How to compare 2 JSON objects that contains array

Question

Files for the scenario

• All the files are on same directory.

title-update-request.json

{id: 12, name: 'Old Hello', config:[{username: 'qwe', password: 'tyu'},{username: 'abc', password: 'xyz'}]}

title-update-response.json

{id: 12, name: 'New Hello', config:[{username: 'qwe', password: 'tyu'},{username: 'abc', password: 'xyz'}]}

title-update-error-request.json

{id: 00, name: 'Old Hello', config:[{username: 'qwe', password: 'tyu'},{username: 'abc', password: 'xyz'}]}

title-update-error-response.json

{Error: 'not found', Message: 'The provided Book is not found.'}

book-record.feature

Feature: CRUD operation on the book records.

Background:
        * def signIn = call read('classpath:login.feature')
        * def accessToken = signIn.accessToken
        * url baseUrl

 Scenario: Change title of book in the single book-record.
    * json ExpResObject = read('classpath:/book-records/title-update-response.json')
    * json ReqObject = read('classpath:/book-records/title-update-request.json')
    * call read('classpath:/book-records/update.feature') { Token: #(accessToken), ReqObj: #(ReqObject), ResObj: #(ExpResObject), StatusCode: 200 }

  Scenario: Change title of book in the non-existing book-record.
    * json ExpResObject = read('classpath:/book-records/title-update-error-request.json')
    * json ReqObject = read('classpath:/book-records/title-update-error-response.json')
    * call read('classpath:/book-records/update.feature') { Token: #(accessToken), ReqObj: #(ReqObject), ResObj: #(ExpResObject), StatusCode: 400 }

update.feature

Feature: Update the book record.

Scenario: Update single book-record.
    Given path '/book-record'
    And header Authorization = 'Bearer ' + __arg.Token
    And header Content-Type = 'application/json'
    And request __arg.ReqObj
    When method put
    Then status __arg.StatusCode
    And response == __arg.ExpectedResponse

Actual API response for scenario: 1 is :

{name: 'New Hello', config:[{username: 'abc', password: 'xyz'},{username: 'qwe', password: 'tyu'}]}

Actual API response for scenario: 2 is :

 {Error: 'not found', Message: 'The provided Book is not found.'}

Question: How should I validate the response in update.feature file since problem is if I make change s as using #^^config that will not works for scenario :2 and response == _arg.ExpectedResponse is not working for Scenario: 1?

Answer 1

This is classic over-engineering of tests. If someone has told you that "re-use" is needed for tests, please don't listen to that person.

You have two scenarios, one happy path and one negative path. I am providing how you should write the negative path here below, the rest is up to you.

Scenario: Change title of book in the non-existing book-record.
Given path '/book-record'
And header Authorization = 'Bearer ' + accessToken
And request {id: 00, name: 'Old Hello', config:[{username: 'qwe', password: 'tyu'},{username: 'abc', password: 'xyz'}]}
When method put
Then status 400
And response == {Error: 'not found', Message: 'The provided Book is not found.'} 

See how clean it is ? There is no need for "extreme" re-use in tests. If you still insist that you want a super-generic re-usable feature file that will handle ALL your edge cases, you are just causing trouble for yourself. See how un-readable your existing tests have become !!