Before the MockServer Proxy can record any requests it must be started.

MockServer is flexible and support numerous usage patterns.

The MockServer and MockServer Proxy can be run:

MockServer and MockServer Proxy is available as:

It is also possible to build and run MockServer directly from source code

To simplify configuration all MockServer versions (except the deployable WAR) only use a single port to support HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS. This is achieved by dynamically detecting if the client is using HTTP, HTTPS or SOCKS.

Note: Also see the section on Configuring System Under Test to understand how to configure any of the following clients to use the MockServer Proxy:

 

Maven Plugin

To run MockServer as part of your build add the following plugin to your pom.xml:

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.mock-server</groupId>
    <artifactId>mockserver-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>5.7.2</version>
    <configuration>
        <serverPort>1080</serverPort>
        <logLevel>DEBUG</logLevel>
        <initializationClass>org.mockserver.maven.ExampleInitializationClass</initializationClass>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>process-test-classes</id>
            <phase>process-test-classes</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>start</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
        <execution>
            <id>verify</id>
            <phase>verify</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>stop</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

This will start MockServer during the process-test-classes phase and will stop MockServer during the verify phase. For more details about Maven build phases see: Introduction to the Build Lifecycle.

This ensures that any integration tests you run during the test or integration-test phases can use MockServer on the port specified.

It is also possible to run MockServer as a forked JVM using the runForked and stopForked goals as follows:

 <plugin>
     <groupId>org.mock-server</groupId>
     <artifactId>mockserver-maven-plugin</artifactId>
     <version>5.7.2</version>
     <configuration>
        <serverPort>1080</serverPort>
        <logLevel>DEBUG</logLevel>
     </configuration>
     <executions>
         <execution>
             <id>process-test-classes</id>
             <phase>process-test-classes</phase>
             <goals>
                 <goal>runForked</goal>
             </goals>
         </execution>
         <execution>
             <id>verify</id>
             <phase>verify</phase>
             <goals>
                 <goal>stopForked</goal>
             </goals>
         </execution>
     </executions>
 </plugin>

Stop MockServer Even When Tests Fail

If you use the runForked goal as above and the test phase fails (because a test has failed) MockServer will not be stopped as Maven does not run any more phases after a phase has failed. In the case above the verify phase is not run if a test fails so the forked MockServer will not be stopped.

If you want to ensure MockServer is stopped even when there are test failures make sure you use start and stop goals as these run MockServer on a separate thread that is stopped however maven exits (even if a test fails).

Alternatively a TestListener can be used with maven-surefire-plugin to ensure that MockServer is stopped even when a test fails, as follows:

 <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.17</version>
    <configuration>
        <properties>
            <property>
                <name>listener</name>
                <value>org.mockserver.maven.StopMockServerTestListener</value>
            </property>
        </properties>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

The Maven plugin can also be used from the command line to start and stop MockServer, as follows:

To run MockServer synchronously and block:

mvn mockserver:run

To run MockServer asynchronously as a forked JVM:

mvn mockserver:runForked

To stop a forked instance of MockServer running on the same machine:

mvn mockserver:stopForked

The stopForked goal does assumes that MockServer is running on the same physical machine as it uses 127.0.0.1 to communicate with MockServer stop socket.

The Maven plugin has the following goals:

  • start - start MockServer, do not block, but stop when build ends
  • stop - stop a MockServer started earlier as part of the current build
  • run - run MockServer and block waiting for requests (timeout config if provided limits how long to block for)
  • runForked - run MockServer as separate forked JVM, do not block, stay alive when build ends
  • stopForked - stop a forked MockServer, previously started by a runForked goal

The Maven plugin can be configured with the following properties:

