30 Days of Automation Testing Day 9 - Find, use and share your thoughts on an API testing tool

30 Days of Testing
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#1

I’m not working with API’s in a capacity to test them but using them to integrate different tools to build a testing and CI stack. Must confess that I’m fairly new to the game of API’s and wish I had taken the plunge earlier :grinning:

The most obvious tool these days for anything API related is of course Postman, and sure several people will make a reference to this. So I will avoid going into detail on this one :zipper_mouth_face:

As my main interaction with API’s is not the actual testing but using it as a tool for integrating, one of the first ports of call is the API documentation which is provided. That is how I came across Swagger, a tool from SmartBear (that these are the sponsors of this challenge is completely coincidental).

Swagger can be used in different ways. From there own website:

  • Design
  • Build
  • Document
  • Test
  • Standardize

I really like the documentation feature. API providers that use Swagger can provide an interactive set of documentation where you can try the different API calls. An example of that can be found here.

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It really helped me finding the right API calls I needed for my integrations and quickly see the various outputs

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#2

I just discovered Postman from MoT slack last week. I got curious and posed a question to other members who have experience using the tool. Some tools that I didn’t know exists for API Testing except SoapUI.

I bookmarked this Youtube Step by Step Beginner Tutorial for Postman for future reference.

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#3

Though I wouldn’t consider myself as an expert in API testing. I have had opportunities to use Selenium, RestSharp and SOAP UI to test web services.

I quite enjoyed using SOAP UI tool as it is fairly easy to use and I was able to run the tests with assertions relatively quicker. Since SOAP UI is a custom built tool for exclusively testing API, there are quite a lot of cool features and it is easy to learn and use too. Automating web service tests using groovy or java on SOAP UI might require some ground work. However, if you want to quickly test a REST or SOAP service and run the assertions on the response XML/ JSON/ HTML, I would suggest you to use SOAP UI. You could end up testing them all within few minutes of just going through their documentation.

I’m preparing slides on API testing using SOAP UI. You can find them here: https://qakumar.wordpress.com/2018/07/10/day-9-find-use-and-share-your-thoughts-on-an-api-testing-tool/

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#4

I regularly test API. Because often there is no obvious error in the UI, then testing API helps us to find it, and often there is no graphical interface. I mostly use Swagger, Postman and Fidler. Sometimes I use SoapUI. Also we have regression autotests for API using C# and NUnit. Also we can use Jmeter not only for load testing, but for functional testing API too. So there are a lot of tools, you can choose your favorite. Good news: If you learn to work with one of them, then you will not have problems with others (exept C#_NUnit).

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#5

#Day 9 :API Testing Tool
I have used SOAP UI ,Postman and Katalon Studio for API Testing .Katalon Studio is one of the new and most fascinating test automation tools that I have experienced. Katalon goes beyond catering to Web/Mobile/Desktop and also Web Services.
To learn more about how to Automate using Katalon .Go to following link

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#6

I am gonna try Postman soon.

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#7

Day 9 - #30daytestingchallenge

Challenge - Find, use and share your thoughts on an API testing tool

One of API testing tools I’ve had the chance to work on is SOAPUI tool. Some notes about SOAPUI tool:

SOAP UI is an open source cross-platform API Testing tool
SOAPUI allows testers to execute automated functional, regression, compliance, and load tests on different Web API.
SOAPUI supports all the standard protocols and technologies to test all kinds of API’s.
SOAPUI interface is simple that enables both technical and non-technical users to use seamlessly.
See source https://www.guru99.com/soapui-tutorial.html for using tips in details

2 Likes
#8

OK, anyone else who has never done this before? Time to dive in.
Step 1: Find

I have at least heard of POSTman. So that’s great. OK. I’m going to download it…

OK Now I have POSTman.

Step 2: Use

I found How to write automated tests for APIs using Postman – Part 1

And it looks like they have an API just for folks like me who are learning: https://postman-echo.com
Thank goodness! (Note that in the article it is written as echo.getpostman.com. It has apparently changed).

Step 3: Share

So I’ve gone through part 1 of the tutorial and so far I think

  1. This was not that hard in theory
  2. This tutorial is out of date, and since things aren’t lining up, I’m a little less sure of what I’m looking at here.

Conceptually it makes sense. I’ll keep working on it over the next few days though and let what I’ve done sink in. If anybody knows of more tutorials, please let me know! The important thing for me is that I took the first step.

-Dave K

3 Likes
#9

I have 1 year experience with API testing - below are some tools could help you on this type of testing

1 Postman : Could support on both Manual, Automation testing
2 Rest Client: Just support on Manual testing
3 Soap UI: for bout Automation, Manual testing
4 Poster: Just support on Manual testing
5 Rest Assured: For automation testing
6 Swagger: For manual and writing requirement (.yaml )
7 Advance Rest Client: Manual
8 Fiddler: Manual
9 Katalon Studio: Produce from KMS Technology, also good choice for both API Automation and Web UI Automation

For me, i had been ever working on Postman , Katalon Studio, Swagger, Fiddler
Now, I am trying with Java language, and going to use Rest Assured for API Testing purpose

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#10

Hello,

I involve in to api automation testing a lot, some of my experience with api testing, my requirement of integrating it in to CI/CD pipeline, the tools I have tried so far(SoapUI,Rest-assured,Postman,Swagger) etc can be found in the below MoT post

~ Cheers

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#11

Catching up with our Twitter friends:

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30 Days of Automation in Testing Day 13: Share your Favourite Automation Tool and Why
#12

I have used and implemented REST API’s. Using Sahi automation tool I used built-in API to use REST API. In one of the Banking applications I needed to upload and verify the documents which was done by using REST API through Sahi test automation tool.

2 Likes
#13

I have 1-year experience with API testing, I work through some below tools:

  1. Postman:
  2. SOAP UI:
  3. Protractor
  4. KATALON
#14

So I have 3 that share equal status as favorites for no other reason than ease-of use and reliability:

  • KATALON - as others have stated, the ease with which this tool is used to create robust tests can’t be overstated. In conjunction with JSONSlurper, I’ve been able to successfully test POST / GET requests on every project I’ve been assigned to. I’ve also been able to test XML feeds and assert data. I mean … what more does one need than this amazing all-in-one tool.

  • FrisbyJS - Coming in at a close #2, this framework was introduced to me by a member of my Dev team. It took me a bit to context-switch from JAVA to JS, but in no time I was creating API tests to parse data and verify payloads. Once you get the hang of the syntax, this tool is super easy. Integrates seamlessly with CI pipelines

  • Postman - rounding out the trio of test tools, Postman is the fan favorite. Once I got over some roadblocks with regards to testing (namely with Authentication), I quickly learned how to compose a suite of tests that were reliable and easy to maintain. I recommend this tool as a must for those starting out but inexperienced with a script language.

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#15

API Testing is a subject I have explored a lot so I have used a lot of different tools but notable ones are:

  • Postman - A great UI and user experience that can enable you to quickly generate HTTP requests without having to worry about coding. Lots of great features that are free to use, and anyone with a basic understanding of HTTP can quickly create interesting API automation, whether it’s API flows or Data driven testing.
  • Code based - When I need to create an API checking framework I’m not necessarily bothered about which tools I use, but I am concerned with how I design my code to create robust checks that are easy to read and maintain. That’s why I have created a repository of different API checking frameworks, using different languages to demonstrate my approach. You can try out each one yourself and look at the example checks - https://github.com/mwinteringham/api-framework

Finally, I would kick myself if I didn’t mention my free Web Service that you can practise API testing against that can be found here: https://restful-booker.herokuapp.com/ It’s free for everyone to play with!

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