Response body as bytearray

[ndr-brt]

Hi, we're trying to introduce pact in our CI, but we've come to a standstill...

There's an api that returns binary file, I'm defining the RequestResponsePath in the consumer, but there's no method with sign body(byte[] content).

String is not enough because reading a binary into stream transform it in a text content.

Does a workaround on this exist?
thanks

[uglyog]

There is no way to compare a binary file apart from byte array equality. How do you expect the binary content to be verified?

[ndr-brt]

in that case I wouldn't expect any content verification, I will be ok with the fact that the body is a binary

there's a way to do it?

[uglyog]

It will need to include an update to the DSL to add a method to accept a byte array, then the body data will need to be stored as a byte array and converted appropriately when used. We will also have to add a matcher that returns success if the body is not empty.

What is the content type? If it is application/octet-stream, this will work ok. But if there is a custom one, or no content type, then it will be hard to work out how to verify it.

[verkhoro]

Hi, we ran into the same problem. application/octet-stream should work for us. Our use case doesn't require verification of the content because producer is a pass-through although I don't see why comparing through byte array equality shouldn't be an option.

[IraRe]

In my case, I would like to test a method returning a byte array. I also don't like methods returning byte arrays as the comparison of a json response would be much better. Now I have to live with it. The possibility to use at least the byte array equality would make my life less painful :)

[dAnjou]

Hi, we'd like to verify a byte stream as well.

There is no way to compare a binary file apart from byte array equality. How do you expect the binary content to be verified?

Maybe by us implementing some custom verification? Besides the String ones, I can see that there are 2 more variants of body(...):

override fun body(dslPart: DslPart): HttpResponseBuilder 
override fun body(builder: BodyBuilder): HttpResponseBuilder

How do these work, how can I use them? I tried to find documentation, but couldn't find any.

[rholshausen]

This is an old issue and the comment is no longer valid. Current versions of Pact-JVM store body content internally as byte arrays, converting it as appropriate. There is a method withBinaryData that can set the body up as a byte array. You can see an example here:

pact-jvm/consumer/junit/src/test/groovy/au/com/dius/pact/consumer/junit/BinaryFileSpec.groovy

Line 27 in 1b00f63

.withBinaryData(pdf, 'application/pdf')

As to the question on the other methods above:

• body(dslPart: DslPart) - This sets up a JSON body using the JSON DSL classes (which extend DslPart)
• body(builder: BodyBuilder) - This allows the body to be setup using a builder pattern. There are only a few implementations of this, like for MIME multi-part or FORM POST bodies.

[dAnjou]

Did some digging because I couldn't find that method, and I noticed that we're using PactBuilder while withBinaryData is only available with PactDslWithProvider.

Which one is recommended?

I found the following pieces of code that seem to suggest that PactDslWithProvider is "old" or "legacy":

pact-jvm/upgrade-to-4.3.x.md

Line 15 in 2b2055f

public RequestResponsePact articles(PactDslWithProvider builder) { // This is using the old DSL

pact-jvm/consumer/src/main/kotlin/au/com/dius/pact/consumer/dsl/PactBuilder.kt

Lines 78 to 83 in 2b2055f

	/**
	* Use the old HTTP Pact DSL
	*/
	fun usingLegacyDsl(): PactDslWithProvider {
	return PactDslWithProvider(ConsumerPactBuilder(consumer), provider, pactVersion)
	}