  • serverPort - The port the MockServer listens for incoming request. Port unification is used to support both HTTP and HTTPS on the same port (required: true)
  • proxyRemotePort - The port the proxy forwards to incoming requests to (required: false)
  • proxyRemoteHost - The port the proxy forwards to incoming requests to (required: false)
  • timeout - How long to block waiting for MockServer, after the timeout the plugin will shutdown MockServer, used by run goal, 0 means wait indefinitely (required: false, default: 0)
  • logLevel - The logging level (required: false, default: INFO)
  • skip - Prevent the plugin from running (required: false, default: false)
  • initializationClass - To enable the creation of default expectations a class can be specified to initialize expectations in MockServer, this class must implement org.mockserver.client.initialize.ExpectationInitializer interface. The initializeExpectations(MockServerClient mockServerClient) method will be called once MockServer has been started. Note: that the plugin must be started during the process-test-classes to ensure that the initialization class has been compiled from either src/main/java or src/test/java locations. In addition the initializer can only be used with start and run goals, it will not work with the runForked goal as a JVM is forked with a separate classpath. (required: false, default: false)
 

Client API  -  starting and stopping

Use the client API to run MockServer programmatically.

First add the following maven dependency:

<!-- mockserver -->
<dependency>
     <groupId>org.mock-server</groupId>
     <artifactId>mockserver-netty</artifactId>
     <version>5.7.2</version>
</dependency>

To start the server or proxy create a client, for example by using one of the start factory methods ClientAndServer.startClientAndServer as follows:

Add includes:

import static org.mockserver.integration.ClientAndServer.startClientAndServer;

Add fields:

private ClientAndServer mockServer;

Use factory method to start server and client when appropriate, for example in @Before method:

@Before
public void startMockServer() {
    mockServer = startClientAndServer(1080);
}

Stop server and client when appropriate, for example in @After method:

@After
public void stopMockServer() {
    mockServer.stop();
}

The mockserver-example project contains an example test called BookPageIntegrationTest that demonstrates a fully working example.

 

Running MockServer via a JUnit @Rule

MockServer can be run using the MockServerRule. The MockServerRule starts MockServer (which now includes the proxy) on a free port before the any test runs and stops MockServer after all tests have completed.

An instance of MockServerClient is assigned to any field in the unit test of type org.mockserver.client.MockServerClient. Alternatively an instance of MockServerClient can be retrieved from the MockServerRule using the method getClient().

@Rule
public MockServerRule mockServerRule = new MockServerRule(this);

private MockServerClient mockServerClient;

The MockServerRule can be added to your project by including the following maven dependency:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.mock-server</groupId>
    <artifactId>mockserver-netty</artifactId>
    <version>5.7.2</version>
</dependency>

Any test method can now use the mockServerClient field to create expectation or verify requests.

The MockServerRule has the following constructors:

/**
 * Start MockServer prior to test execution and stop MockServer after the tests have completed.
 * This constructor dynamically allocates a free port for MockServer to use.
 *
 * @param target an instance of the test being executed
 */
public MockServerRule(Object target);

/**
 * Start MockServer prior to test execution and stop MockServer after the tests have completed.
 * This constructor dynamically allocates a free port for MockServer to use.
 *
 * @param target an instance of the test being executed
 * @param perTestSuite indicates how many instances of MockServer are created
 *                     if true a single MockServer is created per JVM
 *                     if false one instance per test class is created
 */
public MockServerRule(Object target, boolean per TestSuite);
/**
 * Start the proxy prior to test execution and stop the proxy after the tests have completed.
 * This constructor dynamically create a proxy that accepts HTTP(S) requests on the specified port
 *
 * @param target an instance of the test being executed
 * @param port the HTTP(S) port for the proxy
 */
public MockServerRule(Object target, Integer... ports);

/**
 * Start the proxy prior to test execution and stop the proxy after the tests have completed.
 * This constructor dynamically create a proxy that accepts HTTP(S) requests on the specified port
 *
 * @param target an instance of the test being executed
 * @param perTestSuite indicates how many instances of MockServer are created
 * @param port the HTTP(S) port for the proxy
 *                     if true a single MockServer is created per JVM
 *                     if false one instance per test class is created
 */
public MockServerRule(Object target, boolean per TestSuite, Integer... ports);
 

