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Pact Maven plugin

This is a Maven plugin for verifying pacts against a running provider, publishing pacts generated by consumer tests, and checking if you can deploy. The sections below provide details on each of these goals.


stop If you are running your tests with the JUnit runners, you do not need this plugin

This plugin is used to verify a running provider. If you want to verify your provider using unit tests, refer to the JUnit 4 or JUnit 5 docs.


Verifying a Provider

The Maven plugin provides a verify goal which will verify all configured pacts against your provider.

To Use It

1. Add the pact-jvm-provider-maven plugin to your build section of your pom file.

<build>
[...]
<plugins>
[...]
<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
</plugin>
[...]
</plugins>
[...]
</build>

2. Define the pacts between your consumers and providers

You define all the providers and consumers within the configuration element of the maven plugin.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.0</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<!-- You can define as many as you need, but each must have a unique name -->
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<!-- All the provider properties are optional, and have sensible defaults (shown below) -->
<protocol>http</protocol>
<host>localhost</host>
<port>8080</port>
<path>/</path>
<consumers>
<!-- Again, you can define as many consumers for each provider as you need, but each must have a unique name -->
<consumer>
<name>consumer1</name>
<!-- currently supports a file path using pactSource or a URL using pactUrl -->
<pactSource>path/to/provider1-consumer1-pact.json</pactSource>
</consumer>
</consumers>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

3. Execute mvn pact:verify

You will have to have your provider running for this to pass.

Verifying all pact files in a directory for a provider

You can specify a directory that contains pact files, and the Pact plugin will scan for all pact files that match that provider and define a consumer for each pact file in the directory. Consumer name is read from contents of pact file.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<!-- You can define as many as you need, but each must have a unique name -->
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<!-- All the provider properties are optional, and have sensible defaults (shown below) -->
<protocol>http</protocol>
<host>localhost</host>
<port>8080</port>
<path>/</path>
<pactFileDirectory>path/to/pacts</pactFileDirectory>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Verifying all pact files from multiple directories for a provider

If you want to specify multiple directories, you can use pactFileDirectories. The plugin will only fail the build if no pact files are loaded after processing all the directories in the list.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<pactFileDirectories>
<pactFileDirectory>path/to/pacts1</pactFileDirectory>
<pactFileDirectory>path/to/pacts2</pactFileDirectory>
</pactFileDirectories>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Overriding the provider hostname and port when the task is executed (4.2.11+)

Maven supports using expressions in the POM using ${...}, but these are evaluated when the POM is loaded.

For the provider hostname and port, you can provide expressions of the form {{...}} which will be evaluated using JVM system properties when the verify task is run.

For example:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.2.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider</name>
<host>{{pact.host}}</host>
<port>{{pact.port}}</port>
<pactFileDirectories>
<pactFileDirectory>path/to/pacts</pactFileDirectory>
</pactFileDirectories>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

This will use pact.host and pact.port system properties.

Enabling insecure SSL

For providers that are running on SSL with self-signed certificates, you need to enable insecure SSL mode by setting <insecure>true</insecure> on the provider.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<pactFileDirectory>path/to/pacts</pactFileDirectory>
<insecure>true</insecure>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Specifying a custom trust store

For environments that are running their own certificate chains:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<pactFileDirectory>path/to/pacts</pactFileDirectory>
<trustStore>relative/path/to/trustStore.jks</trustStore>
<trustStorePassword>changeit</trustStorePassword>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

trustStore is either relative to the current working (build) directory. trustStorePassword defaults to changeit.

NOTE: The hostname will still be verified against the certificate.

Modifying the requests before they are sent

Sometimes you may need to add things to the requests that can't be persisted in a pact file. Examples of these would be authentication tokens, which have a small life span. The Pact Maven plugin provides a request filter that can be set to a Groovy script on the provider that will be called before the request is made. This script will receive the HttpRequest bound to a variable named request prior to it being executed.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<requestFilter>
// This is a Groovy script that adds an Authorization header to each request
request.addHeader('Authorization', 'oauth-token eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsIm...')
</requestFilter>
<consumers>
<consumer>
<name>consumer1</name>
<pactFile>path/to/provider1-consumer1-pact.json</pactFile>
</consumer>
</consumers>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Important Note: You should only use this feature for things that can not be persisted in the pact file. By modifying the request, you are potentially modifying the contract from the consumer tests!

