spring-projects / spring-projects/spring-boot

Introduce @KafkaListenerTest for focused Kafka Listener testing

Open
#45,706 2 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

status: pending-design-work type: enhancement
Dominant language
Java
Stars
81.5k
Forks
42.7k
Avg merge
2d 4h
Merged PRs (30d)
65

Description

Currently, testing Kafka listeners typically involves @SpringBootTest and @EmbeddedKafka, which loads the entire application context (as documented here).

To enable more lightweight and focused testing of Kafka listeners, similar to how @WebMvcTest allows for testing web controllers in isolation, could anew new test slice be introduced? @KafkaListenerTest.

This slice would focus on testing a specific listener and its associated configuration (e.g., serialization/deserialization, error handlers) without the overhead of the full application context.

This could significantly improve the efficiency and speed of testing Kafka listener components.

Any thoughts on this proposal?

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the documented @SpringBootTest and @EmbeddedKafka approach and comparing its intended isolation with @WebMvcTest. Define the scope of the proposed @KafkaListenerTest, including listener configuration, serialization/deserialization, and error handlers; done means the focused test slice is specified and its behavior is validated.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java, kafka, spring-boot
Domain
backend, testing
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.