Roundtable_-_API_Research__Testing_Tools.pdf
- 1. All About API Research & Testing Tools Jim Medlock February 2024
- 2. What is an API? You implement this in a private API Someone else does this in a public API You create this for any API API’s are a way to retrieve info from a server in a standard fashion
- 3. API Types: REST Queries are rigid - requests & payloads are defined by the server More info
- 4. API Types: GraphQL Queries are flexible - requests & payloads are defined by the client ● Fewer server requests than REST to retrieve information ● But, more complex than REST ● More info
- 5. API Types: REST vs. GraphQL GraphQL REST Architecture Client-driven Server-driven Organization Schema & strong typing Endpoints Operations Query/Mutation/Subscription CRUD Data Fetching Specific data with single API call Fixed data w/multiple API calls Community Growing Mega-huge Performance Fast Dependent on no. calls Development Rapid Slower Learning Curve Difficult Easy Self-Documenting Yes No Stability Less error prone, auto validation & type checking Better choice for queries w/complex business logic Use Cases Multiple microservices, mobile apps Simple apps, resource-driven apps
- 6. Why are tools necessary? 1. Verify the API satisfies your requirements 2. Verify the API matches its documentation 3. Test your access strategy 4. Test an API you’ve created 5. Identify edge cases 6. Identify rate limit boundaries 7. Identify performance options & optimizations
- 7. Case Study ● Problem: An open source team needs to track team engagement to reward frequent contributors ● Solution: Use the GitHub REST API to retrieve commit metrics on the team repo so they can be tallied and periodically updated in a dashboard
- 8. CLI → curl + jq ● curl ○ Retrieve data from a website ○ Available on MacOS, Linux, Windows ○ Website ● jq ○ Interactively navigate JSON ○ Available on MacOS, Linux, Windows ○ Website
- 9. Usage Strategy: curl + jq ● Extract GitHub commits using curl & save to a local file ● Feed this file to jq for analysis
- 10. Usage Strategy: curl + jq ● Accumulate jq commands in a test files
- 11. Test Drive - curl & jq ● Demo → Repo
- 12. WYSIWYG → Postman ● A platform for building and using APIs ● Helps developers build and test APIs ● Supports multiple protocols - HTTP, REST, SOAP, GraphQL, and WebSockets ● Core features - design, documentation, testing, mock servers, monitoring, AI Visualization ● Affordable - Core features free for up to 3 users ● Well documented ● Another option is Insomnia
- 13. Test Drive - Postman ● Demo → Repo
- 14. Questions? Additional Resources ● Public Graphql API’s for demo/reference ● Apollo Client Devtools & other ways to view/run your graphql queries. ● A list of public API's for demo/reference: