book

Testing Web APIs

Name: Testing Web APIs
Author: Mark Winteringham
ISBN: 9781617299537

by Mark Winteringham

November 2022

Intermediate to advanced

264 pages

7h 31m

English

Manning Publications

Audiobook available

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inside front cover
Testing Web APIs
Copyright
dedication
contents
front matter
forewordprefaceacknowledgmentsabout this bookWho should read this bookHow this book is organized: A road mapPrerequisitesAbout the codeliveBook discussion forumabout the authorabout the cover illustration
Part 1 The value of web API testing
1 Why and how we test web APIs
1.1 What’s going on in your web APIs?1.1.1 Complexity within web APIs1.1.2 Complexity across many web APIs1.2 How does testing help us?1.2.1 Imagination1.2.2 Implementation1.2.3 The value of testing1.2.4 Being strategic with API testingSummary
2 Beginning our testing journey
2.1 Introducing our product2.1.1 Introducing our sandbox API2.2 Familiarizing ourselves with restful-booker-platform2.2.1 Researching the product2.2.2 Researching beyond the product2.3 Capturing our understanding2.3.1 The power of models2.3.2 Building our own models2.4 Congratulations—you’re testing!Summary
3 Quality and risk
3.1 Defining quality3.1.1 Quality characteristics3.1.2 Getting to know our users3.1.3 Setting quality goals for our strategy3.2 Identify risks to quality3.2.1 Learning to identify risk3.2.2 Headline game3.2.3 Oblique testing3.2.4 RiskStorming3.3 A strategy’s first steps3.3.1 Picking the right approach for testing a riskSummary

Part 2 Beginning our test strategy
4 Testing API designs
4.1 How do we test API designs?4.1.1 Tools for questioning4.1.2 Expanding your API design-testing techniques and tools4.2 Using API documentation tools to test designs4.2.1 Documenting APIs with Swagger/OpenAPI 34.2.2 Beyond documentation4.3 Encouraging teams to test API designs4.3.1 Getting buy-in and initiating opportunities to test API designs4.3.2 Taking advantage of existing sessions4.3.3 Establishing your own sessions4.4 Testing API designs as part of a testing strategySummary
5 Exploratory testing APIs
5.1 The value of exploratory testing5.1.1 The testing cycle in exploratory testing5.2 Planning to explore5.2.1 Generating charters5.2.2 Charters and exploratory testing sessions5.2.3 Organizing our exploratory testing5.3 Exploratory testing: A case study5.3.1 Beginning the session5.3.2 Knowing when something isn’t right5.3.3 Coming up with ideas for testing5.3.4 Using tools5.3.5 Note-taking5.3.6 Knowing when to stop5.3.7 Running your own exploratory testing session5.4 Sharing your discoveries5.5 Exploratory testing as part of a strategySummary
6 Automating web API tests
6.1 Getting value from automation6.1.1 The illusion of automation6.1.2 Automation as change detection6.1.3 Letting risk be our guide6.2 Setting up a Web API automation tool6.2.1 Dependencies6.2.2 Structuring our framework6.3 Creating automated API checks6.3.1 Automated check 1: A GET request6.3.2 Automated check 2: A POST request6.3.3 Automated check 3: Combining requests6.3.4 Running your automated tests as integration tests6.4 Utilizing automation in our strategySummary
7 Establishing and implementing a testing strategy
7.1 Establishing a strategy for our context7.1.1 Identifying what’s a priority7.1.2 Different strategies for different contexts7.2 Turning a testing strategy into a testing plan7.2.1 Understanding your context’s testability7.2.2 Organizing and documenting a plan7.2.3 Executing and reflecting on a plan7.2.4 Evolving our strategySummary
Part 3 Expanding our test strategy
8 Advanced web API automation
8.1 Acceptance test-driven development8.1.1 Setting up an automated acceptance testing framework8.1.2 Creating our failing automated check8.1.3 Getting our automated check to pass8.1.4 Beware of traps8.2 Web API mocking8.2.1 Getting set up8.2.2 Building our mocked check8.3 Running as part of a pipeline8.3.1 Integrated with codebase8.3.2 Separate to codebaseSummary
9 Contract testing
9.1 What contract testing is and how can it help9.2 Setting up a contract testing framework9.2.1 Introducing Pact9.3 Building a consumer contract test9.3.1 Adding Pact to our class9.3.2 Building the consumer check9.3.3 Setting up and publishing to a Pact Broker9.4 Building a provider contract test9.4.1 Building the provider contract test9.4.2 Testing out a change9.5 Contract testing as part of a testing strategySummary
10 Performance testing
10.1 Planning a performance test10.1.1 Types of performance tests10.1.2 Types of measurements for performance tests10.1.3 Establishing performance testing goals and key performance indicators (KPIs)10.1.4 Creating user flows10.2 Implementing a performance test10.2.1 Setting our performance testing tool10.2.2 Building our performance test script10.3 Executing and measuring a performance test10.3.1 Preparing and executing our performance test10.3.2 Analyzing results10.4 Setting performance testing expectationsSummary
11 Security testing
11.1 Working with threat models11.1.1 Creating a model11.1.2 Discovering threats with STRIDE11.1.3 Creating threat trees11.1.4 Mitigating threats11.2 Applying a security mindset to our testing11.2.1 Security testing in testing API design sessions11.2.2 Exploratory security testing11.2.3 Automation and security testing11.3 Security testing as part of a strategySummary
12 Testing in production
12.1 Planning out testing in production12.1.1 What to track12.1.2 Service-level objectives12.1.3 Service-level agreements12.1.4 Service-level indicators12.1.5 What to save12.2 Setting up testing in production12.2.1 Setting up a Honeycomb account12.2.2 Adding Honeycomb to APIs12.2.3 Advanced querying12.2.4 Building SLO triggers12.3 Taking testing in production further12.3.1 Testing with synthetic users12.3.2 Testing hypotheses12.4 Expanding your strategy by testing in productionSummary
Appendix A. Installing the sandbox API platform
A.1 Setting up restful-booker-platform
index
inside back cover

Content preview from Testing Web APIs

12 Testing in production

This chapter covers

What testing in production is
The value of testing in production as part of a testing strategy
How to identify what to track in production
Setting up testing in production
Alternative ways to leverage testing in production

When Eric Ries wrote The Lean Startup in 2011, the strategy and mindset he proposed influenced various industries, including software development. The center of Eric’s thesis is that we want to ensure that we’re delivering something of quality with as minimal waste as possible. As he puts it in a blog post on linkedin.com (http://mng.bz/xMO8),

“The problem is that quality is really in the eye of the beholder. For a for-profit company, quality is defined by what the customer wants. ...

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Testing Web APIs

by Mark Winteringham

12 Testing in production

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