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APIAutomation

API Testing Tutorial: What Is API Automation Testing?

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SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) consists of the stages of software development processes. One of these stages is the testing stage. The testing stage is important between the software development process and the transition to the production environment. Today, many tests of applications developed by software teams, such as UI testing, API automation testing, and more, are performed at this stage. In particular, API testing automation is the most critical step of the testing phase.

The API testing automation step is a process that eliminates the margin of error in test processes, making it a vital component of software development. Software teams can prevent overlooked and forgotten cases by creating automated API testing. In this article, we will prepare a guide about API testing automation and find answers to many vital questions that arise when implementing this process.

What Is API Testing Automation?

API testing automation is the automation and testing of API tests in the software development process. As a result, it replaces the manual testing process for software teams, allowing them to check that the APIs they develop are working correctly. Moreover, this automated approach enables the automatic running of necessary test scenarios for API testing, performing load testing, and even restarting the process as needed.

Why Is API Test Automation Important?

API automation tests are at the center of the software development life cycle and act as a bridge. APIs are the doors an application opens to the outside and are essential to applications. For this reason, it is very important that APIs work correctly. API automation tests are used to check that APIs are working correctly. Moreover, it offers a fast, efficient, and reliable testing process. Some advantages of API automation tests are as follows:

Time savings: API automation tests help automate the testing process. Thus, it saves time in the software development process, and it also adds dynamism to developers and test teams.

Error detection: API automation tests are an effective way to accelerate the detection of errors, enabling software teams to identify and fix issues before they become more significant problems. Additionally, running test cases repeatedly incurs no cost and allows quick error fixing and retesting.

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) integration: Incorporating API automation tests into a pipeline in CI/CD processes is easy. Thus, checking the APIs constantly and detecting and correcting errors faster is possible.

Automated Tests vs. Manual Tests

Automation and manual testing have different strengths and areas of use. To summarize;

  • Automation testing is fast, while manual testing is slower.
  • With automation tests, the output of each test is automatically created, and regular reports can be easily kept. In manual testing, the report must be recorded by the person performing the test.
  • Although the testing tools used in automation tests have license and maintenance costs, only the tester employee costs in manual testing.
  • Automation tests are suitable for repetitive tests and increase productivity. In contrast, manual tests are an unnecessary waste of work for repetitive tests.
  • With the automation test, only the coded part is checked; it is more comprehensive as even the smallest detail can be tested with manual testing.
  • User-induced errors are not seen in automation testing; human-induced errors can be seen in manual tests, and repeating the same test may not be possible.

Best Practices of API Automation Testing

There are some general best practices for successful API automation tests:

Creation of API test cases: To ensure accuracy, scenarios must remain current with each new development. Moreover, relevant test categories should group test scenarios.

Choosing tests to automate: Test teams must automate only simple, straightforward tests. Complex tests can produce false positives. So this can lead to misunderstandings and time costs in developer teams.

Regular and frequent testing: Regular testing of APIs makes it easier to detect potential bugs. The aim is to provide visitors with zero errors in the production environment through this approach.

API security tests: APIs are the gateways to the outside, and malicious people can scan these APIs for vulnerabilities. Therefore, performing security tests during API tests is a best practice.

Reporting: The logs and results obtained from API testing and automation provide a lot of information. It is necessary to analyze this information further and take necessary action. Therefore, the results of API testing automation must be reported.

What Are API Test Automation Tools?

In software development processes, numerous testing tools are currently in use, especially in the stages of performing API automation tests. In this section, we will see the most popular API automation testing tools in the market.

Postman

home page of the postman api automation testing

Postman is a popular tool for testing, documenting, and even sharing APIs. It is quite simple to use, and it supports REST API and GraphQL. Postman offers online use from desktop and browser. So, it is the most common testing tool to automate API testing.

Discover how easy it is to perform API testing with Postman.

REST-assured

home page of the rest-assured

REST-assured is a popular open-source API testing tool. This tool provides users with a very easy way to send requests to RESTful APIs over HTTP protocol and validate responses.

It also supports multiple HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) and each HTTP status code (200, 404, 500, etc.)

SoapUI

home page of the soapui

SoapUI is a testing tool that helps test SOAP and RESTful APIs. It allows users to create test cases and tests tab to assist with API testing processes. Its interface and usage are quite simple and provide detailed explanations in error situations.

Conclusion

In summary, API automation testing provides the fastest detection of error situations in software development processes. Thanks to its automatic operation, it provides efficiency to businesses and catches errors that people may overlook. In addition, thanks to many API automation testing tools today, some of which we have mentioned in this article, it is now easier and faster to perform automated API testing.

Find free APIs for API automation testing on today’s most popular API marketplace.

FAQs

Q: What Are the Benefits of API (Application Programming Interface) Tests?

A: API tests are an important part of the development process. Some of the benefits of API testing are as follows:

  • Verifying functionality
  • Making debugging easier
  • Increasing reliability
  • Verifying data integrity
  • Making automation easy

Q: How to Do API Testing Automation?

A: API testing tool is generally used during these routes. An example API testing automation process is as follows:

  • Read the API documentation
  • Prepare test cases
  • Automate test cases
  • Run the tests
  • Manage errors
  • Document test results

Q: What Is Automation Testing?

A: Test automation is the process that involves using an automated testing tool for efficient software testing. It offers the ability to run tests, manage test data, and leverage results to develop better software. It also speeds up the delivery of a software application to the production environment.

Q: Why Is API Automation Testing Required?

A: API automation testing is not required, but it is more useful and effective than manual testing. It eliminates time-consuming and tedious work, high labor costs, and the need to test on multiple devices and systems. Additionally, it allows businesses to save money and time.

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