BusStopSolving common challenges of API Testing: Multiple Calls, Tests, and Responses with a Single Run
When it comes to API development or testing, IT professionals (be it developers or testers or tester managers) often face the challenge of maintaining API end points integrity. One single end point should be tested across multiple data sets. One would often dream to automate this process by calling one single end point multiple times with different data sets.
Automation comes with its own challenges of coding a script and its maintainance. The skill set of different IT professionals are different and one size doesnt fits all
Taking a closer look for validating the API integrity, one would approach this challenge with a combination of the below methods (or could try something different as well)
- configure a single API multiple times with different data set
- configure an API once and manually keep changing the data set during the testing round
- configure an API once and connect a data source with script
- configure an API once and connect it to a data source with a no-code API testing tool
The oppurtunities of automation testing lies in point 3 and 4 - where API is configured once and data scources are linked to it. Data sources can be of multiple type such as CSV file, database connection, XML file, json input and so on.
An API Testing tool provides the UI to configure the API request with the method , url, header and body. In case of multiple data set testing, manual tester often keep changing data in the UI and process the API request
With CSV users can focus completely on the data thats to be tested and the process the APIs as a separate step.
Why to Leverage CSV Files for Efficient Data-Driven Testing
Its a common file used by majority of people in any work force. And most people are comfortable using it leading to easy understanding of the tool.
With this approach, BusStop users can easily create their data source that would contain various combinations of the input data. As data configuration gets easy the user gets motivated to increase the test data across an API endpoint leading to even a deeper level of testing.
How to use this CSV for data configuration in BusStop?
- 1. Go to the API configured and download the template to use for the configured API
- 2. Each row in the CSV corresponds to a unique set of parameters or data points
- 3. Upload the updated file across the API
- 4. Execute the file and view the response
Which all parameters can be configured in BusStop CSV files; and what are the use cases ?
- API Body - variations in the body ensures the API is stable with any kinda input provided
- API Headers - changes in the header aids in understanding the configuration of the API. For example if the API is only going to understand JSON, how the API reacts if urlencoded data is sent
- API URL - the GET API method sents parameters over the URL, or the API has to tested cross environment
With manual testing, the tester spends a significant amount of time (60 minutes) on data input, executing individual API calls, and reviewing results. With the CSV solution, the same set of tests is completed in just 22 minutes, saving over 60% of the time. This reduction in time allows testers to focus on analyzing results more deeply rather than performing repetitive tasks, ultimately boosting productivity and testing efficiency.