Running From Command Line

MockServer can be run from the command line in the following ways:

 

Running From Command Line - Using Homebrew

Homebrew, a packaging manager for OS X (i.e. Apple Mac), can be used to install MockServer, as follows:

brew install mockserver

The MockServer formula in Homebrew performs the following actions:

  1. installed the binaries and scripts
  2. creates the log directory
  3. add the scripts to the PATH variable

Once the MockServer has been installed by Homebrew it is available from any command shell as the mockserver command

The mockserver command supports the following options:

mockserver -serverPort <port> [-proxyRemotePort <port>]  [-proxyRemoteHost <hostname>] [-logLevel <level>] [-jvmOptions <system parameters>]

 valid options are:
    -serverPort <port>           The HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS and HTTP CONNECT
                                 port(s) for both mocking and proxying
                                 requests.  Port unification is used to
                                 support all protocols for proxying and
                                 mocking on the same port(s). Supports
                                 comma separated list for binding to
                                 multiple ports.

    -proxyRemotePort <port>      Optionally enables port forwarding mode.
                                 When specified all requests received will
                                 be forwarded to the specified port, unless
                                 they match an expectation.

    -proxyRemoteHost <hostname>  Specified the host to forward all proxy
                                 requests to when port forwarding mode has
                                 been enabled using the proxyRemotePort
                                 option.  This setting is ignored unless
                                 proxyRemotePort has been specified. If no
                                 value is provided for proxyRemoteHost when
                                 proxyRemotePort has been specified,
                                 proxyRemoteHost will default to \"localhost\".

    -logLevel <level>            Optionally specify log level using SLF4J levels:
                                 TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, OFF or Java
                                 Logger levels: FINEST, FINE, INFO, WARNING,
                                 SEVERE or OFF. If not specified default is INFO

    -jvmOptions <level>          Specified generic JVM options or system properties.

i.e. mockserver -logLevel INFO -serverPort 1080,1081 -proxyRemotePort 80 -proxyRemoteHost www.mock-server.com

For example run the MockServer, as follows:

mockserver -logLevel INFO -serverPort 1080
 

Running From Command Line - Using Java

MockServer can be run directly from the command line using java directly as follow:

  1. download mockserver-netty-5.7.2-jar-with-dependencies.jar from Maven Central

  2. java -jar <path to mockserver-netty-5.7.2-jar-with-dependencies.jar> -serverPort <port>

The command line supports the following options:

java -jar <path to mockserver-jetty-jar-with-dependencies.jar> -serverPort <port> [-proxyRemotePort <port>] [-proxyRemoteHost <hostname>] [-logLevel <level>]

 valid options are:
    -serverPort <port>           The HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS and HTTP CONNECT
                                 port(s) for both mocking and proxying
                                 requests.  Port unification is used to
                                 support all protocols for proxying and
                                 mocking on the same port(s). Supports
                                 comma separated list for binding to
                                 multiple ports.

    -proxyRemotePort <port>      Optionally enables port forwarding mode.
                                 When specified all requests received will
                                 be forwarded to the specified port, unless
                                 they match an expectation.

    -proxyRemoteHost <hostname>  Specified the host to forward all proxy
                                 requests to when port forwarding mode has
                                 been enabled using the proxyRemotePort
                                 option.  This setting is ignored unless
                                 proxyRemotePort has been specified. If no
                                 value is provided for proxyRemoteHost when
                                 proxyRemotePort has been specified,
                                 proxyRemoteHost will default to \"localhost\".