Modifying the HTTP Client Used

The default HTTP client is used for all requests to providers (created with a call to HttpClients.createDefault()). This can be changed by specifying a closure assigned to createClient on the provider that returns a CloseableHttpClient. For example:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<createClient>
// This is a Groovy script that will enable the client to accept self-signed certificates
import org.apache.http.ssl.SSLContextBuilder
import org.apache.http.conn.ssl.NoopHostnameVerifier
import org.apache.http.impl.client.HttpClients
HttpClients.custom().setSSLHostnameVerifier(new NoopHostnameVerifier())
.setSslcontext(new SSLContextBuilder().loadTrustMaterial(null, { x509Certificates, s -> true })
.build())
.build()
</createClient>
<consumers>
<consumer>
<name>consumer1</name>
<pactSource>path/to/provider1-consumer1-pact.json</pactSource>
</consumer>
</consumers>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Turning off URL decoding of the paths in the pact file

By default the paths loaded from the pact file will be decoded before the request is sent to the provider. To turn this behaviour off, set the system property pact.verifier.disableUrlPathDecoding to true.

Important Note: If you turn off the url path decoding, you need to ensure that the paths in the pact files are correctly encoded. The verifier will not be able to make a request with an invalid encoded path.

Plugin Properties

The following plugin properties can be specified with -Dproperty=value on the command line or in the configuration section:

PropertyDescription
pact.showStacktraceThis turns on stacktrace printing for each request. It can help with diagnosing network errors
pact.showFullDiffThis turns on displaying the full diff of the expected versus actual bodies
pact.filter.consumersComma separated list of consumer names to verify
pact.filter.descriptionOnly verify interactions whose description match the provided regular expression
pact.filter.providerStateOnly verify interactions whose provider state match the provided regular expression. An empty string matches interactions that have no state
pact.filter.pacturlThis filter allows just the just the changed pact specified in a webhook to be run. It should be used in conjunction with pact.filter.consumers
pact.verifier.publishResultsPublishing of verification results will be skipped unless this property is set to true [version 3.5.18+]
pact.verifier.disableUrlPathDecodingDisables decoding of request paths
pact.pactbroker.httpclient.usePreemptiveAuthenticationEnables preemptive authentication with the pact broker when set to true
pact.consumer.tagsOverrides the tags used when publishing pacts [version 4.0.7+]
pact.content_type.override.<TYPE>.<SUBTYPE>=text\|json\|binaryOverrides the handling of a particular content type [version 4.1.3+]
pact.verifier.enableRedirectHandlingEnables automatically handling redirects [4.1.8+]
pact.verifier.generateDiffControls the generation of diffs. Can be set to true, false or a size threshold (for instance 1mb or 100kb) which only enables diffs for payloads of size less than that [4.2.7+]
pact.verifier.buildUrlSpecifies buildUrl to report to the broker when publishing verification results [4.3.2+]
pactbroker.consumerversionselectors.rawjsonOverrides the consumer version selectors with raw JSON [4.1.29+/4.3.0+]

Example in the configuration section:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<consumers>
<consumer>
<name>consumer1</name>
<pactSource>path/to/provider1-consumer1-pact.json</pactSource>
</consumer>
</consumers>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
<configuration>
<pact.showStacktrace>true</pact.showStacktrace>
</configuration>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Provider States

For each provider you can specify a state change URL to use to switch the state of the provider. This URL will receive the providerState description and parameters from the pact file before each interaction via a POST. The stateChangeUsesBody controls if the state is passed in the request body or as query parameters.

These values can be set at the provider level, or for a specific consumer. Consumer values take precedent if both are given.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<stateChangeUrl>http://localhost:8080/tasks/pactStateChange</stateChangeUrl>
<stateChangeUsesBody>false</stateChangeUsesBody> <!-- defaults to true -->
<consumers>
<consumer>
<name>consumer1</name>
<pactSource>path/to/provider1-consumer1-pact.json</pactSource>
<stateChangeUrl>http://localhost:8080/tasks/pactStateChangeForConsumer1</stateChangeUrl>
<stateChangeUsesBody>false</stateChangeUsesBody> <!-- defaults to true -->
</consumer>
</consumers>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

If the stateChangeUsesBody is not specified, or is set to true, then the provider state description and parameters will be sent as JSON in the body of the request. If it is set to false, they will passed as query parameters.

