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Testing REST API integrations using MockServer

Learn how to create a Spring Boot application that integrates with external REST APIs, then test those integrations using Testcontainers and MockServer.

Table of contents

In this guide, you will learn how to:

  • Create a Spring Boot application that talks to external REST APIs
  • Test external API integrations using the Testcontainers MockServer module

Prerequisites

  • Java 17+
  • Maven or Gradle
  • A Docker environment supported by Testcontainers
Note

If you're new to Testcontainers, visit the Testcontainers overview to learn more about Testcontainers and the benefits of using it.

Create the Spring Boot project

Set up the project

Create a Spring Boot project from Spring Initializr by selecting the Spring Web, Spring Reactive Web, and Testcontainers starters.

Alternatively, clone the guide repository.

After generating the project, add the REST Assured and MockServer libraries as test dependencies. The key dependencies in pom.xml are:

<properties>
    <java.version>17</java.version>
    <testcontainers.version>2.0.4</testcontainers.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-webflux</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
        <artifactId>testcontainers-junit-jupiter</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.testcontainers</groupId>
        <artifactId>testcontainers-mockserver</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.mock-server</groupId>
        <artifactId>mockserver-netty</artifactId>
        <version>5.15.0</version>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>io.rest-assured</groupId>
        <artifactId>rest-assured</artifactId>
        <scope>test</scope>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Using the Testcontainers BOM (Bill of Materials) is recommended so that you don't have to repeat the version for every Testcontainers module dependency.

This guide builds an application that manages video albums. A third-party REST API handles photo assets. For demonstration purposes, the application uses the publicly available JSONPlaceholder API as a photo service.

The application exposes a GET /api/albums/{albumId} endpoint that calls the photo service to fetch photos for a given album. MockServer is a library for mocking HTTP-based services. Testcontainers provides a MockServer module that runs MockServer as a Docker container.

Create the Album and Photo models

Create Album.java using Java records:

package com.testcontainers.demo;

import java.util.List;

public record Album(Long albumId, List<Photo> photos) {}

record Photo(Long id, String title, String url, String thumbnailUrl) {}

Create the PhotoServiceClient interface

Spring Framework 6 introduced declarative HTTP client support. Create an interface with a method that fetches photos for a given album ID:

package com.testcontainers.demo;

import java.util.List;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.service.annotation.GetExchange;

interface PhotoServiceClient {
  @GetExchange("/albums/{albumId}/photos")
  List<Photo> getPhotos(@PathVariable Long albumId);
}

Register PhotoServiceClient as a bean

To generate a runtime implementation of PhotoServiceClient, register it as a Spring bean using HttpServiceProxyFactory. The factory requires an HttpClientAdapter implementation. Spring Boot provides WebClientAdapter as part of the spring-webflux library:

package com.testcontainers.demo;

import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Value;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Bean;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.WebClient;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.support.WebClientAdapter;
import org.springframework.web.service.invoker.HttpServiceProxyFactory;

@Configuration
public class AppConfig {

  @Bean
  public PhotoServiceClient photoServiceClient(
    @Value("${photos.api.base-url}") String photosApiBaseUrl
  ) {
    WebClient client = WebClient.builder().baseUrl(photosApiBaseUrl).build();
    HttpServiceProxyFactory factory = HttpServiceProxyFactory
      .builder(WebClientAdapter.forClient(client))
      .build();
    return factory.createClient(PhotoServiceClient.class);
  }
}

The photo service base URL is externalized as a configuration property. Add the following entry to src/main/resources/application.properties:

photos.api.base-url=https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com

Create the REST API endpoint

Create AlbumController.java:

package com.testcontainers.demo;

import java.util.List;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.GetMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController;
import org.springframework.web.reactive.function.client.WebClientResponseException;

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api")
class AlbumController {

  private static final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(
    AlbumController.class
  );

  private final PhotoServiceClient photoServiceClient;

  AlbumController(PhotoServiceClient photoServiceClient) {
    this.photoServiceClient = photoServiceClient;
  }

  @GetMapping("/albums/{albumId}")
  public ResponseEntity<Album> getAlbumById(@PathVariable Long albumId) {
    try {
      List<Photo> photos = photoServiceClient.getPhotos(albumId);
      return ResponseEntity.ok(new Album(albumId, photos));
    } catch (WebClientResponseException e) {
      logger.error("Failed to get photos", e);
      return new ResponseEntity<>(e.getStatusCode());
    }
  }
}

This endpoint calls the photo service for a given album ID and returns a response like:

{
  "albumId": 1,
  "photos": [
    {
      "id": 51,
      "title": "non sunt voluptatem placeat consequuntur rem incidunt",
      "url": "https://via.placeholder.com/600/8e973b",
      "thumbnailUrl": "https://via.placeholder.com/150/8e973b"
    },
    {
      "id": 52,
      "title": "eveniet pariatur quia nobis reiciendis laboriosam ea",
      "url": "https://via.placeholder.com/600/121fa4",
      "thumbnailUrl": "https://via.placeholder.com/150/121fa4"
    }
  ]
}

Write tests with Testcontainers MockServer

Mocking external API interactions at the HTTP protocol level, rather than mocking Java methods, lets you verify marshalling and unmarshalling behavior and simulate network issues.

