cucumber software testing-Understanding API Testing In Product Development
cucumber framework testing Any organization’s API testing efficiency is evaluated once the API enters the production phase. Here, you can tell that the API monitoring is at its best if the production instance is returning data reliably and working quickly.
But what occurs if one of the API endpoints malfunctions?
In that situation, everything begins to loop, and you are tasked with the challenge of identifying the problem before the client or end-user notices a problem.
In actuality, it’s already too late by the time you discover there’s a problem because there’s a good chance the user has already encountered the bug.
To address these difficulties, numerous firms use extensive API testing during the development and staging phases. The goal is to identify the solution before the problem locates the client. So, before deployment, API endpoints are tested. It guarantees the product’s effectiveness.
Given the significance of API testing in product development, we have put together a brief tutorial to help you fully grasp what API testing is, as well as the various API testing tools and procedures. Learn more about API testing by reading on.
What Is Testing an API?
The practice of API testing serves to ensure the quality of the software product, as the name suggests. API testing entails a variety of QA procedures, such as API calls, outputs, and response validation with numerous parameters. We focus more on detecting data accuracy, HTTP status codes, data format, and error codes in this case.
Depending on the kind of product you have developed, we will use a different approach while testing an API. API testing is still required whether you have a web services API, OS API, DB API, or API to access resources remotely.
What Kinds Of API Testing Are There?
Now that the definition of API testing has been provided, let’s examine the many methods of API testing. Eight API tests that address typical worries—the very reasons we use REST API testing—are covered below. The issues are:
- Recognizing API return values in relation to input
- determining whether an API is providing a false positive or nothing at all
- determining whether an API is initiating a call to another API or an event
- determining whether the data structures are connected to the API
Software testing can be outsourced to an IT outsourcing and consulting company for a number of reasons, including increased customer satisfaction, access to expertise, higher cost-effectiveness, and faster time to market.
The eight various forms of API testing are as follows:
1. Functionality testing
A sort of API testing called functional testing confirms the operating specifications of the product. To ensure that the API is operating in accordance with the anticipated parameters, these services employ specific scenarios. If the outcome is not what was anticipated, errors are managed or corrected.
Functional testing can verify the layered scenarios, for instance, if you are testing an API designed for ordering music on an online platform. It suggests that users typically search by track or artist name, and a functional test would employ a variety of scenarios to determine whether the correct input is provided.
2. Testing for Reliability
Checking for potential disconnections is important when connecting an API to several devices. We can verify that by using reliability testing. This test allows you to determine whether the API will function without issue and provide reliable results in any given situation.
3. Load testing
Load testing determines whether the API is capable of handling a specific level of load, as the name suggests. It examines how a specific API responds to loads that are greater than those that it was designed to handle.
Measure response times, look for extreme situations, examine throughput, and assess other similar elements in this kind of test. The main objective is to comprehend the heavy load situation by observing the system’s response.
4. Testing for Creativity
Any API’s innovation comes from its versatility in use. Testing for inventiveness in an API verifies this. It determines whether or not we can use a specific API in a variety of ways. If not, creativity tests show that the API was not properly developed.
5. Security Checks
The API’s security requirements are covered by security testing. It has access restrictions, authentications, and permissions.
- The API requires you to authenticate yourself.
- the encryption required to safeguard sensitive data
- The resource management authorization checks and controls in place
These three together show how an API’s security is set up.
6. Competency Checks
The performance of the API is connected to proficiency testing. It gauges the degree of API action practicality as well as the capabilities it provides to developers.
7. Testing API documentation
Although frequently disregarded, documentation is essential for the development team. The steps for utilizing the API are detailed in the API document. The API documentation details every intricate necessity, technological need, and engineering requirement. The real goal of API documentation testing is to determine whether this document can direct the user to extract value from the API or not.
