Suppose you have a request payload (JSON or XML) in a file and you required to directly send that file as a payload to request in stead of reading it first and then passing. Sending file as a payload directly is a good idea when you have static payloads or minimal modification.

“body()” method of RequestSpecification interface is a overloaded method to allow you to pass payload in different ways. We will use body() method which accepts “File” as argument. Javadoc is below:-

Sending a .json file as a payload

Step 1:- Create a .json file and write payload in that. Keep the file in “src/test/resources” folder.

Step 2 :- Create a File in Java using “File” and pass to body() method.

package DifferentWaysOfPassingPayloadToRequest;
 
import java.io.File;
 
import org.hamcrest.Matchers;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
 
import io.restassured.RestAssured;
import io.restassured.http.ContentType;
 
public class PassFileAsPayload {
	
	@Test
	public void passFileAsPayload()
	{
		// Creating a File instance
		File jsonDataInFile = new File("src/test/resources/Payloads/AuthPayload.json");
		
		//GIVEN
		RestAssured
		    .given()
				.baseUri("https://restful-booker.herokuapp.com/auth")
				.contentType(ContentType.JSON)
				.body(jsonDataInFile)
		// WHEN
			.when()
				.post()
				// THEN
			.then()
				.assertThat()
				.statusCode(200)
				.body("token", Matchers.notNullValue())
				.body("token.length()", Matchers.is(15))
				.body("token", Matchers.matchesRegex("^[a-z0-9]+$"));
	}
 
}

Sending a .xml file as a payload

Step 1:- Create a .xml file and write payload in that. Keep the file in “src/test/resources” folder.

Step 2:- Create a File in Java using “File” and pass to body() method.

@Test
	public void passXMLFileAsPayload()
	{
		// Creating a File instance
		File jsonDataInFile = new File("src/test/resources/Payloads/AuthPayload.xml");
		
		//GIVEN
		RestAssured
		    .given()
				.baseUri("https://restful-booker.herokuapp.com/auth")
				// Since I am passing payload as xml. Anyway it is optional as Rest Assured automatically identifies.
				.contentType(ContentType.XML)
				.body(jsonDataInFile)
		// WHEN
			.when()
				.post()
				// THEN
			.then()
				.assertThat()
				.statusCode(200);
	}