1566360516
Newman, the CLI version of Postman, allows you to take it to the next level and transform a collection into a suite of automated end-to-end tests. This suite will run then in your CI tool of choice. In this article I will explore the benefits of doing so and show you how to set it up.
Testing nomenclature is a tricky thing. Keeping the testing pyramid in mind, we can picture them as very high level tests. These tests confirm that a particular REST API works as intended, treating the internals as a black box. We don’t involve any UI in the process, which helps reduce the flakiness.
*by geek & poke / *CC BY
Flaky tests are extremely annoying, as every developer has experienced at some point. Instead of banging our head against the wall trying to fix the unfixable, we can mitigate the problem by using lower level tests.
There are two different scenarios I’d like to cover:
The first is testing your own REST APIs. These tests add an extra layer of confidence. Surely, you are using a healthy mix of different tests (unit, integration, functional, …). End-to-end tests can be the final confirmation that everything looks fine.
The second case is testing APIs that you don’t control. In my last projects most of the data we consumed came from APIs served by other teams. More than once I spent half a day debugging an error in my app, only to notice that a downstream API was borked all along. Automated tests cover that integration, and help isolate issues.
A collection of tests that are being regularly executed serve as the best documentation for an API. Have you searched for something in any corporate wiki lately? If you find anything at all you should be happy. It will be probably incomplete. Or just flat out wrong. Fun times.
In both cases, these tests can morph from a gateway in the building process to an active monitoring tool. By constantly running them, you make sure that the API is still behaving as you expect. Otherwise, the right alarms will be raised. You don’t want to realize something is wrong just when a customer complains.
Great question, if I may say so myself. CDCs are an excellent way to ensure that an API conforms to what a client expects from it. If you can set them up properly, they will replace end-to-end tests almost completely. Remember, keep pushing the tests to a lower level whenever you can.
They don’t work in every situation, though. If you don’t control both the provider and the consumer, you have to rely on another party. If they don’t fulfill their part of the contract the tests will be useless. Some teams are just not in the position of continuously running tests against a contract. Running your own tests could be your best bet.
Anyways, having laid out the rationale, it’s time for some code.
We are defining a number of calls that will be executed sequentially inside our CI. Each call executes a request against the API. Then it runs some tests to check that the request was successful, checking the status code and the body as well.
In order to create the collection, I tend to use the Postman app. I like to extract things like URLs and parameters to an environment. Then configuring it becomes easier, and you don’t have any sensitive information in the collection itself. Your history is a convenient place to start building this collection.
Once you are satisfied with the collection, you can export it as a JSON file. That file can be committed in source control to serve as a base for the pipeline that will run the tests. There is a Pro and Enterprise version that helps managing collections, which I haven’t really tried. Still, a good ol’ git
repository is more than enough to get rolling.
Until now we have been using regular Postman and nothing else. Now it’s the time for newman to shine. What am I talking about, anyways? I’ll quote the official docs directly:
Newman is a command line Collection Runner for Postman. It allows you to run and test a Postman Collection directly from the command line.
Good that we clarified that! It is installed as a npm package, which can result in apackage.json
as simple as this:
{
"name": "postman-utils",
"version": "0.0.1",
"private": true,
"description": "Postman utilities",
"scripts": {
"newman": "node_modules/.bin/newman run"
},
"dependencies": {
"newman": "^4.4.1"
}
}
as mentioned before, you don’t want to hardcode variables like URLs, parameters or, God forbid, passwords in that collection. It’s not flexible, and it’s not safe. Instead, I like to use a configuration file which includes all these values. But if we want to commit that file, we still need to figure out a way to avoid putting secrets in there. I use it as a template and replace values at runtime with envsubst. The configuration file looks like this
{ "id": "425cf4df-d994-4d91-9efb-41eba1ead456", "name": "echo", "values": [ { "key": "host", "value": "${HOST}", "enabled": true } ] }
You can orchestrate this with a simple bash script. The script injects the variables into the template, runs newman, and deletes the files to avoid leaks. It goes very well with gopass, where you can safely store your secrets and fetch them through the script.
setup-newman() {
settings=/tmp/settings.json.$$
result=/tmp/variables.json.$$
# shellcheck disable=SC2064
trap "rm -f \"$settings\" \"$result\"" EXIT
}
run-newman() {
local service=${1?You need to provide the service to check}
envsubst < "$service.environment.json.template" > "$settings"
npx newman run "$service.json" \
-e "${settings}" \
--export-environment "${result}"
}
that helper can be called with the collection that you want to test. Exported variables will be picked by envsubst
. npx gives us a little bit more of flexibility finding the newman
binary, in case you don’t want to use a package.json
but have it globally installed.
goal_check-service() {
setup
export SERVICE_PASSWORD=${SERVICE_PASSWORD:-$(gopass store/service/password)}
run_newman service
}
Doing a request is but the first step. Remember, we aim to build a test suite. We have a convenient test tab in Postman that we can use to write our tests.