As for normal requests (see Modifying the requests before they are sent), a state change request can be modified before it is sent. Set stateChangeRequestFilter to a Groovy script on the provider that will be called before the request is made.

Teardown calls for state changes

You can enable teardown state change calls by setting the property <stateChangeTeardown>true</stateChangeTeardown> on the provider. This will add an action parameter to the state change call. The setup call before the test will receive action=setup, and then a teardown call will be made afterwards to the state change URL with action=teardown.

Returning values that can be injected

You can have values from the provider state callbacks be injected into most places (paths, query parameters, headers, bodies, etc.). This works by using the V3 spec generators with provider state callbacks that return values. One example of where this would be useful is API calls that require an ID which would be auto-generated by the database on the provider side, so there is no way to know what the ID would be beforehand.

There are methods on the consumer DSLs that can provider an expression that contains variables (like '/api/user/${id}' for the path). The provider state callback can then return a map for values, and the id attribute from the map will be expanded in the expression. For URL callbacks, the values need to be returned as JSON in the response body.

Verifying pact files from a pact broker

You can setup your build to validate against the pacts stored in a pact broker. The pact plugin will query the pact broker for all consumers that have a pact with the provider based on its name. To use it, just configure the pactBrokerUrl or pactBroker value for the provider with the base URL to the pact broker.

For example:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<stateChangeUrl>http://localhost:8080/tasks/pactStateChange</stateChangeUrl>
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pact-broker:5000/</pactBrokerUrl>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Verifying pacts from an authenticated pact broker

If your pact broker requires authentication (basic and bearer authentication are supported), you can configure the username and password to use by configuring the authentication element of the pactBroker element of your provider.

For example, here is how you configure the plugin to use basic authentication for verifying pacts:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<stateChangeUrl>http://localhost:8080/tasks/pactStateChange</stateChangeUrl>
<pactBroker>
<url>http://pactbroker:1234</url>
<authentication>
<scheme>basic</scheme>
<username>test</username>
<password>test</password>
</authentication>
</pactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Here is how you configure the plugin to use bearer token authentication for verifying pacts

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<stateChangeUrl>http://localhost:8080/tasks/pactStateChange</stateChangeUrl>
<pactBroker>
<url>http://pactbroker:1234</url>
<authentication>
<scheme>bearer</scheme>
<token>TOKEN</token>
<!-- Customise the authentication header from the default `Authorization` -->
<authHeaderName>my-auth-header</authHeaderName>
</authentication>
</pactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Preemptive Authentication can be enabled by setting the pact.pactbroker.httpclient.usePreemptiveAuthentication Java system property to true.

Allowing just the changed pact specified in a webhook to be verified [4.0.6+]

When a consumer publishes a new version of a pact file, the Pact broker can fire off a webhook with the URL of the changed pact file. To allow only the changed pact file to be verified, you can override the URL by using the pact.filter.consumers and pact.filter.pacturl Java system properties.

For example, running:

mvn pact:verify -Dpact.filter.consumers='Foo Web Client' -Dpact.filter.pacturl=https://test.pact.dius.com.au/pacts/provider/Activity%20Service/consumer/Foo%20Web%20Client/version/1.0.1

will only run the verification for Foo Web Client with the given pact file URL.

Using the Maven servers configuration

You can use the servers setup in the Maven settings. To do this, setup a server as per the Maven Server Settings. Then set the server ID in the pact broker configuration in your POM.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<stateChangeUrl>http://localhost:8080/tasks/pactStateChange</stateChangeUrl>
<pactBroker>
<url>http://pactbroker:1234</url>
<serverId>test-pact-broker</serverId> <!-- This must match the server id in the maven settings -->
</pactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Verifying pacts from a pact broker using consumer version selectors [4.3.12+]

You can use a number of different selectors to fetch Pact files that match some criteria. See Consumer Version Selectors for more information. The following selectors are available:

Main branch

The latest version from the main branch of each consumer, as specified by the consumer's mainBranch property.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.3.12</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<PactBroker>
<selectors>
<mainBranch/>
</selectors>
</PactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Matching branch

