REST API Testing Tutorial Sample Manual Test Case

When we buy a new pair of shoes, we test them out—we try them on to see if they fit. Because it’s through testing that we infer the quality of products. A quality REST app is an indication of rigorous testing done right. In this post, I’ll show you three ways you should be testing your REST application. With the increasing adoption of REST APIs, an effective strategy to test and monitor these services is the need of the hour. Using a number of test techniques, a QA team can efficiently test APIs and contribute to the quality of the software.

The code also specifies the way an application requests services from the operating system or other applications. Load testing is a crucial part of any software application or REST API development process. It helps you understand the functionality of a specific program to assure it works fine when it finally meets real users. These tests allow developers and companies to identify any bottlenecks. Plus, it saves time and secures the monetary resources to be extra utilized later .

API testing isn’t very different from any other testing. But, it requires specific tools, dedicated to automating it. They vary depending on the programming language they’re based on. Certain defects can only be caught by GUI tests and it’s the only test type that truly tests the user experience. So, we encourage you to pay attention to API testing as well and apply it to smooth the overall development workflow. Of course, automated API testing can be performed in many more cases than this, most importantly, when you are pressed for time.

Proficiency testing — the API increases what developers are able to do. Functionality testing — the API works and does exactly what it’s supposed to do. Once you’ve set up your API testing environment, make an API call right away to make sure nothing is broken before you go forward to start your more thorough testing.

What is REST API Testing?

API tests are also faster to run and more isolated than UI tests, which makes it quicker and easier to identify and resolve bugs. According to data from Andersen Lab, a UI test runs for approximately seven minutes while an API test runs for 12 seconds. Meaning, an API test is about 35 times faster than a UI test. Penetration tests involve users with limited API knowledge trying to attack the API, which enables testers to assess the threat vector from an outside perspective.

3) Use service virtualization for simulated test scenarios. Parameterization of validations, test loads, and configurations from test cases, data sources, or variables. In order to cover all the bases, testers employ a range of tests to test APIs. Learn how different industries are implementing the next level of test environment management.

It could be testing that when a user accesses a path with the ID of a product, the product details are returned as JSON. Apache jMeter is a time-tested tool initially used for load testing. These days, Apache jMeter also supports functional, regression, and stress tests on different protocols. It’s a free open-source tool with custom scripting functionalities that require advanced programming skills.

With Postman, we have the possibility to work with several environments, such as Production or Sandbox. In each one of them, we can put variables to help in the tests. After collecting this data, we already have a scenario and will know what behaviors are expected in our API. Validating if the content-type changed, the behavior remains the same. Response is data sent to the Client in turn by the Server for the request received from Client. Pegasystems CTO Don Schuerman believes the cure for AI’s ethical issues lies in broad data inputs, being sensitive to biases and …

Why do we need API Security testing?

Here at SoapUI.org, we are committed to making API testing easy and reliable for everyone. We believe that API testing is a crucial part of the API development lifecycle, and that it should not be forgotten. Before beginning API testing, it’s important to plan out all possible input combinations.

An API or Application Programming Interface is a set of programming instructions for accessing a web-based software application. In other words, a set of commands used by an individual program to communicate with one another directly and use each other’s functions to get information. For example, a Google website can have API for various functions like search, translations, calendars, etc. It is an architectural style and an approach for communication used in the development of Web Services. It enables users to connect and interact with cloud services efficiently.

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Business Logic – Is the API doing the task it is supposed to do? Suppose we have a fetchBalance API that gives the current balance for a user. If it returns the correct HTTP response code, but the actual balance being returned for user is of previous month, the business logic of this API is broken. In order to effectively test an API, the tester should first determine the functional scope of the API. Next the test environment should be set up with proper configuration of servers, databases and every resource the API interacts with. RestSharp’s functionality allows for straightforward test creation, serialization and deserialization.

A common format used in web browser-based APIs is JSON since it returns the data as JavaScript Object Notation objects. These can be used directly in a web browser because they match the format used by JavaScript to store arrays and objects. It is also a very compact format, making it ideal for communications on mobile networks with limited bandwidth. It doesn’t matter whether you are working in Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, you can download the Postman app to test your REST APIs anywhere. What do I mean by a unit test, and how does fit into your test suite?

