ways to do it:
Other than the tools mentioned above, it is important to implement an end-to-end automated testing management practice. It will help your organizations leverage the potential of contract tests.
Test orchestration and execution platforms like LambdaTest provide a scalable test infrastructure to perform manual and automated testing of your web and mobile applications across an online browser farm of 3000+ real browsers, devices, and operating systems.
This will help your business achieve organization-leading quality objectives.
With LambdaTest’s test automation cloud, you can run automated tests using frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Appium, and more. Furthermore, with parallel testing, you can cut down build times by multiple folds
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Even though contract testing has numerous benefits for a business, it does come with its own set of unique challenges. A few of them are as follows.
However, one way to curb these limitations is to update the contracts frequently. You can accomplish this goal by keeping all development teams in the loop during the contract test process to clearly define new requirements whenever team members modify a microservice's behavior or functionality.
This way, the contracts will keep accurately reflecting the behavior desirable from microservices.
Contract testing started as a buzzword within a bunch of discussion boards. But in the current testing scenario, it has emerged as one of the most promising processes for the progress of a business.
We already know how software testing has emerged as a prominent pillar to impart a seamless virtual experience for businesses. The primary focus is on the versatility, performance, and speed of these applications. While these factors are crucial, a QA team must also ensure the long-term legitimacy and sustainability of the traits mentioned above.
With tons of business logic developments involving adjusting old tests and writing new ones, traditional testing cannot scale services to their full potential. Most organizations have been switching to a relatively distributed architecture and have successfully eliminated obstacles such as service misalignment.
Depending on the technical feasibility, cost estimates, and unique project requirements, you can opt for contract testing and prevent a fair amount of feedback, time, and production failure probabilities.
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Contract tests stresses the communications between a consumer and a provider, while functional tests verify that the intended side effects have taken place.
Contract testing is a quick and simple form of API testing that evaluates the content and structure of API requests and responses.
Contract testing is a quality assurance practice in software development where independent services agree on a set of expectations, verify and validate them to ensure compatibility and reliability. It helps detect and prevent integration issues, ensuring seamless communication and collaboration between services.
API contract testing is a critical process in software development where the expected behavior of an API is defined through a contract, usually in the form of a specification or documentation. It involves testing the API against this contract to ensure it performs as expected and meets the agreed-upon standards.
Contract testing in software refers to a testing approach where two or more services involved in a contract exchange are tested independently to ensure their compatibility and adherence to the agreed-upon interface. It verifies that services meet their contractual obligations and maintain compatibility, promoting reliable and seamless integration.
Contract testing in microservices refers to a testing technique where the interactions and contracts between services are verified. It ensures that each service communicates with others as expected, maintaining compatibility and preventing integration issues. It helps ensure the reliability and stability of microservice architectures.
An example of API contract testing is when a client and a server agree upon a set of rules and specifications for the API interactions. This includes defining the expected inputs, outputs, and behaviors. Testing is then conducted to ensure both parties adhere to the agreed-upon contract.
The responsibility for contract testing typically lies with both parties involved in the contract. Both the service provider and the client have a responsibility to ensure that the terms and conditions of the contract are met, and any testing required to verify compliance should be carried out collaboratively.
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