The latest version from any branch of the consumer that has the same name as the current branch of the provider. Used for coordinated development between consumer and provider teams using matching feature branch names.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.3.12</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<PactBroker>
<selectors>
<matchingBranch/>
</selectors>
</PactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Branch

The latest version from a particular branch of each consumer, or for a particular consumer if the second parameter is provided. If fallback is provided, falling back to the fallback branch if none is found from the specified branch.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.3.12</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<PactBroker>
<selectors>
<!--Latest version from the particular branch of each consumer -->
<branch>
<name>FEAT-1234</name>
</branch>

<!-- Latest version from the particular branch of the provided consumer -->
<branch>
<name>FEAT-1234</name>
<consumer>consumer-a</consumer>
</branch>

<!-- Fall back to master branch if none is found from the specified feature branch -->
<branch>
<name>FEAT-1234</name>
<fallback>master</fallback>
</branch>

<!-- As above, but for a single consumer -->
<branch>
<name>FEAT-1234</name>
<fallback>master</fallback>
<consumer>consumer-a</consumer>
</branch>
</selectors>
</PactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Deployed or released

All the currently deployed and currently released and supported versions of each consumer. You can also specify if deployed or released to a particular environment.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.3.12</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<PactBroker>
<selectors>
<!-- All the currently deployed and currently released and supported versions of each consumer. -->
<deployedOrReleased/>

<!-- Any versions currently deployed to the specified environment -->
<deployedTo>
<environment>test</environment>
</deployedTo>

<!-- Any versions currently released and supported in the specified environment -->
<releasedTo>
<environment>test</environment>
</releasedTo>

<!-- Any versions currently deployed or released and supported in the specified environment -->
<environment>
<name>test</name>
</environment>
</selectors>
</PactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Tags

Supports all the forms of selecting Pacts with tags.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.3.12</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<PactBroker>
<selectors>
<!-- All versions with the specified tag. -->
<tagName>
<name>test</name>
</tagName>

<!-- The latest version for each consumer with the specified tag -->
<latestTag>
<name>FEAT-1234</name>
</latestTag>

<!-- The latest version for each consumer with the specified tag with a fallback -->
<latestTag>
<name>FEAT-1234</name>
<fallback>master</fallback>
</latestTag>
</selectors>
</PactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>
Raw JSON

You can also provide the raw JSON snippets for selectors.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.3.12</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<PactBroker>
<selectors>
<rawJson>
<json>{"tag": "tagname"}</json>
</rawJson>
</selectors>
</PactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Verifying pacts from a pact broker that match particular tags [DEPRECATED]

NOTE: Using tags has been deprecated in favour of using consumer version selectors (above).

If your pacts in your pact broker have been tagged, you can set the tags to fetch by configuring the tags element of the pactBroker element of your provider.

For example:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>provider1</name>
<stateChangeUrl>http://localhost:8080/tasks/pactStateChange</stateChangeUrl>
<pactBroker>
<url>http://pactbroker:1234</url>
<tags>
<tag>TEST</tag>
<tag>DEV</tag>
</tags>
</pactBroker>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

This example will fetch and validate the pacts for the TEST and DEV tags.

Filtering the interactions that are verified

You can filter the interactions that are run using three properties: pact.filter.consumers, pact.filter.description and pact.filter.providerState. Adding -Dpact.filter.consumers=consumer1,consumer2 to the command line or configuration section will only run the pact files for those consumers (consumer1 and consumer2). Adding -Dpact.filter.description=a request for payment.* will only run those interactions whose descriptions start with 'a request for payment'. -Dpact.filter.providerState=.*payment will match any interaction that has a provider state that ends with payment, and -Dpact.filter.providerState= will match any interaction that does not have a provider state.

Not failing the build if no pact files are found

By default, if there are no pact files to verify, the plugin will raise an exception. This is to guard against false positives where the build is passing but nothing has been verified due to mis-configuration.

To disable this behaviour, set the failIfNoPactsFound parameter to false.

Verifying a message provider

The Maven plugin has been updated to allow invoking test methods that can return the message contents from a message producer. To use it, set the way to invoke the verification to ANNOTATED_METHOD. This will allow the pact verification task to scan for test methods that return the message contents.

