Grafana k6 v0.47.0 has been released, featuring gRPC’s binary metadata support, new authentication methods, and tons of other improvements for Grafana k6 OSS. Here’s a quick overview of the latest features in Grafana k6 v0.47.0, as well as some other exciting updates related to Grafana Cloud k6 and the k6 community.

Most development teams know that testing the application layer of a system (a.k.a the codebase) is of vital importance. Testing the data layer (the database) is just as important. To perform database testing, you construct queries to assert and validate the database operations, structures, and attributes required by the application connecting to the database.

Whether you're a business that relies on Amazon reviews and seller feedback or planning a much-needed holiday through your favorite travel comparison site, everyday activities like these wouldn't be impossible without APIs. An integral part of app development, API technology is interwoven into a rich tapestry of popular applications that companies and consumers use daily. Without them, there would be no smartphones, social media, or instant messaging.

Distributed systems, such as modern microservices-based applications, are highly scalable, but also highly complex. Dependencies and unexpected interactions between services are a common cause of incidents, and these incidents are also notoriously hard to test for. xk6-disruptor — an extension that adds fault injection capabilities to Grafana k6, the open source reliability and load testing tool — can help overcome these challenges.

Effective user experience (UX) design is a key factor in creating compelling software products. UX considers the quality of interaction that users have with a product and takes the user’s point of view as the most sacred thing in software and product design. A great UX includes accessibility, which ensures that software is inclusive and usable by the widest possible audience.