Getting Started with PactFlow
PactFlow makes testing and deploying microservices at scale, simple and worry free for thousands of developers and testers around the world.
Utilising the Pact framework, create consumer and provider mocks in-platform or use a range of BYO tools to do so through the Bi-Directional Contract Testing feature
Create an account
If you don’t already have a PactFlow account (have not created one or have not been invited to someone else’s account) get started with our free Starter Plan
Learn about contract testing
Videos
New to contract testing? Watch this introductory level video series on contract-testing to understand what it's all about.
Workshops
See contract testing in action by completing short and easy in-browser tutorials.
And when you’re ready to dive deeper, enroll in PactFlow University to dive deeper into the basics of contract testing through to advanced use cases including a CI/CD integration to help you scale
Essential reading
Here are some key resources to help you on your way:
- How Pact works
- Bi-Directional Contracts Guide
- The Pact Broker overview
- Versioning in the Pact Broker
- General Pact documentation
- You can find documentation on all the PactFlow screens under PactFlow User Interface.
Getting help
We want to see you succeed with your contract testing journey. Here’s some ways you can get extra support and have your questions answered:
Pact Slack
We also have a Slack workspace where you can chat with other members and get general support with contract testing or the product. Join us by registering here.
For PactFlow specific questions, see the following channels:
Getting Started with PactFlow
Join a contract testing and PactFlow expert for a monthly one hour drop-in session to learn the basics of contract testing with PactFlow and have your questions answered. See the next upcoming session and register to attend.
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is another place you can search for support, the following link will show all questions tagged with pact.
SmartBear customer care and solutions engineers
If you need PactFlow specific technical support, email support@pactflow.io or for help with a PoC or plan options get in touch with sales.
Migrating from Pact Broker
When you sign up to the SaaS PactFlow platform we create a new hosted database for you. However if you have previously used the open source Pact Broker for your contract testing needs we can help migrate the data so that nothing is lost. The process involves moving your existing database to the hosted environment associated with your PactFlow account, then updating it for full compatibility with PactFlow. This will require some scheduled down time for the service, including contract publishing and 'can-i-deploy' webhook.
To get started with migrating from Pact Broker contact us at support@pactflow.io with the subject 'migrating from Pact Broker'.
Applies to SaaS (Hosted) PactFlow accounts only.
Using On-Premises and want to migrate to the SaaS platform? Check out our on-prem migration guide here.
Configuring your API token
NOTE: You cannot use your username and password to access the PactFlow API.
To publish or verify contracts you need to use one of the bearer tokens from the API Tokens section of your PactFlow settings page.
Open your PactFlow account in a browser and log in with your username and password. Click on the settings icon (the cog wheel icon at the top right of the screen).
You will see the API Tokens page with two tokens listed - a read only token, and a read/write token.
Contracts and verification results are generally only published from a CI machine, so use the read only token on a local development machine, and keep the read/write token for CI.
While each of the following examples shows the use of a hardcoded token, note that you would normally be accessing the token via an environment variable or build parameter that is stored and provided in a secure manner (eg. a Jenkins build secret or a Travis encrypted environment variable).
To configure the token, click on a tab for your chosen language:
Consumer
Pact JS (Node JS)
- Pact-JS documentation for all the pact publication options.
const { Publisher } = require("@pact-foundation/pact")
const opts = {
pactBroker: 'https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io',
pactBrokerToken: '<TOKEN>',
consumerVersion: process.env.GIT_COMMIT
pactFilesOrDirs: ['./pacts'],
};
new Publisher(opts).publishPacts()
Java / JUnit 5
- Pact-JVM documentation for all the pact publication options.
pact {
publish {
providerVersion = { '<GIT_COMMIT>' } //yes, this field name is correct :(
pactBrokerUrl = 'https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io/'
pactBrokerToken = '<TOKEN>'
}
}
Java / JUnit 4
pact {
publish {
providerVersion = { '<GIT_COMMIT>' } //yes, this field name is correct :(
pactBrokerUrl = 'https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io/'
pactBrokerToken = '<TOKEN>'
}
}
Java / Gradle
pact {
publish {
providerVersion = { '<GIT_COMMIT>' } //yes, this field name is correct :(
pactBrokerUrl = 'https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io/'
pactBrokerToken = '<TOKEN>'
}
}
Golang
p := dsl.Publisher{}
err := p.Publish(types.PublishRequest{
PactURLs: []string{"/path/to/pact/file"},
PactBroker: "https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io",
ConsumerVersion: "<GIT_COMMIT>",
BrokerToken: "<TOKEN>",
})
Ruby
- Pact Ruby documentation for all the pact publishing options.