What is an API and Rest API Testing?

We provide a number of resources to help customers learn how to get the most out of our products, with free online resources, virtual classrooms, and face to face. Browse our guides and manuals for all our products and addons. If you want to learn more about application delivery, testing, and more take a look at our whitepapers, videos, background papers, blog, and presentations. From financial services to healthcare and biotech to government and defense and more, we work with our customers to address their specific needs. Simple Object Access Protocol APIs make use of the Web Service Definition Language and communicate using HTTP POST requests. They are essentially a serialization of RPC object calls into XML that can then be passed to the web service.

• If it returns the correct HTTP response code, but the actual balance being returned for user is of previous month, the business logic of this API is broken.
• • Ensure consistency of application performance and application scalability.
• Rest api testing is done by GET, POST, PUT and DELETE methods.
• It was designed to test functionalities and measuring performance.
• The XML passed to the SOAP Web Services needs to match the format specified in the WSDL.

And although there are some famous REST API testing tools, Postman and Rest Assured are currently in the spotlight. In this tutorial, we have tested some requests on both interfaces and shared the results. As expected, both platforms have shown similar outcomes. However, using REST Assured for REST API automation testing is more reliable as compared to Postman. Perhaps most importantly, API testing allows developer operations, quality assurance, development, and other teams to begin testing an application’s core functionality before the user interface is ready. This enables them to identify any errors or weaknesses early on in the development process.

REST Assured: a Java library supporting XML and JSON requests

For those responses in JSON or XML format, it is easy to get the value of a given key or attribute. Hence, this method is helpful when verifying dynamic content, or individual value rather than the whole content. This method is suitable for a simple response with static contents. Dynamic information api testing best practices such as date time, increasing ID, etc. will cause trouble in the assertion. Knowing the purpose of the API will set a firm foundation for you to well prepare your API testing data for input and output. Mobile Testing Click-and-run cloud environments for native apps and mobile browsers.

If automated, API tests can be executed in significantly lesser time than their GUI counterparts. With Katalon, you can test all types of REST, SOAP/1.1 and SOAP/1.2 requests and multiple data sources. Postman is currently one of the most popular tools used in API testing. Started as a browser extension for API validation, today with integrated test automation features, Postman is much more than just an HTTP client. QA engineers perform automated API testing using a testing tool that drives the API.

Functional Testing

Web UI testing – Performed as part of end-to-end integration tests that also cover APIs, enables teams to validate GUI items in the context of the larger transaction. Samuel is an AWS solutions architect, offering five years of experience building large applications with a focus on PHP, Node.js, and AWS. He works well with Serverless, Docker, Git, Laravel, Symfony, Lumen, and Vue.js. Now that we’ve seen what a unit test should be and how to write it, it’s also essential that you test that your code still works after integrating with other components. Nobody knows, and this why you should also write integration tests.

Httpie is another command-line tool that you can use to test your REST APIs. It’s nothing but an HTTP client with an intuitive UI, JSON support, syntax highlighting, wget-like downloads, plugins, which makes testing REST APIs easier and fun. Load testing – Validating functionality and performance under load, often by reusing functional test cases. A unit https://globalcloudteam.com/ test verifies a small portion of your code independently from other modules of your application. If you’re not writing a “Hello World” app, usually your app will contain services and modules that are interconnected. My little self stood in front of my computer some years ago, churning out code that today would make me scream like a baby deprived of food.

REST API Performance Testing

Considering API automation testing a real development project is highly suggested. It should be structured to be extendable, reusable, and maintainable. However, your test coverage will increase dramatically if the tool has this function. Does the tool support import API/Web service endpoints from WSDL, Swagger, WADL, and other service specifications?

The travel app has to communicate with the participating airline companies to show the traveler the best flight times and prices. Implementing complex encryption, authentication, and access-control testing situations. You can also configure a wide range of situations in dependent systems in order to discover if your APIs deliver proper responses under non-ordinary conditions and also if they fail reasonably well.