Automating Rest API's using Java and Cucumber

What is Rest?

Representational State Transfer in short-form as REST defines a set of constraints for creating Web Services. Rest API is the most-used web service technology nowadays, and it’s an almost meaningless description. A REST API is a way to communicate for two computer systems over HTTP, which is similar to web browsers and servers.

What is BDD?

BDD stands for Behavior Driven Development (BDD). Nowadays, many Organizations, to get a better advantage of testing, are taking a step forward.

• BDD allows us to create test scripts from both the developer’s and the customer’s perspective.
• BDD uses human-readable descriptions of software user requirements as the basis for software tests

What is Cucumber?

A cucumber is an approach that supports BDD. It allows you to write tests that anyone can understand, irrespective of their technical knowledge. In BDD, users (business analysts, product owners, developers, etc…). We need to first write scenarios or acceptance tests that describe the system’s behavior from the customer’s point of view for review and sign-off by the product owners before developers start actual development.

#cucumber #rest api #java #api

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What is REST API? An Overview | Liquid Web

What is REST?

The REST acronym is defined as a “REpresentational State Transfer” and is designed to take advantage of existing HTTP protocols when used for Web APIs. It is very flexible in that it is not tied to resources or methods and has the ability to handle different calls and data formats. Because REST API is not constrained to an XML format like SOAP, it can return multiple other formats depending on what is needed. If a service adheres to this style, it is considered a “RESTful” application. REST allows components to access and manage functions within another application.

REST was initially defined in a dissertation by Roy Fielding’s twenty years ago. He proposed these standards as an alternative to SOAP (The Simple Object Access Protocol is a simple standard for accessing objects and exchanging structured messages within a distributed computing environment). REST (or RESTful) defines the general rules used to regulate the interactions between web apps utilizing the HTTP protocol for CRUD (create, retrieve, update, delete) operations.

What is an API?

An API (or Application Programming Interface) provides a method of interaction between two systems.

What is a RESTful API?

A RESTful API (or application program interface) uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE data following the REST standards. This allows two pieces of software to communicate with each other. In essence, REST API is a set of remote calls using standard methods to return data in a specific format.

The systems that interact in this manner can be very different. Each app may use a unique programming language, operating system, database, etc. So, how do we create a system that can easily communicate and understand other apps?? This is where the Rest API is used as an interaction system.

When using a RESTful API, we should determine in advance what resources we want to expose to the outside world. Typically, the RESTful API service is implemented, keeping the following ideas in mind:

• Format: There should be no restrictions on the data exchange format
• Implementation: REST is based entirely on HTTP
• Service Definition: Because REST is very flexible, API can be modified to ensure the application understands the request/response format.
• The RESTful API focuses on resources and how efficiently you perform operations with it using HTTP.

The features of the REST API design style state:

• Each entity must have a unique identifier.
• Standard methods should be used to read and modify data.
• It should provide support for different types of resources.
• The interactions should be stateless.

For REST to fit this model, we must adhere to the following rules:

• Client-Server Architecture: The interface is separate from the server-side data repository. This affords flexibility and the development of components independently of each other.
• Detachment: The client connections are not stored on the server between requests.
• Cacheability: It must be explicitly stated whether the client can store responses.
• Multi-level: The API should work whether it interacts directly with a server or through an additional layer, like a load balancer.

#tutorials #api #application #application programming interface #crud #http #json #programming #protocols #representational state transfer #rest #rest api #rest api graphql #rest api json #rest api xml #restful #soap #xml #yaml

An API-First Approach For Designing Restful APIs | Hacker Noon

I’ve been working with Restful APIs for some time now and one thing that I love to do is to talk about APIs.

So, today I will show you how to build an API using the API-First approach and Design First with OpenAPI Specification.

First thing first, if you don’t know what’s an API-First approach means, it would be nice you stop reading this and check the blog post that I wrote to the Farfetchs blog where I explain everything that you need to know to start an API using API-First.

Preparing the ground

Before you get your hands dirty, let’s prepare the ground and understand the use case that will be developed.

Tools

If you desire to reproduce the examples that will be shown here, you will need some of those items below.

• NodeJS
• OpenAPI Specification
• Text Editor (I’ll use VSCode)
• Command Line

Use Case

To keep easy to understand, let’s use the Todo List App, it is a very common concept beyond the software development community.