8. Negative Test Results
Negative testing determines whether your API is built to smoothly accept unexpected and ineffective user responses. What would you say to the user, or what message would you display, for instance, if they typed a number in a letter field? You might just display “Invalid response. Please type a letter.
Similar to that, every incorrect user input is covered by this test.
The Advantages Of API Testing In Development
The addition of API tests to your test-driven development process has a number of advantages. The complete product development process has been improved, which aids in providing the customer with high-quality services.
The API testing process is essential for a business for five key reasons. To comprehend these advantages, keep reading.
1. Superior
As a general guideline, you should create API tests throughout the development lifecycle, and these tests should each check the API in turn. If you don’t succeed in doing that, your only remaining alternative after finishing the development would be to create API tests. This implies that you would only design test cases that are both practical and biased. This is a problem because you are too concerned with how the API should work and not looking for other potential weaknesses.
You may get reliable and thorough API tests when you use Selenium to incorporate API testing throughout the development process. Long-term benefits are revealed by these tests, and they have an effect on the API’s general level of quality. Since you have decreased potential errors, API quality has increased.
2. Performance API tests assess an API’s functionality, compatibility with other APIs, and performance if you think about it. the following are the benefits of API testing:
- You can check the code to see if it contains any errors. It prevents us from later modifying a substantial portion of the code.
- Using automated or manual testing, you can reveal and locate coding errors.
- API testing analyzes the fundamental operations of your product and determines whether the usability meets user expectations.
- Can the API improve the features of a certain piece of software for which it was designed?
Testing your API is a crucial step in ensuring that your final product performs at its peak. The performance of your API is being enhanced directly or indirectly by all of the aforementioned techniques.
3. Quickness
There is no question that the use of agile methods is expanding right now. We can’t get the results we need by just running GUI tests. It also suggests that it is improper to start hiring testers after developers have concluded their work. That is clearly ineffective.
Since agile implementation and continuous testing are the norm today, we must test APIs. The entire application must be examined at the API level. Only if the testing team is permitted to work continuously in an agile manner will it be achievable.
To make sure that every development endpoint is covered and examined, you must begin your API testing early in the development cycle.
Connecting the dots reveals that API testing enables businesses to increase their agility. The dynamic nature of API testing lends the team superior management skills and improves the performance and quality of the final product.
Greater communication between testers, developers, and customers is a big advantage of an agile network.
4. Test Coverage
You must account for every potential software failure point while developing a high-quality product. It contributes to increasing customer trust and product dependability.
Fortunately, API testing throughout the development process can identify problems with the server, network, API, and services. Once the product is in deployment, these problems could be more difficult to address.
This is due to the fact that once your product enters the production stage, you are already in charge of writing additional tests for hypothetical use cases that may arise in the future. To finally give the product that the user is anticipating, you conduct tests during development and testing during production.
An agile environment is created by API testing to do that.
5. Examine Reuse
You will see that an API testing tool has the advantage of allowing you to conduct tests in various settings. These tests can be shared, duplicated, and reused. For instance, your QA team may create API tests for a staging environment that the DevOps team would then use in a live context. The API testing procedure is made more effective and high-quality by the analysis’s reusability.
What Are The Requirements For Including API Testing In Your Processes?
You could be wondering what you require for your product development to employ the API testing method. If yes, look through the information below:
Setting up and using a testing environment and the required API parameters is the first stage in the API testing process. It entails setting up the server and database in accordance with the needs of the application.
After creating this environment, make an API call to see whether anything is broken. If everything is in order, you can start the extensive API testing procedure.
Connecting the application’s data to the API testing after the aforementioned step allows you to confirm that the API behaves as expected and in accordance with the input specifications.learn selenium with python
Last but not least, you need to arrange some things, which you may do by doing the following:
- Target market and API client environment
- examining aspects
- testing issues
- You need to test your priorities.
- the scenario of typical conditions
- the scenario of unusual circumstances
- Criteria for success or failure, desired results, and other occurrences
- A different API interaction