Reading json from file in Karate feature fails with js evaluation failed error - karate

Question

I'm using Karate Netty, version 0.9.6 on Windows 10 with openJDK 14.0.2.
I'm trying to read data from a json file in a feature file.
The following code fails:
Scenario: Get the credit balance
* def data = read('classpath:examples1/user_credit_balance_get.json')
My console output looks as follows:
Karate version: 0.9.6
======================================================
elapsed: 2.31 | threads: 1 | thread time: 0.02
features: 1 | ignored: 0 | efficiency: 0.01
scenarios: 1 | passed: 0 | failed: 1
======================================================
failed features:
features.protect_a_prospect: protect_a_prospect.feature:4 - evaluation (js) failed: read('classpath:examples1/user_credit_balance_get.json'), java.lang.RuntimeException: evaluation (js) failed: ?{
"session_data": {
"user_id": "101",
"session_id": "dslkdaskljd",
"token": "02389poasklj"
},
"call_data": {
"user_id": "101"
}
}, javax.script.ScriptException: <eval>:2:18 Expected ; but found :
"session_data": {
^ in <eval> at line number 2 at column number 18
stack trace: jdk.scripting.nashorn/jdk.nashorn.api.scripting.NashornScriptEngine.throwAsScriptException(NashornScriptEngine.java:477)
stack trace: com.intuit.karate.ScriptBindings.eval(ScriptBindings.java:155)
com.intuit.karate.exception.KarateException: there are test failures !
at ...(.)
This leads me to believe that Karate is trying to read my json file as if it were JavaScript.
What could be the reason for this behaviour?
-- Edit --
Using karate.readAsString instead of read works as a workaround for me:
Scenario: Get the credit balance
* def data = karate.readAsString('classpath:examples1/user_credit_balance_get.json')

Answer 1

This is mighty confusing, you say Karate mocks but then you show the log for a Karate test. Karate should never try to evaluate a *.json file.
I think the best thing to do is to follow this process: https://github.com/intuit/karate/wiki/How-to-Submit-an-Issue