    -logLevel <level>            Optionally specify log level using SLF4J levels:
                                 TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, OFF or Java
                                 Logger levels: FINEST, FINE, INFO, WARNING,
                                 SEVERE or OFF. If not specified default is INFO

i.e. java -jar ./mockserver-jetty-jar-with-dependencies.jar -serverPort 1080 -proxyRemotePort 80 -proxyRemoteHost www.mock-server.com

For example:

java -jar ~/Downloads/mockserver-netty-5.7.2-jar-with-dependencies.jar -serverPort 1080,1081 -logLevel INFO

All interactions with the MockServer are logged including setting up expectations, matching expectations, clearing expectations and verifying requests. This log information can be particularly helpful when trying to debug why a test is failing or expectations are not being matched.

The argument logLevel can be used to set the log level, as shown above. It is also possible to further customise where loggers send log events by overriding the default logging configuration.

 

Running From Command Line - Using Maven Plugin

MockServer can be run directly from the command line and using the mockserver-maven-plugin as follow:

mvn -Dmockserver.serverPort=1080 -Dmockserver.logLevel=INFO org.mock-server:mockserver-maven-plugin:5.7.2:runForked

When run from the command line the Maven plugin can be configured with the following properties:

  • mockserver.serverPort - The port the MockServer listens for incoming request. Port unification is used to support both HTTP and HTTPS and proxying on the same port (required: false)
  • mockserver.logLevel - The logging level (required: false, default: INFO)

The runForked goal of the mockserver-maven-plugin will fork a JVM process containing the Netty based MockServer. To stop the forked JVM process use the stopForked goal, as follows:

mvn -Dmockserver.serverPort=1080 org.mock-server:mockserver-maven-plugin:5.7.2:stopForked

For more information on the mockserver-maven-plugin see the section on MockServer Maven Plugin

 

Web Archive (WAR)

To run as a WAR deployed on any JEE web server:

  1. download mockserver-war-5.7.2.war from Maven Central
  2. deploy mockserver-war-5.7.2.war to any JEE web server

WAR Context Path

The WAR context path is ignored from all request matching for path.

The MockServerClient constructor includes an argument for the context path that the WAR has been deployed to, as follows:

public MockServerClient(String host, int port, String contextPath)
 

NPM Module & MockServer Grunt Plugin

The node module can be used to start and stop MockServer and the MockServer proxy as a node module or as a Grunt plugin.

You may install this plugin / node module with the following command:

npm install mockserver-node --save-dev

Node Module

To start or stop the MockServer from any Node.js code you need to import this module using require('mockserver-node') as follows:

var mockserver = require('mockserver-node');

Then you can use either the start_mockserver or stop_mockserver functions as follows:

var mockserver = require('mockserver-node');
mockserver.start_mockserver({
                serverPort: 1080,
                trace: true
            });

// do something

mockserver.stop_mockserver({
                serverPort: 1080
            });

The MockServer uses port unification to support HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS, HTTP CONNECT, Port Forwarding Proxying on the same port. A client can then connect to the single port with both HTTP and HTTPS as the socket will automatically detected SSL traffic and decrypt it when required.

Grunt Plugin

If you haven't used Grunt before, be sure to check out the Getting Started guide, as it explains how to create a Gruntfile as well as install and use Grunt plugins.

In your project's Gruntfile, add a section named start_mockserver and stop_mockserver to the data object passed into grunt.initConfig().

The following example will result in a both a MockServer and a MockServer proxy being started on ports 1080 and 1080.

grunt.initConfig({
    start_mockserver: {
        start: {
            options: {
                serverPort: 1080,
                trace: true
            }
        }
    },
    stop_mockserver: {
        stop: {
            options: {
                serverPort: 1080
            }
        }
    }
});

grunt.loadNpmTasks('mockserver-node');

Request Log

The request log will only be captured in MockServer if the log level is INFO (or more verbose, i.e. DEBUG or TRACE) therefore to capture the request log and use the /retrieve endpoint ensure either the option trace: true or the command line switch --verbose is set.