Add something like the following to your maven pom file:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>messageProvider</name>
<verificationType>ANNOTATED_METHOD</verificationType>
<!-- packagesToScan is optional, but leaving it out will result in the entire
test classpath being scanned. Set it to the packages where your annotated test method
can be found. -->
<packagesToScan>
<packageToScan>au.com.example.messageprovider.*</packageToScan>
</packagesToScan>
<consumers>
<consumer>
<name>consumer1</name>
<pactSource>path/to/messageprovider-consumer1-pact.json</pactSource>
</consumer>
</consumers>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Now when the pact verify task is run, will look for methods annotated with @PactVerifyProvider in the test classpath that have a matching description to what is in the pact file.

class ConfirmationKafkaMessageBuilderTest {

@PactVerifyProvider('an order confirmation message')
String verifyMessageForOrder() {
Order order = new Order()
order.setId(10000004)
order.setExchange('ASX')
order.setSecurityCode('CBA')
order.setPrice(BigDecimal.TEN)
order.setUnits(15)
order.setGst(new BigDecimal('15.0'))
odrer.setFees(BigDecimal.TEN)

def message = new ConfirmationKafkaMessageBuilder()
.withOrder(order)
.build()

JsonOutput.toJson(message)
}

}

It will then validate that the returned contents matches the contents for the message in the pact file.

Changing the class path that is scanned

By default, the test classpath is scanned for annotated methods. You can override this by setting the classpathElements property:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<serviceProviders>
<serviceProvider>
<name>messageProvider</name>
<verificationType>ANNOTATED_METHOD</verificationType>
<consumers>
<consumer>
<name>consumer1</name>
<pactSource>path/to/messageprovider-consumer1-pact.json</pactSource>
</consumer>
</consumers>
</serviceProvider>
</serviceProviders>
<classpathElements>
<classpathElement>
build/classes/test
</classpathElement>
</classpathElements>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Publishing pact files to a pact broker

NOTE: There is also a pact CLI that can be used to publish pacts. See https://github.com/pact-foundation/pact-ruby-cli.

The pact maven plugin provides a publish goal that can publish all pact files in a directory to a pact broker. To use it, at a minimum you need to configure the plugin to specify the directory of the pact files and the URL to the pact broker.

Here is an example configuration:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<pactDirectory>path/to/pact/files</pactDirectory> <!-- Defaults to ${project.build.directory}/pacts -->
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pactbroker:1234</pactBrokerUrl>
<projectVersion>${git.shorthash}</projectVersion> <!-- Defaults to ${project.version}, or you can generate your own version from git -->
<trimSnapshot>true</trimSnapshot> <!-- Defaults to false -->
<skipPactPublish>${pact.skipPublish}</skipPactPublish> <!-- Defaults to false -->
</configuration>
</plugin>

You can now execute mvn pact:publish to publish the pact files.

NOTE: The pact broker requires a version for the consumer for all published pacts. The plugin will use the maven project.version property by default, but you can override this using the projectVersion configuration setting. For example, you may want to use the git hash as the version identifier.

NOTE: By default, the pact broker has issues parsing SNAPSHOT versions. You can configure the publisher to automatically remove -SNAPSHOT from your version number by setting trimSnapshot to true. This setting does not modify non-snapshot versions.

It may be that in some situations you want to disable pact publication. You can use the skipPactPublish setting to disable publication. For example, you can have this setting be controlled by a system property that you set to false in some environments.

You can set any tags that the pacts should be published with by setting the tags list property. A common use of this is setting the tag to the current source control branch. This supports using pact with feature branches.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<pactDirectory>path/to/pact/files</pactDirectory> <!-- Defaults to ${project.build.directory}/pacts -->
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pactbroker:1234</pactBrokerUrl>
<tags>
<tag>${git.branch}</tag>
</tags>
</configuration>
</plugin>

NOTE: You can also specify the tags using the pact.consumer.tags Java system property [version 4.0.7+].

Publishing to an authenticated pact broker

For an authenticated pact broker, you can pass in the credentials with the pactBrokerUsername and pactBrokerPassword properties. Currently, it only supports basic authentication or a bearer token.