#api #rest-api #openai #api-first-development #api-design #apis #restful-apis #restful-api

How to Validate an Email Address in Java

Email is one of the most universal tools for sharing and receiving information across the globe, with users able to connect with others online with almost no compatibility or access issues. Using this tool, information can be instantly and securely sent to partners on the other side of the world, and personal information can be verified without divulging sensitive data about a user.

Along with this widespread use, however, comes key security measures that must take place in order to ensure the safety of your organization and data. This is particularly the case when receiving email information from previously unknown sources. These risks can include phishing attempts, malware, and other threats that can cause a negative impact to your business. Furthermore, when receiving an email address via account forms and user sign up information, you need to check that the information you are given is not only correct and real, but also that it does not lead to any malicious sources that could harm your organizational security.

The following APIs will allow you to instantly verify and validate an input email address without sending any kind of notification to the email user. This will help protect your organization in the event of any threats. The goal of this tutorial is to provide you with the tools to protect your organization’s information while providing a way to verify new accounts and user information.

This will be done through three separate functions. The first will analyze the validity of an email address’ syntax. The second will check for the address’ servers, and the third performs a full email address validation including returning the results for the previous two functions.

#java #api #java api #api access keys #api tutorial #email verification #email validation #java api tutorials #java apis #api tutorials

How to Convert ODT Files to PDF in Java

Convert Office Open Document Text File (ODT) to standard PDF, DOCX, PNG, and JPG using Java.

Microsoft has maintained its position in the spotlight for formatted document creation and editing for good reason. Its extreme ease of use and lack of a learning curve has transformed the Microsoft Office Suite into a household name for most computer users in the United States as well as globally. This is propagated further through its almost ubiquitous use in education, as students are raised and taught using these applications.

The issue that arises with these programs, however, is their operation costs. For Apple and other non-Windows-based Operating Systems, the purchasing fees for Office can be steep. This, then, creates a paywall separating potential users from programs to which they are already accustomed. As an answer this problem, Microsoft created the OpenOffice application, which is a free, opensource version of the classic Office Suite. Within this application, you can perform almost all of the same functions as Office Suite, including creating text documents like one would with Microsoft Word. These text documents can be made using OpenOffice Writer, and are formatted using the .ODT file type. While this file type can be opened and saved using OpenOffice Writer and Word, in order to convert the file to a different format such as PDF you will need to run it through a conversion process.

The following APIs will allow you to convert your ODT documents to PDF, DOCX, PNG, and JPG for use in whatever way you need. The goal of this tutorial is to provide a simple and efficient means for instantly converting your ODT files without needing to find or download any extraneous programming.

#java #tutorial #api #pdf #java api #pdf converter #api access keys #api tutorial #java api tutorials #java apis

A Simple Guide to Planning API Roadmaps

APIs - the current “big thing” - offer the opportunity for modern organizations to unlock new and lucrative business models. The article below covers some tips on how to spin the API flywheel and leverage its possibilities.

In the API economy, a successful service can gain popularity and be utilized in ways unpredicted and often inconceivable by its original owners. The very flexible nature of the technology opens many doors, including business collaborations, reuse in third-party products or even conquering hardware barriers by reaching a spectrum of devices.

What to consider

Taking the builder’s perspective

Important note: Most of the time API consumers are not the end-users but rather the app developers. Any new venture ought to be supported with excellent learning resources and descriptive documentation. These things combined will ensure a top-notch developer experience and encourage adoption of your product, increasing its visibility in the market.

More than the revenue

While in the simplest scenario, the most popular API business model is revenue via service charges, there are several other goals:

• **Growth **- APIs are finely-grained and, usually, short-term projects that bring lots of value. Decoupling sectors of your business and encapsulating them in the form of concise, dedicated APIs enable teams to work in parallel, encouraging company growth.
• **Reach **- By building APIs for wide use, the organization can extend its group of recipients and open new opportunities to cooperate with other players in the market and discover new collaborations.
• **Compliance **- Products and services implemented as an API ecosystem can freely exchange data between one another, whether they are internal or external.
• **Insight **- The rate of use of APIs will surely give an idea of what consumers value the most. Also, implementing APIs alone helps to clarify what pieces of your business are crucial. This helps to revise implementation details and encourages reflection of your current technological solutions.

#api #api-development #api-integration #restful-api #api-based-business-model #api-first-development #automation #rest-api