When you run a feature file in karate, first things it looks for a karate-config.js file in your classpath and contain a javascript function. The function is expected to return a JSON object and all keys and values in that JSON object will be made available as script variables.

karate-config.js, karate dsl

Now let’s say you want to pass a random string to your feature file or a random UUID. You can do this by adding a such function in your karate-config file and then use it by the specifying the config variable key.
In the below image I have added a function that generates a random string and stores in a config variable name “randomName”

karate-config.js, karate dsl
 function fn() {
   karate.configure('connectTimeout', 5000);
   karate.configure('readTimeout', 5000);


  var config = { // base config JSON
       username: 'QAtechtools',
       password: '************',
       baseURL: 'https://api.github.com',
       randomName: makeid()

     };
 function makeid() {
   var length=5;
   var result           = '';
   var characters       = 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789';
   var charactersLength = characters.length;
   for ( var i = 0; i < length; i++ ) {
      result += characters.charAt(Math.floor(Math.random() * charactersLength));
   }
   return result;
}
   return config;


}

We will see now how to use the variable named randomName in your feature file.

karate feature file, karate dsl
Scenario: creating a repo and verifying the response
  * path '/user/repos'
  #Change the repo_name and any other fields
  * def createRepoBody = read('createRepo.json')
  #Get the data from the config function in the JS file
  * def name = randomName
  #Setting the name for the request
  * set createRepoBody.name = name
  #Add the final body in the request
  And request (createRepoBody)
  * method post
  #verify the status code
  * status 201
  * print response