For example:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pactbroker:1234</pactBrokerUrl>
<pactBrokerUsername>USERNAME</pactBrokerUsername>
<pactBrokerPassword>PASSWORD</pactBrokerPassword>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Or to use a bearer token:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pactbroker:1234</pactBrokerUrl>
<pactBrokerToken>TOKEN</pactBrokerToken> <!-- Replace TOKEN with the actual token -->
<pactBrokerAuthenticationScheme>Bearer</pactBrokerAuthenticationScheme>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Customise the authentication header from the default Authorization please use pactBrokerAuthenticationScheme:

<plugin>
<configuration>
<pactBrokerAuthenticationHeader>my-auth-header</pactBrokerAuthenticationHeader>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Using the Maven servers configuration

You can use the servers setup in the Maven settings. To do this, setup a server as per the Maven Server Settings. Then set the server ID in the pact broker configuration in your POM.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pactbroker:1234</pactBrokerUrl>
<pactBrokerServerId>test-pact-broker</pactBrokerServerId> <!-- This must match the server id in the maven settings -->
</configuration>
</plugin>

Excluding pacts from being published

You can exclude some of the pact files from being published by providing a list of regular expressions that match against the base names of the pact files.

For example:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pactbroker:1234</pactBrokerUrl>
<excludes>
<exclude>.*\\-\\d+$</exclude> <!-- exclude pact files where the name ends in a dash followed by a number -->
</excludes>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Including the consumer branch when publishing [min versions 4.1.33/4.2.19/4.3.4]

The consumer branch and build URL can be included when the pacts are published. This requires Pact Broker version 2.86.0 or later.

The branch name and build URL can either be configured in the POM or as system properties or environment variables.

Configured in the POM

There are attributes that can be added to the plugin configuration to set these values.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.33</version>
<configuration>
<pactBrokerUrl>http://pactbroker:1234</pactBrokerUrl>
<branchName>feat/test</branchName>
<buildUrl>https://github.com/pact-foundation/pact-jvm/actions/runs/1685674772</buildUrl> <!-- Build URL is not required -->
</configuration>
</plugin>

Configured as JVM system properties

You can configure these values as system properties using the following keys:

  • pact.publish.consumer.buildUrl
  • pact.publish.consumer.branchName
  • pact.publish.consumer.version

Configured as environment variables

You can configure these values as environment variables using the following keys:

  • pact.publish.consumer.buildUrl
  • pact.publish.consumer.branchName
  • pact.publish.consumer.version

OR

  • PACT_PUBLISH_CONSUMER_BUILDURL
  • PACT_PUBLISH_CONSUMER_BRANCHNAME
  • PACT_PUBLISH_CONSUMER_VERSION

Overriding the handling of a body data type

NOTE: version 4.1.3+

By default, bodies will be handled based on their content types. For binary contents, the bodies will be base64 encoded when written to the Pact file and then decoded again when the file is loaded. You can change this with an override property: pact.content_type.override.<TYPE>.<SUBTYPE>=text|json|binary. For instance, setting pact.content_type.override.application.pdf=text will treat PDF bodies as a text type and not encode/decode them.

Publishing verification results to a Pact Broker

For pacts that are loaded from a Pact Broker, the results of running the verification can be published back to the broker against the URL for the pact. You will be able to then see the result on the Pact Broker home screen.

To turn on the verification publishing, set the system property pact.verifier.publishResults to true in the pact maven plugin, not surefire, configuration.

Tagging the provider before verification results are published [4.0.1+]

You can have a tag pushed against the provider version before the verification results are published. To do this you need set the pact.provider.tag JVM system property to the tag value.

From 4.1.8+, you can specify multiple tags with a comma separated string for the pact.provider.tag system property.

Setting the provider branch before verification results are published [4.3.0-beta.7+]

Requires Pact Broker version 2.86.0 or later

You can have a branch pushed against the provider version before the verification results are published. To do this you need set the pact.provider.branch JVM system property to the branch value.

Setting the build URL for verification results [4.1.30/4.3.2+]

You can specify a URL to link to your CI build output. To do this you need to set the pact.verifier.buildUrl JVM system property to the URL value.

Enabling other verification reports

By default the verification report is written to the console. You can also enable a JSON or Markdown report by setting the reports configuration list.

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.11</version>
<configuration>
<reports>
<report>console</report>
<report>json</report>
<report>markdown</report>
</reports>
</configuration>
</plugin>

These reports will be written to target/reports/pact.