Our tests are written in JavaScript, using Chai. Let’s say I want to test that my call delivered a list of results, I could do it like this:
var getResults = function() {
var jsonData = pm.response.json();
return jsonData['results'];
};
pm.test("Request was successful", function () {
pm.response.to.have.status(200);
});
pm.test("There are results", function () {
pm.expect(getResults().length).to.be.above(0);
});
More details can be found here
All the calls in a collection get executed sequentially. This offers us the opportunity to test whole flows instead of just single calls. One such a flow for a /posts
resource is:
posts
post
in the listpost
We’ll build a suite of parametrized tests that will continue to work over time, not just the first time that you ran it. An important part of this is modifying the environment in a request. That is our way of transmitting parameters between requests. Let’s say our first request was successful, as corroborated by our tests. Then we store the id on a variable that will be used to fetch a particular entity.
// First result in the list
var post = getResults()[0];
// Pass variables to other stages
pm.environment.set("id", post.id)
The next request can use that parameter as any that we set manually.
Flows might need also need some logic to skip certain requests. Let’s say you have a request that is creating a new entity through a POST
. You want to have that request, but you may not want to run it on every commit. Maybe you just want do it once per day. In that case, we’ll skip the test based on a certain variable.
// Do not run create request in sequence, unless executeCreate is set to true
if(!pm.environment.get("executeCreate")) {
postman.setNextRequest('Get other posts')
}
The variable goes into the configuration file, and is set to a environment variable that gets injected through our script, as I showed above.
At this point you should have a collection that runs locally. Running this once is fine, but why not run it for every commit? Or maybe every hour, if you want to check an API that you don’t control?
Your CI pipeline is a perfect place to do this. I’m going to use CircleCI for my example, but any CI will do. I run the tests inside a docker image that I built which includes all the required dependencies. There is an official Docker image provided by Postman already. However, it does not contain envsubst
and it uses an older NodeJS version.
The helper script that we built in the step before will work without any changes inside CircleCI. We just have to provide the required secrets as variables. This is the job:
healthcheck:
docker:
- image: sirech/newman-executor:12.6
steps:
- checkout
- run: ./go test-e2e
which will produce a report similar to this:
Many frameworks provide their own way of running tests against a running API. In Spring Boot, for instance, you can use MockMvc to test controllers. You can use both, in my view. First the native tests, so to speak, and then layer Postman Tests on top.
And let’s not forget about good ol’ curl. I had a huge collection of curl commands with which I tested an API that was needed for my last project. However, managing that becomes more and more tedious over time. If you want to use send complex requests, like certificates or cookies, Postman is way more convenient to use. Moreover, you can use JavaScript instead of bash, which can make things a bit easier to read and maintain.
This is already quite a lot and it’s just the beginning. Anything that you do with an API you can also automate. For instance, in my previous project we had a collection that ran an OAuth Flow. That got us a token that we could use to make requests against an authorized endpoint.
Here is a repository for a Kotlin application that runs a Postman collection as an e2e test. It can serve as a starter kit to get going with high quality End-to-End API Tests.
☞ JavaScript and Node.js Testing Best Practices
☞ Server Side Pagination with Vue.js and Node
☞ Build a Command-Line Application with Node.js
☞ Docker & Nodejs: Aplicación de Nodejs en Docker Container
☞ Node.js file streams explained!
☞ 20. Node.js Lessons. Data Streams in Node.JS, fs.ReadStream
☞ How to create your first program with the Node.js runtime
☞ How to Build Simple Authentication in Express
Newman, the CLI version of Postman, allows you to take it to the next level and transform a collection into a suite of automated end-to-end tests. This suite will run then in your CI tool of choice. In this article I will explore the benefits of doing so and show you how to set it up.
Testing nomenclature is a tricky thing. Keeping the testing pyramid in mind, we can picture them as very high level tests. These tests confirm that a particular REST API works as intended, treating the internals as a black box. We don’t involve any UI in the process, which helps reduce the flakiness.
*by geek & poke / *CC BY
Flaky tests are extremely annoying, as every developer has experienced at some point. Instead of banging our head against the wall trying to fix the unfixable, we can mitigate the problem by using lower level tests.
