The Complete Guide to Perform Manual REST API Testing Using Postman

It is worth noting that when you use the GET request, it should only extract the data and not have any other effect on the data. REST APIs communicate via HTTP requests to perform standard database functions like creating, reading, updating, and even deleting records within a resource. I am Shilpa Nadkarni, a freelance software professional, and content writer. I have around 10 years of experience in software development mainly in Microsoft Technologies. I am always learning new technologies and find myself up to date with the latest software technologies.

Some of the common tests we perform on APIs are as follows. It is a good practice to design the REST server and client such that partial information can be requested and sent across to the client. Even if REST API is designed properly, the performance can be impacted due to poor design of Business Logic or the DAO layers. Since REST is stateless, REST server does not have to bother about saving the client’s state at the server end. As a result, it is possible to scale to thousands of concurrent users. Therefore, the API testing task is easy to be underestimated.

The last two digits do not have any class or categorization role. The request method takes two arguments, the first is the HTTP method and the second is a string. The string parameter is used to specify the parameters that are to be sent with the base URI. In this case, to get pet store details we do not send any parameters hence the blank string.

Performance of RESTful Web Services

For these reasons, it is recommended that teams increase their level of API testing while decreasing their reliance on GUI testing. API testing is recommended for the vast majority of test automation efforts and as much edge testing as possible. GUI testing is then reserved for validating typical use cases at the system level, mobile testing, and usability testing. The second method does the same, but because it is for findAllById, it checks just one object equality. The second test method does the same for the getArrivalsById().

The risk of releasing a bad and potentially insecure product in the market is greater has its repercussions. API testing is the most challenging aspect of QA testing, as APIs can be complicated. This testing involves protocols and standards that are are not involved in any other kind of testing. For any foundation, there is always a need for good documentation. Similarly, API documentation provides a quick reference to access working or library within a program. JsonPath is a simple way to get values from an Object document without having to use XPath.

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The most common API output you need to verify in API testing is the response status code. Knowing the purpose of the API will set a firm foundation for you to well prepare your test data for input and output. The Response interface (io.restassured.response.Response) represents a response returned from a server. As we will see in the subsequent articles, we can call different methods on this response object to extract the response like response status, headers, etc.

Since APIs lack a GUI, API testing is performed at the message layer. The most touch parts of API testing are not either sending request nor receiving the response. It is common that testing a few first APIs such as login, query some resources, etc. is quite simple.

There are multiple types of testing which are most often used as form of API testing which means during multiple types of testing simultaneously API can be tested. GUI testing is different from the API testing as GUI testing is present at Presentation layer where the API testing is present at Business layer. If we will take an example of a typical app then API is the middle layer in between UI layer and Data base layer and due to this API communication and data exchange between the applications occur. Security testing – Includes penetration testing and fuzz testing as well as validating authentication, encryption, and access control. Runtime error detection – Monitoring an application the execution of automated or manual tests to expose problems such as race conditions, exceptions, and resource leaks.

Does the tool support testing the API/Web service types that your AUT is using? It will not make sense if the selected tool supports testing RESTful services while you AUT is using SOAP services. Data input and output follows some specific templates or models so that you can create test scripts only once. These test scripts can also be reused throughout the entire testing project.

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A smoke test is a fast, easy way of validating the code of an API to ensure that it functions as intended on a basic level. This may involve checking if the API responds to calls, responds correctly, or interacts properly with other components. Keeping the API testing schema updated—the schema consists of data formatting https://globalcloudteam.com/ and storage, including API requests and responses. Enhancements to the program, which can generate additional parameters for API calls, must take into account the configuration of the schema. Verify that the application state is correct—this action is optional and can be applied primarily to manual testing.

REST server gives the functionality to access the resources and modifies them. Framework is similar to an Application Programming Interface, technically framework includes API. Framework serves foundation for programming while API provides access to the elements supported by the framework.

What are the protocols used in API Testing?

Desktop Testing Test across desktop, web and mobile in a single project. Visual Testing Improving flaky pixel visual UI comparisons with AI methods. Learning how to create API requests is an integral part of learning how to perform manual REST API Testing using Postman. You will need to know more about the following 2 features to create an API request. The postman console helps to track what data is being retrieved makes it possible to effectively debug the tests. As Postman makes it easy to create environments, you can design multiple environments and reduce the replication of tests as you’ll be able to use the same collection for a different setting.

• Its the crucial information that you submit to the server when making an API request.
• Authentication is a process of presenting your credentials like username, password or another secret key to the system and the system to validate your credentials or you.
• Does the tool support importing API/Web service endpoints from WSDL, Swagger, WADL, and other service specification?
• API is a part of integration testing to check whether the API meets expectations in terms of functionality, reliability, performance, and security of applications.
• REST API Testing is open-source web automation testing technique that is used for testing RESTful APIs for web applications.
• This is not necessary when you use the H2 DB, because it is in the memory.
• Negative testVerify that the API returns an appropriate response when the expected output does not exist.

In order to access a RESTful interface all you need is a HTTP-compatible client which can be as simple as cURL utility or a simple web browser. From a developer’s point of view, as long as the programming language supports invoking HTTP methods, developing REST client program is as easy api testing best practices as pie. Verify that the response status code is returned as specified in the requirement, whether it returns a 2xx or error code. In a testing project, there are always some APIs that are simple with only one or two inputs such as login API, get token API, health check API, etc.

What are the major challenges faced during API testing?

Caching is just the practice of storing data in temporarily and retrieving data from a high-performance store either explicitly or implicitly. Refer Spring Boot Rest Assured Example to understand how to use JsonPath to extract the specific object from the response. The test environment of API is a bit complete and requires the configuration of both database and server is done without the integration of GUI. A RESTful web service usually defines a URI, Uniform Resource Identifier a service, provides resource representation such as JSON and set of HTTP Methods. 1.SOAP which is an XML-based way to expose web services. PUT is idempotent meaning, invoking it any number of times will not have an impact on resources.

In API testing, the scenarios or use cases being tested involve predictions of faster and more effective performance. Early detection of issues—API tests are conducted before an application is coupled with any user interface components. This enables developers to detect errors and misconfigurations early on and easily apply the fix during the API testing phase. It can also help reduce costs, because applying fixes later during development may be more difficult and time consuming, accumulating more costs. For API the test environment is a quite complex method where the configuration of server and database is done as per the requirement of the software application. REST or GraphQL helpers implement methods for making API requests.

What Aspects of the REST API Should You Test?

You should also avoid testing more than one API in a test case. It is painful if errors occur because you will have to debug the data flow generated by API in a sequence. There are some cases in which you need to call a series of API to achieve an end-to-end testing flow. However, these tasks should come after all APIs have been individually tested.

Spring Boot is an open-source framework for application creation, and where we create our APIs. To validate and verify the output in a different system is difficult for testers. For successfully performing API Testing, you require a tool to structure and manage your test cases.

API testing is performed at the business layer between data sources and UI. A tool that supports all testing types would be an ideal choice so that your test objects and test scripts can be shared across all layers. It is evident that the steps we saw for each request were almost identical to each other.

# Requests

They are used to read, create, update Knowing the purpose of the API will set a firm foundation for you to well prepare your test data for input and output. This step also helps you define the verification approach. For example, for some APIs, you will verify the responses against the database; and for some others, it is better to verify the responses against other APIs. However, if we get status codes like 4xx and 5xx, these are error messages.

So instead of checking that response equals to the one provided, we will check for data inclusion and structure matching. Server and server perform the response to the client back using the same protocol known as HTTP. First, requested data is sent to the server by the client in order to fetch a response from the server.