Grunt Plugin & NPM Module Options

options.serverPort

Type: Integer Default: undefined

The HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS and HTTP CONNECT port(s) for both mocking and proxying requests. Port unification is used to support all protocols for proxying and mocking on the same port(s). Supports comma separated list for binding to multiple ports.

options.proxyRemotePort

Type: Integer Default: undefined

Optionally enables port forwarding mode. When specified all requests received will be forwarded to the specified port, unless they match an expectation.

options.proxyRemoteHost

Type: String Default: undefined

Specified the host to forward all proxy requests to when port forwarding mode has been enabled using the proxyRemotePort option. This setting is ignored unless proxyRemotePort has been specified. If no value is provided for proxyRemoteHost when proxyRemotePort has been specified, proxyRemoteHost will default to "localhost".

options.artifactoryHost

Type: String Default: oss.sonatype.org

This value specifies the name of the artifact repository host.

options.artifactoryPath

Type: String Default: /content/repositories/releases/org/mock-server/mockserver-netty/

This value specifies the path to the artifactory leading to the mockserver-netty jar with dependencies.

options.mockServerVersion

Type: String Default: 5.7.2

This value specifies the artifact version of MockServer to download.

Note: It is also possible to specify a SNAPSHOT version to get the latest unreleased changes.

options.verbose

Type: Boolean Default: false

This value indicates whether the MockServer logs should be written to the console. In addition to logging additional output from the grunt task this options also sets the logging level of the MockServer to INFO. At INFO level all interactions with the MockServer including setting up expectations, matching expectations, clearing expectations and verifying requests are written to the log. The MockServer logs are written to mockserver.log in the current directory.

Note: It is also possible to use the --verbose command line switch to enabled verbose level logging from the command line.

options.trace

Type: Boolean Default: false

This value sets the logging level of the MockServer to TRACE. At TRACE level (in addition to INFO level information) all matcher results, including when specific matchers fail (such as HeaderMatcher) are written to the log. The MockServer logs are written to mockserver.log in the current directory.

options.javaDebugPort

Type: Integer Default: undefined

This value indicates whether Java debugging should be enabled and if so which port the debugger should listen on. When this options is provided the following additional option is passed to the JVM:

"-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=y,address=" + javaDebugPort

Note: suspend=y is used so the MockServer will pause until the debugger is attached. The grunt task will wait 50 seconds for the debugger to be attached before it exits with a failure status.

options.jvmOptions

Type: String Default: undefined

This value allows any system properties to be passed to the JVM that runs MockServer, for example:

start_mockserver: {
    options: {
        serverPort: 1080,
        jvmOptions: "-Dmockserver.enableCORSForAllResponses=true"
    }
}

options.startupRetries

Type: Integer Default: if javaDebugPort is not set 110, but if javaDebugPort is set 500

This value indicates the how many times we will call the check to confirm if the mock server started up correctly. It will default to 110 which will take about 11 seconds to complete, this is normally long enough for the server to startup. The server can take longer to start up if Java debugging is enabled so this will default to 500. The default will, in some cases, need to be overridden as the JVM may take longer to start up on some architectures, e.g. Mac seems to take a little longer.

 

Docker Container

The typical sequence for running the MockServer docker image is as follows:
  1. Install Docker
  2. Pull (or Update) Image
  3. Run Container
In addition it is possible to customise how the container is run.  

Install Docker

To install Docker see the installation instructions.

 

Pull MockServer Image

To pull the MockServer Docker image use the pull command, as follows:

docker pull jamesdbloom/mockserver

This is not strictly necessary as the image will be automatically pulled if it does not exist when the run command is used. However, using the pull command will ensure the latest version of the image is downloaded.

 

Run MockServer Container

Then to run MockServer as a Docker container run the following command:

docker run -d --rm -p jamesdbloom/mockserver

The -P switch in this command tells Docker to map all ports exported by the MockServer container to dynamically allocated ports on the host machine.

