What do you mean by API in software testing?

Answer 1

API is an acronym for Application Programming Interface. API testing is a collection of application's methods and procedures, called API calls. Here, we send these API calls to get output and note down the system's response. These responses from these calls are used to validate any test scenario. In order to test an API, functional testing services perform API testing using any testing tool such as POSTMAN, SOAP UI, Parasoft and HP QTP.

As Most applications are segregated in 3 distinct layers:

1. Presentation layer

2. Business layer

3. Database layer

API testing provides communication and data exchange between two distinct software systems. It communicates with the business and database layers to confirm the correctness of a test.

Where as GUI testing is performed in the presentation layer. In API testing, we won't concentrate on the outlook and experience of an application.

Types of APIs :

1. SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol

It is language and platform independent. It supports built-in error handling feature. It uses XML file to provide messaging service.

2. REST: Representational State Transfer

REST is easy to understand alternative to SOAP. With the help of REST, we can generate multiple formats, such as CSV, JSON or RSS, which are faster as compared to SOAP.

Common commands for REST API are:

* POST - used to create new records.

* GET - used to read existing data..

* PUT - used to update existing records.

* DELETE - used to delete data.