Testcontainers provides a MockServer module that starts a MockServer instance inside a Docker container. You can then use MockServerClient to configure mock expectations.

Write the test

Create AlbumControllerTest.java:

package com.testcontainers.demo;

import static io.restassured.RestAssured.given;
import static org.hamcrest.CoreMatchers.is;
import static org.hamcrest.Matchers.hasSize;
import static org.mockserver.model.HttpRequest.request;
import static org.mockserver.model.HttpResponse.response;
import static org.mockserver.model.JsonBody.json;

import io.restassured.RestAssured;
import io.restassured.http.ContentType;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.BeforeEach;
import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.mockserver.client.MockServerClient;
import org.mockserver.model.Header;
import org.mockserver.verify.VerificationTimes;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.boot.test.web.server.LocalServerPort;
import org.springframework.test.context.DynamicPropertyRegistry;
import org.springframework.test.context.DynamicPropertySource;
import org.testcontainers.mockserver.MockServerContainer;
import org.testcontainers.junit.jupiter.Container;
import org.testcontainers.junit.jupiter.Testcontainers;

@SpringBootTest(webEnvironment = SpringBootTest.WebEnvironment.RANDOM_PORT)
@Testcontainers
class AlbumControllerTest {

  @LocalServerPort
  private Integer port;

  @Container
  static MockServerContainer mockServerContainer =
    new MockServerContainer("mockserver/mockserver:5.15.0");

  static MockServerClient mockServerClient;

  @DynamicPropertySource
  static void overrideProperties(DynamicPropertyRegistry registry) {
    mockServerClient =
    new MockServerClient(
      mockServerContainer.getHost(),
      mockServerContainer.getServerPort()
    );
    registry.add("photos.api.base-url", mockServerContainer::getEndpoint);
  }

  @BeforeEach
  void setUp() {
    RestAssured.port = port;
    mockServerClient.reset();
  }

  @Test
  void shouldGetAlbumById() {
    Long albumId = 1L;

    mockServerClient
      .when(
        request().withMethod("GET").withPath("/albums/" + albumId + "/photos")
      )
      .respond(
        response()
          .withStatusCode(200)
          .withHeaders(
            new Header("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8")
          )
          .withBody(
            json(
              """
              [
                   {
                       "id": 1,
                       "title": "accusamus beatae ad facilis cum similique qui sunt",
                       "url": "https://via.placeholder.com/600/92c952",
                       "thumbnailUrl": "https://via.placeholder.com/150/92c952"
                   },
                   {
                       "id": 2,
                       "title": "reprehenderit est deserunt velit ipsam",
                       "url": "https://via.placeholder.com/600/771796",
                       "thumbnailUrl": "https://via.placeholder.com/150/771796"
                   }
               ]
              """
            )
          )
      );

    given()
      .contentType(ContentType.JSON)
      .when()
      .get("/api/albums/{albumId}", albumId)
      .then()
      .statusCode(200)
      .body("albumId", is(albumId.intValue()))
      .body("photos", hasSize(2));

    verifyMockServerRequest("GET", "/albums/" + albumId + "/photos", 1);
  }

  @Test
  void shouldReturn404StatusWhenAlbumNotFound() {
    Long albumId = 1L;
    mockServerClient
      .when(
        request().withMethod("GET").withPath("/albums/" + albumId + "/photos")
      )
      .respond(response().withStatusCode(404));

    given()
      .contentType(ContentType.JSON)
      .when()
      .get("/api/albums/{albumId}", albumId)
      .then()
      .statusCode(404);

    verifyMockServerRequest("GET", "/albums/" + albumId + "/photos", 1);
  }

  private void verifyMockServerRequest(String method, String path, int times) {
    mockServerClient.verify(
      request().withMethod(method).withPath(path),
      VerificationTimes.exactly(times)
    );
  }
}

Here's what the test does:

  • @SpringBootTest starts the full application on a random port.
  • The @Testcontainers and @Container annotations start a MockServerContainer and create a MockServerClient connected to it.
  • @DynamicPropertySource overrides photos.api.base-url to point at the MockServer endpoint, so the application talks to MockServer instead of the real photo service.
  • @BeforeEach resets the MockServerClient before every test so that expectations from one test don't affect another.
  • shouldGetAlbumById() configures a mock response for /albums/{albumId}/photos, sends a request to the application's /api/albums/{albumId} endpoint, and verifies the response body. It also uses mockServerClient.verify() to confirm that the expected API call reached MockServer.
  • shouldReturn404StatusWhenAlbumNotFound() configures MockServer to return a 404 status and verifies the application propagates that status to the caller.

Run tests and next steps

Run the tests

$ ./mvnw test

Or with Gradle:

$ ./gradlew test

You should see the MockServer Docker container start in the console output. It acts as the photo service, serving mock responses based on the configured expectations. All tests should pass.

Summary

You built a Spring Boot application that integrates with an external REST API using declarative HTTP clients, then tested that integration using the Testcontainers MockServer module. Testing at the HTTP protocol level instead of mocking Java methods lets you catch serialization issues and simulate realistic failure scenarios.

To learn more about Testcontainers, visit the Testcontainers overview.

Further reading