To view information about the MockServer container, including which dynamic ports have been used run the following command:

docker ps
 

Configure Port Mapping

This MockServer docker container exports the following port:

  • serverPort 1080

To specify which ports (on the host machine) should be mapped to the MockServer docker container use the -p <host port>:<container port> option, as follows:

docker run -d --rm -p <serverPort>:1080 jamesdbloom/mockserver

For example:

docker run -d --rm -p 1080:1080 jamesdbloom/mockserver

Modifying Default Command

By default when the MockServer container runs it executes a bash script passing three command line options, as follows

/opt/mockserver/run_mockserver.sh -serverPort 1080 -logLevel INFO

It is possible to pass alternative arguments to the entrypoint for the container, by appending arguments to the end of the run command, as follows:

docker run -d --rm -p 1080:1080 jamesdbloom/mockserver -serverPort 1080 -logLevel INFO

For following command can be used to view the available command line switches:

docker run jamesdbloom/mockserver ""

   Error: At least 'serverPort' must be provided

   run_mockserver.sh -serverPort <port> [-proxyRemotePort <port>] [-proxyRemoteHost <hostname>] [-logLevel <level>] [-jvmOptions <system parameters>]

     valid options are:

        -serverPort <port>                      The HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS and HTTP CONNECT
                                                port(s) for both mocking and proxying
                                                requests.  Port unification is used to
                                                support all protocols for proxying and
                                                mocking on the same port(s). Supports
                                                comma separated list for binding to
                                                multiple ports.

        -proxyRemotePort <port>                 Optionally enables port forwarding mode.
                                                When specified all requests received will
                                                be forwarded to the specified port, unless
                                                they match an expectation.

        -proxyRemoteHost <hostname>             Specified the host to forward all proxy
                                                requests to when port forwarding mode has
                                                been enabled using the proxyRemotePort
                                                option.  This setting is ignored unless
                                                proxyRemotePort has been specified. If no
                                                value is provided for proxyRemoteHost when
                                                proxyRemotePort has been specified,
                                                proxyRemoteHost will default to \"localhost\".

        -logLevel <level>                       Optionally specify log level using SLF4J levels:
                                                TRACE, DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR, OFF or Java
                                                Logger levels: FINEST, FINE, INFO, WARNING,
                                                SEVERE or OFF. If not specified default is INFO

        -jvmOptions <system parameters>         Specified generic JVM options or system properties.

   i.e. /opt/mockserver/run_mockserver.sh -serverPort 1080,1081 -proxyRemotePort 80 -proxyRemoteHost www.mock-server.com -jvmOptions -logLevel INFO "-Dmockserver.enableCORSForAllResponses=true -Dmockserver.sslSubjectAlternativeNameDomains='org.mock-server.com,mock-server.com'"

Then the appropriate options can be specified, for example, to setup a port forwarding proxy (from 0.0.0.0:1080 to www.mock-server.com:80) using the following command:

docker run -d --rm -p 1080:1080 jamesdbloom/mockserver -serverPort 1080 -proxyRemotePort 80 -proxyRemoteHost www.mock-server.com

Interactive Shell

It is possible to launch the container with an interactive bash shell by modiying the entrypoint as follows:

docker run -it -p 1080:1080 --entrypoint "/bin/bash" jamesdbloom/mockserver

Note: in this example above the -d flag (for daemon) has been replaced with -i (to stdin open) and -t (for pseudo-tty) to ensure docker creates the container in the foreground with an attached stdin, see the docker documentation for more details.

 

Build & Run From Source

MockServer is written in Java and built using maven. The maven wrapper is used so maven does not need to be installed but Java JDK 8 or higher does need to be installed.

First clone the repository as follows:

git clone https://github.com/jamesdbloom/mockservice.git
cd mockserver

Next use maven to build an executable jar containing all dependencies as follows:

./mvnw clean package

This will produce a jar file under the target directory called, as follows:

mockserver-netty/target/mockserver-netty-5.7.2-jar-with-dependencies.jar

Run MockServer then using the executable jar as per the instruction above in Running From The Command Line