There are two different scenarios I’d like to cover:
The first is testing your own REST APIs. These tests add an extra layer of confidence. Surely, you are using a healthy mix of different tests (unit, integration, functional, …). End-to-end tests can be the final confirmation that everything looks fine.
The second case is testing APIs that you don’t control. In my last projects most of the data we consumed came from APIs served by other teams. More than once I spent half a day debugging an error in my app, only to notice that a downstream API was borked all along. Automated tests cover that integration, and help isolate issues.
A collection of tests that are being regularly executed serve as the best documentation for an API. Have you searched for something in any corporate wiki lately? If you find anything at all you should be happy. It will be probably incomplete. Or just flat out wrong. Fun times.
In both cases, these tests can morph from a gateway in the building process to an active monitoring tool. By constantly running them, you make sure that the API is still behaving as you expect. Otherwise, the right alarms will be raised. You don’t want to realize something is wrong just when a customer complains.
Great question, if I may say so myself. CDCs are an excellent way to ensure that an API conforms to what a client expects from it. If you can set them up properly, they will replace end-to-end tests almost completely. Remember, keep pushing the tests to a lower level whenever you can.
They don’t work in every situation, though. If you don’t control both the provider and the consumer, you have to rely on another party. If they don’t fulfill their part of the contract the tests will be useless. Some teams are just not in the position of continuously running tests against a contract. Running your own tests could be your best bet.
Anyways, having laid out the rationale, it’s time for some code.
We are defining a number of calls that will be executed sequentially inside our CI. Each call executes a request against the API. Then it runs some tests to check that the request was successful, checking the status code and the body as well.
In order to create the collection, I tend to use the Postman app. I like to extract things like URLs and parameters to an environment. Then configuring it becomes easier, and you don’t have any sensitive information in the collection itself. Your history is a convenient place to start building this collection.
Once you are satisfied with the collection, you can export it as a JSON file. That file can be committed in source control to serve as a base for the pipeline that will run the tests. There is a Pro and Enterprise version that helps managing collections, which I haven’t really tried. Still, a good ol’ git
repository is more than enough to get rolling.
Until now we have been using regular Postman and nothing else. Now it’s the time for newman to shine. What am I talking about, anyways? I’ll quote the official docs directly:
Newman is a command line Collection Runner for Postman. It allows you to run and test a Postman Collection directly from the command line.
Good that we clarified that! It is installed as a npm package, which can result in apackage.json
as simple as this:
{
"name": "postman-utils",
"version": "0.0.1",
"private": true,
"description": "Postman utilities",
"scripts": {
"newman": "node_modules/.bin/newman run"
},
"dependencies": {
"newman": "^4.4.1"
}
}
as mentioned before, you don’t want to hardcode variables like URLs, parameters or, God forbid, passwords in that collection. It’s not flexible, and it’s not safe. Instead, I like to use a configuration file which includes all these values. But if we want to commit that file, we still need to figure out a way to avoid putting secrets in there. I use it as a template and replace values at runtime with envsubst. The configuration file looks like this
{ "id": "425cf4df-d994-4d91-9efb-41eba1ead456", "name": "echo", "values": [ { "key": "host", "value": "${HOST}", "enabled": true } ] }
You can orchestrate this with a simple bash script. The script injects the variables into the template, runs newman, and deletes the files to avoid leaks. It goes very well with gopass, where you can safely store your secrets and fetch them through the script.
setup-newman() {
settings=/tmp/settings.json.$$
result=/tmp/variables.json.$$
# shellcheck disable=SC2064
trap "rm -f \"$settings\" \"$result\"" EXIT
}
run-newman() {
local service=${1?You need to provide the service to check}
envsubst < "$service.environment.json.template" > "$settings"
npx newman run "$service.json" \
-e "${settings}" \
--export-environment "${result}"
}
that helper can be called with the collection that you want to test. Exported variables will be picked by envsubst
. npx gives us a little bit more of flexibility finding the newman
binary, in case you don’t want to use a package.json
but have it globally installed.
goal_check-service() {
setup
export SERVICE_PASSWORD=${SERVICE_PASSWORD:-$(gopass store/service/password)}
run_newman service
}
Doing a request is but the first step. Remember, we aim to build a test suite. We have a convenient test tab in Postman that we can use to write our tests.