Pending Pact Support (version 4.1.0 and later)

If your Pact broker supports pending pacts, you can enable support for that by enabling that on your Pact broker annotation or with JVM system properties. You also need to provide the tags that will be published with your provider's verification results. The broker will then label any pacts found that don't have a successful verification result as pending. That way, if they fail verification, the verifier will ignore those failures and not fail the build.

For example:

<pactBroker>
<url>https://test.pactflow.io/</url>
<tags>
<tag>test</tag>
</tags>
<enablePending>
<providerTags>
<tag>master</tag>
</providerTags>
</enablePending>
</pactBroker>

Then any pending pacts will not cause a build failure.

Can I Deploy check

There is a can-i-deploy goal that you can use to preform a deployment safety check. This task requires two parameters: pacticipant and either pacticipantVersion or latest=true. It will use the broker configuration values from the your POM.

NOTE: It is recommended to use the Pact CLI to execute the Can I Deploy check, as it will always be up to date with features in the Pact broker.

$ mvn pact:can-i-deploy -Dpacticipant='Activity Service' -Dlatest=true
[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO]
[INFO] -----------------< au.com.dius.pact:pact-gradle-test >------------------
[INFO] Building pact-gradle-test 1.0.0
[INFO] --------------------------------[ jar ]---------------------------------
[INFO]
[INFO] --- maven:4.1.11:can-i-deploy (default-cli) @ pact-gradle-test ---
Computer says no ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The verification between the latest version of Foo Web Client 2 (1.2.3/AB) and the latest version of Activity Service (0.0.3) failed
There is no verified pact between the latest version of Foo Web Client (1.2.3/AB) and the latest version of Activity Service (0.0.3)
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 1.276 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2020-11-15T11:04:51+11:00
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Enabling retry when there are unknown results (4.1.11+)

It can happen that there are still unknown results in the Pact broker because the provider verification is still running. You can enable a retry with a wait interval to poll for the results to become available. There are two settings that can be added to the configuration in the POM to enable this: retriesWhenUnknown and retryInterval.

FieldDescriptionDefault
retriesWhenUnknownThe amount of times to retry while there are unknown results0
retryIntervalThe number of seconds to wait between retries10

Ignoring pacticipant by name and version (4.1.28+, 4.2.13+)

You can specify pacticipants by name or by name and version to ignore from the can-i-deploy check.

To configure it in the POM file, add an ignore section to the configuration element:

<plugin>
<groupId>au.com.dius.pact.provider</groupId>
<artifactId>maven</artifactId>
<version>4.1.28</version>
<configuration>
<pactBrokerUrl>https://test.pact.dius.com.au/</pactBrokerUrl>
<ignore>
<param>
<name>Bob</name> <!-- Will ignore pacticipant named Bob -->
</param>
<param>
<name>Fred</name> <!-- Will ignore pacticipant name Fred with version 1.2.3 -->
<version>1.2.3</version>
</param>
</ignore>
<serviceProviders>
...
</serviceProviders>
</configuration>
</plugin>

Or add it to the command line using the format -Dignore=<pacticipant>:<version>?,<pacticipant>:<version>?,.... For example, -Dignore=bob,fred:1.2.3 to ignore pacticipant named Bob and pacticipant name Fred with version 1.2.3.

Support for environments (4.5.0+)

You can specify the environment into which the pacticipant(s) are to be deployed with the toEnvironment property.

Verifying V4 Pact files that require plugins (version 4.3.0+)

Pact files that require plugins can be verified with version 4.3.0+. For details on how plugins work, see the Pact plugin project.

Each required plugin is defined in the plugins section in the Pact metadata in the Pact file. The plugins will be loaded from the plugin directory. By default, this is ~/.pact/plugins or the value of the PACT_PLUGIN_DIR environment variable. Each plugin required by the Pact file must be installed there. You will need to follow the installation instructions for each plugin, but the default is to unpack the plugin into a sub-directory <plugin-name>-<plugin-version> (i.e., for the Protobuf plugin 0.0.0 it will be protobuf-0.0.0). The plugin manifest file must be present for the plugin to be able to be loaded.

Test Analytics

We are tracking anonymous analytics to gather important usage statistics like JVM version and operating system. To disable tracking, set the 'pact_do_not_track' system property or environment variable to 'true'.