require 'pact_broker/client/tasks'
PactBroker::Client::PublicationTask.new do | task |
task.consumer_version = ENV['GIT_COMMIT']
task.pact_broker_base_url = "https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io"
task.pact_broker_token = "<TOKEN>"
end
.NET
- PactNet documentation for all the pact publishing options.
var pactPublisher = new PactPublisher("http://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io",
new PactUriOptions("<TOKEN>"));
pactPublisher.PublishToBroker("/pact/to/pacts/dir",
Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("GIT_COMMIT"));
Docker
- Pact CLI Docker documentation for all the pact publishing options.
docker run --rm \
-v ${PWD}:${PWD} \
-e PACT_BROKER_BASE_URL="https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io" \
-e PACT_BROKER_TOKEN="<TOKEN>" \
pactfoundation/pact-cli:latest \
publish \
${PWD}/pacts \
--consumer-app-version ${GIT_COMMIT}
Provider
Pact JS (Node JS)
- Pact-JS documentation for all the pact verification options.
const { Verifier } = require("@pact-foundation/pact");
return new Verifier().verifyProvider({
provider: "<Your provider name here>",
providerBaseUrl: "http://localhost:8081",
// Fetch pacts from broker
pactBrokerUrl: "https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io/",
pactBrokerToken: "<TOKEN>",
publishVerificationResult: process.env.CI === "true",
providerVersion: process.env.GIT_COMMIT,
});
Java / JUnit 5
- Pact-JVM documentation for all the pact verification options.
@Provider("<Your provider name here>")
@PactBroker(host = "<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io", scheme = "https",
authentication = @PactBrokerAuth(scheme = "bearer", username = "<TOKEN>", password = ""))
public class PactJUnitBrokerTest {
@TestTemplate
@ExtendWith(PactVerificationInvocationContextProvider.class)
void testTemplate(Pact pact, Interaction interaction, HttpRequest request, PactVerificationContext context) {
context.verifyInteraction();
}
}
Java / JUnit 4
- Pact-JVM documentation for all the pact verification options.
@RunWith(PactRunner.class)
@Provider("<Your provider name here>")
@PactBroker(host = "<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io", scheme = "https",
authentication = @PactBrokerAuth(scheme = "bearer", username = "<TOKEN>", password = ""))
public class PactJUnitBrokerTest {
@TestTarget
public final Target target = new HttpTarget(8080);
}
Java / Gradle
- Pact-JVM documentation for all the pact verification options.
// To turn on the verification publishing,
// set the project property `pact.verifier.publishResults` to `true`
pact {
serviceProviders {
'<Your provider name here>' {
providerVersion = { '<GIT_COMMIT>' }
hasPactsFromPactBroker('https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io/',
authentication: ['Bearer', '<TOKEN>'])
}
}
}
Golang
_, err := pact.VerifyProvider(t, types.VerifyRequest{
ProviderBaseURL: fmt.Sprintf("http://127.0.0.1:%d", port),
BrokerURL: "https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io",
BrokerToken: "<TOKEN>",
PublishVerificationResults: true,
ProviderVersion: "<GIT_COMMIT>"
})
Ruby
- Pact Ruby documentation for all the verification options.
Pact.service_provider "<Your provider name here>" do
app_version ENV['GIT_COMMIT']
publish_verification_results ENV['CI'] == 'true'
honours_pacts_from_pact_broker do
pact_broker_base_url "https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io", { token: "<TOKEN>" }
end
end
.NET
PactNet documentation for all the pact verification options.
var ProviderVersion = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("GIT_COMMIT");
var PublishVerificationResults = "true".Equals(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("CI"));
var config = new PactVerifierConfig
{
ProviderVersion, //NOTE: Setting a provider version is required for publishing verification results
PublishVerificationResults
};
IPactVerifier pactVerifier = new PactVerifier(config);
pactVerifier
.ServiceProvider("<Your provider name here>", "http://your-test-provider-url")
.PactBroker("https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io", uriOptions: new PactUriOptions("<TOKEN>"))
.Verify();
Docker
version: "3"
services:
api:
image: "your image"
expose:
- "9292"
pact_verifier:
image: pactfoundation/pact-cli:latest
depends_on:
- api
environment:
- PACT_BROKER_BASE_URL="https://<YOUR_BROKER>.pactflow.io"
- PACT_BROKER_TOKEN="<TOKEN>"
command: >
verify
--provider-base-url http://api:9292
--provider "<Your provider name here>"
To run
docker-compose -f docker-compose-verify.yml up \
--build --abort-on-container-exit --exit-code-from pact_verifier
Supported Tools & Languages
Pact is available in many different implementations, Click on a language icon to take you to the implementation guide or readme.
The guides cover the consumer-driven contract testing flow.
Consumer-Driven
Bi-Directional
PactFlow supports many different testing tools for Bi-Directional Contract Testing.
Click on a testing tool icon to see a demo application you can quickly run to get you started