Our tests are written in JavaScript, using Chai. Let’s say I want to test that my call delivered a list of results, I could do it like this:
var getResults = function() {
var jsonData = pm.response.json();
return jsonData['results'];
};
pm.test("Request was successful", function () {
pm.response.to.have.status(200);
});
pm.test("There are results", function () {
pm.expect(getResults().length).to.be.above(0);
});
More details can be found here
All the calls in a collection get executed sequentially. This offers us the opportunity to test whole flows instead of just single calls. One such a flow for a /posts
resource is:
posts
post
in the listpost
We’ll build a suite of parametrized tests that will continue to work over time, not just the first time that you ran it. An important part of this is modifying the environment in a request. That is our way of transmitting parameters between requests. Let’s say our first request was successful, as corroborated by our tests. Then we store the id on a variable that will be used to fetch a particular entity.
// First result in the list
var post = getResults()[0];
// Pass variables to other stages
pm.environment.set("id", post.id)
The next request can use that parameter as any that we set manually.
Flows might need also need some logic to skip certain requests. Let’s say you have a request that is creating a new entity through a POST
. You want to have that request, but you may not want to run it on every commit. Maybe you just want do it once per day. In that case, we’ll skip the test based on a certain variable.
// Do not run create request in sequence, unless executeCreate is set to true
if(!pm.environment.get("executeCreate")) {
postman.setNextRequest('Get other posts')
}
The variable goes into the configuration file, and is set to a environment variable that gets injected through our script, as I showed above.
At this point you should have a collection that runs locally. Running this once is fine, but why not run it for every commit? Or maybe every hour, if you want to check an API that you don’t control?
Your CI pipeline is a perfect place to do this. I’m going to use CircleCI for my example, but any CI will do. I run the tests inside a docker image that I built which includes all the required dependencies. There is an official Docker image provided by Postman already. However, it does not contain envsubst
and it uses an older NodeJS version.
The helper script that we built in the step before will work without any changes inside CircleCI. We just have to provide the required secrets as variables. This is the job:
healthcheck:
docker:
- image: sirech/newman-executor:12.6
steps:
- checkout
- run: ./go test-e2e
which will produce a report similar to this:
Many frameworks provide their own way of running tests against a running API. In Spring Boot, for instance, you can use MockMvc to test controllers. You can use both, in my view. First the native tests, so to speak, and then layer Postman Tests on top.
And let’s not forget about good ol’ curl. I had a huge collection of curl commands with which I tested an API that was needed for my last project. However, managing that becomes more and more tedious over time. If you want to use send complex requests, like certificates or cookies, Postman is way more convenient to use. Moreover, you can use JavaScript instead of bash, which can make things a bit easier to read and maintain.
This is already quite a lot and it’s just the beginning. Anything that you do with an API you can also automate. For instance, in my previous project we had a collection that ran an OAuth Flow. That got us a token that we could use to make requests against an authorized endpoint.
Here is a repository for a Kotlin application that runs a Postman collection as an e2e test. It can serve as a starter kit to get going with high quality End-to-End API Tests.
☞ JavaScript and Node.js Testing Best Practices
☞ Server Side Pagination with Vue.js and Node
☞ Build a Command-Line Application with Node.js
☞ Docker & Nodejs: Aplicación de Nodejs en Docker Container
☞ Node.js file streams explained!
☞ 20. Node.js Lessons. Data Streams in Node.JS, fs.ReadStream
☞ How to create your first program with the Node.js runtime
☞ How to Build Simple Authentication in Express
#postman #javascript
1594289280
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.
An API (or Application Programming Interface) provides a method of interaction between two systems.
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:
The features of the REST API design style state:
For REST to fit this model, we must adhere to the following rules:
#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
1604399880
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.
Before you get your hands dirty, let’s prepare the ground and understand the use case that will be developed.
If you desire to reproduce the examples that will be shown here, you will need some of those items below.
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
1652251629
Unilevel MLM Wordpress Rest API FrontEnd | UMW Rest API Woocommerce Price USA, Philippines : Our API’s handle the Unilevel MLM woo-commerce end user all functionalities like customer login/register. You can request any type of information which is listed below, our API will provide you managed results for your all frontend needs, which will be useful for your applications like Mobile App etc.
Business to Customer REST API for Unilevel MLM Woo-Commerce will empower your Woo-commerce site with the most powerful Unilevel MLM Woo-Commerce REST API, you will be able to get and send data to your marketplace from other mobile apps or websites using HTTP Rest API request.
Our plugin is used JWT authentication for the authorization process.
REST API Unilevel MLM Woo-commerce plugin contains following APIs.
