What is API testing and How to Use It?
What is API testing and How to Use It?
What is API Testing?
API testing is a type of software testing that is used to test the functionality of an API. API testing is done by sending requests to the API and verifying the responses.
API testing can be used to verify the functionality of an API, verify the accuracy of the responses, and test the security of the API.
API stands for Application Programming Interface. An API is a set of rules that govern the interactions between software components.
When apps or programs talk to each other, one of them usually acts as a client and the other as a server. The server holds vast amounts of data, whereas the client only needs limited data from this vast pool to do it’s job.
Sometimes the client needs an updated version of the data, in which case it sends an “API Call” to get what it needs from the server.
In a nutshell, API Testing is the process of testing APIs in a software product.
What to Test?
We need to test the API methods, what they return and how they behave when used. We make sure that each method provides the expected output based on the input provided by us.
It goes without saying that we need to test every possible combination of inputs and outputs for each method because there are numerous ways of putting data into an API call and getting data out.
API testing is done by sending requests to the API and verifying the responses. API testing can be used to verify the functionality of an API, verify the accuracy of the responses, and test the security of the API.
It is the process of verifying that the interactions between software components – those accessed via application programming interfaces (APIs) – work as expected. API testing is essential to ensuring the quality of the API and the applications that rely on it.
Why is API Testing Important?
API testing is a type of software testing that tests the APIs or application programming interfaces of a software system.
APIs are the building blocks of software and allow different components to communicate with each other.
API testing is important because it ensures that the APIs are working correctly and that they meet the requirements of the system.
What are the major challenges faced in API testing?
There are two main challenges that API testers face. The first one is the limited knowledge of APIs; which makes it difficult to test these APIs in many ways.
API testing is one of the most complex and challenging types of software testing. It involves verifying the functionality of the API and ensuring that it meets the requirements specified by the client. The major challenges faced in API testing include verifying the correctness of the responses, verifying the security of the API, and verifying the performance of the API.
Another one is the lack of API testing tools, since most API testing tools are only available in programming languages (Java, .NET or other software development languages).
What is an API call?
An API call represents a request or query from a client application to an API. It’s made when an app needs to communicate information with a server in order to perform a task.
An API is a set of rules that govern the interactions between software components. When apps or programs talk to each other, one of them usually acts as a client and the other as a server.
The server holds vast amounts of data, whereas the client only needs limited data from this vast pool to do it’s job.
Sometimes the client needs an updated version of the data, in which case it sends an “API Call” to get what it needs from the server.
What are the best API testing tools?
There are many API testing tools, but few can satisfy the needs of all testers. As a result, there is no one best API testing tool. Some API testing tools are better suited to specific purposes.
An API testing tool should be able to support any programming language and should be easy to use. The interface of the tool should not pose a challenge to testers and it should have the following features:
– Good documentation
– Repository of APIs and scripts
– Easy to manage parameters
– Error messages should be understandable.
It’s also important for API testing tools to support the following features:
– Configurable test cases with different methods such as POST, GET, PUT and DELETE.
– It should have a good extensibility system that can support new features in future.
Some common API testing tools include;
1. SoapUI
SoapUI is the world’s most widely-used automated testing tool for SOAP and REST APIs. Write, run, integrate, and automate advanced API Tests with ease.
SoapUI enables you to easily test REST and SOAP APIs — since it was created exclusively for API testing.
The tool makes it simple and quick to create tests. It integrates seamlessly with 13 API management systems and supports REST, SOAP, JMS, and IoT.
Thousands of prominent businesses worldwide rely on SoapUI Pro, including Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, HP, NASA, eBay, MasterCard, Intel, FedEx, and Pfizer.
The ability of an API testing tool to integrate with other testing tools is also an important consideration. The advantage of having this feature is that it decreases the redundancy between test stages and increases productivity. Some API testing tools that you can use are Postman, Rest-Assured or Apiary (JavaScript).
API testing is a critical part of software testing, yet it is often overlooked or underestimated. API testing is challenging because APIs can be quite complex and because the API testing process can be time-consuming. In order to ensure the quality of an API, testers must have a strong understanding of both the API and the system it interacts with. Additionally, API testing requires specialized tools and expertise that many organizations do not have.
What is API Test Automation?
API test automation is a software feature that allows users to automate the tests for their APIs. Automation testing helps testers to perform testing tasks more quickly and accurately, whilst also reducing the overall cost of the tests.
Auto testing can be done in different ways because of its complexity and difficulty. It takes skills and experience to determine if an API under test is ready to be used in production or not.
API Testing tools help in building better APIs by helping companies to achieve their goals with ease and efficiency.
What are the benefits of API automation testing?
API automation testing is a technology that helps software testers automate the process of testing APIs, making it easier and faster to test complex APIs.
Automation testing can be beneficial in many ways since it reduces the time required to test libraries, allows companies to save money on automated tests, and provides consistency between the implemented tests and production systems.
Testing a library in its entirety should occur once. This can mean re-testing every day or week, or even more frequently depending on the size of your project’s codebase.
What are the disadvantages of REST API?
One shortcoming of RESTful APIs is that they do not provide state management, such as within sessions. Additionally, it may be more difficult for inexperienced developers to use it.
Before developing your API, it’s critical to understand what makes a REST API RESTful and why these limits exist.
Securing REST APIs is particularly challenging due to their high degree of interconnection and lack of architecture for human access.
Many developers rely on testing tools that can automatically discover REST API endpoints and test parameter attributes included inside them in order to save time and be more efficient.
What do you use for automated REST API testing?
REST Assured is a Java library that simplifies and automate the process of testing RESTful APIs. It is frequently used to test web applications that use JSON or XML.
Additionally, it completely supports all HTTP methods, such as GET, PUT, POST, PATCH, and DELETE. Nonetheless, you must have Java, Maven, TestNG, and an IDE (IntelliJ, Eclipse, etc.)
Why Selenium is an API?
Selenium WebDriver is an open-source API that enables developers to interact with a browser on an operating system programmatically in the same manner that a real user would.
Although it is generally used to assist with web application browser testing, it may be used for any operation that requires browser automation.
Is Selenium a tool or API?
Selenium is an open-source web browser automation tool. It provides a unified interface for writing test scripts in a variety of programming languages, including Ruby, Java, NodeJS, PHP, Perl, Python, and C#.
What is the difference between selenium testing and API testing?
API testing is a type of software testing that is used to test the functionality of an API. Selenium tests are mimicking the behaviour of a real user.
Selenium and API testing are two different types of software testing. Selenium testing is used to test the functionality of a web application, while API testing is used to test the functionality of an API.
Selenium is a browser automation tool that can be used to automate the testing of web applications. API testing is used to test the functionality of an API
What’s difference between UI level testing and API level testing?
UI level testing is testing how the user interface looks and behaves. API level testing is testing how the application works under the hood.
UI level testing is the verification of how the user interface (UI) works. This includes making sure all buttons, links, and fields are functioning as intended and that the layout is visually appealing.
UI level testing is what most people think of when they think of testing an app. This is where you test the look and feel of the app, as well as how it behaves when you interact with it.
API level testing is testing the app’s functionality at the code level. This is where you test how the app interacts with the back-end server, as well as checking for any errors.