User Login Rest API
User Register Rest API
User Join Rest API
Get User info Rest API
Get Affiliate URL Rest API
Get Downlines list Rest API
Get Bank Details Rest API
Save Bank Details Rest API
Get Genealogy JSON Rest API
Get Total Earning Rest API
Get Current Balance Rest API
Get Payout Details Rest API
Get Payout List Rest API
Get Commissions List Rest API
Withdrawal Request Rest API
Get Withdrawal List Rest API
If you want to know more information and any queries regarding Unilevel MLM Rest API Woocommerce WordPress Plugin, you can contact our experts through
Skype: jks0586,
Mail: letscmsdev@gmail.com,
Website: www.letscms.com, www.mlmtrees.com,
Call/WhatsApp/WeChat: +91-9717478599.
more information : https://www.mlmtrees.com/product/unilevel-mlm-woocommerce-rest-api-addon
Visit Documentation : https://letscms.com/documents/umw_apis/umw-apis-addon-documentation.html
#Unilevel_MLM_WooCommerce_Rest_API's_Addon #umw_mlm_rest_api #rest_api_woocommerce_unilevel #rest_api_in_woocommerce #rest_api_woocommerce #rest_api_woocommerce_documentation #rest_api_woocommerce_php #api_rest_de_woocommerce #woocommerce_rest_api_in_android #woocommerce_rest_api_in_wordpress #Rest_API_Woocommerce_unilevel_mlm #wp_rest_api_woocommerce
1652251528
Opencart REST API extensions - V3.x | Rest API Integration : OpenCart APIs is fully integrated with the OpenCart REST API. This is interact with your OpenCart site by sending and receiving data as JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) objects. Using the OpenCart REST API you can register the customers and purchasing the products and it provides data access to the content of OpenCart users like which is publicly accessible via the REST API. This APIs also provide the E-commerce Mobile Apps.
Opencart REST API
OCRESTAPI Module allows the customer purchasing product from the website it just like E-commerce APIs its also available mobile version APIs.
Opencart Rest APIs List
Customer Registration GET APIs.
Customer Registration POST APIs.
Customer Login GET APIs.
Customer Login POST APIs.
Checkout Confirm GET APIs.
Checkout Confirm POST APIs.
If you want to know Opencart REST API Any information, you can contact us at -
Skype: jks0586,
Email: letscmsdev@gmail.com,
Website: www.letscms.com, www.mlmtrees.com
Call/WhatsApp/WeChat: +91–9717478599.
Download : https://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=marketplace/extension/info&extension_id=43174&filter_search=ocrest%20api
View Documentation : https://www.letscms.com/documents/api/opencart-rest-api.html
More Information : https://www.letscms.com/blog/Rest-API-Opencart
VEDIO : https://vimeo.com/682154292
#opencart_api_for_android #Opencart_rest_admin_api #opencart_rest_api #Rest_API_Integration #oc_rest_api #rest_api_ecommerce #rest_api_mobile #rest_api_opencart #rest_api_github #rest_api_documentation #opencart_rest_admin_api #rest_api_for_opencart_mobile_app #opencart_shopping_cart_rest_api #opencart_json_api
1599859380
Nowadays API testing is an integral part of testing. There are a lot of tools like postman, insomnia, etc. There are many articles that ask what is API, What is API testing, but the problem is How to do API testing? What I need to validate.
Note: In this article, I am going to use postman assertions for all the examples since it is the most popular tool. But this article is not intended only for the postman tool.
Let’s directly jump to the topic.
Let’s consider you have an API endpoint example http://dzone.com/getuserDetails/{{username}} when you send the get request to that URL it returns the JSON response.
My API endpoint is http://dzone.com/getuserDetails/{{username}}
The response is in JSON format like below
JSON
{
"jobTitle": "string",
"userid": "string",
"phoneNumber": "string",
"password": "string",
"email": "user@example.com",
"firstName": "string",
"lastName": "string",
"userName": "string",
"country": "string",
"region": "string",
"city": "string",
"department": "string",
"userType": 0
}
In the JSON we can see there are properties and associated values.
Now, For example, if we need details of the user with the username ‘ganeshhegde’ we need to send a **GET **request to **http://dzone.com/getuserDetails/ganeshhegde **
Now there are two scenarios.
1. Valid Usecase: User is available in the database and it returns user details with status code 200
2. Invalid Usecase: User is Unavailable/Invalid user in this case it returns status with code 404 with not found message.
#tutorial #performance #api #test automation #api testing #testing and qa #application programming interface #testing as a service #testing tutorial #api test