Book Image

API Testing and Development with Postman

By : Dave Westerveld
1 (1)
Book Image

API Testing and Development with Postman

1 (1)
By: Dave Westerveld

Overview of this book

Postman enables the exploration and testing of web APIs, helping testers and developers figure out how an API works. With Postman, you can create effective test automation for any APIs. If you want to put your knowledge of APIs to work quickly, this practical guide to using Postman will help you get started. The book provides a hands-on approach to learning the implementation and associated methodologies that will have you up and running with Postman in no time. Complete with step-by-step explanations of essential concepts, practical examples, and self-assessment questions, this book begins by taking you through the principles of effective API testing. A combination of theory coupled with real-world examples will help you learn how to use Postman to create well-designed, documented, and tested APIs. You'll then be able to try some hands-on projects that will teach you how to add test automation to an already existing API with Postman, and guide you in using Postman to create a well-designed API from scratch. By the end of this book, you'll be able to use Postman to set up and run API tests for any API that you are working with.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: API Testing Theory and Terminology
6
Section 2: Using Postman When Working with an Existing API
13
Section 3: Using Postman to Develop an API

Chapter 12: Creating and Using a Mock Server in Postman

Mock servers are used to help solve many different testing problems. They can help you control what inputs the UI gets, and they can be used to help drive better designs and to better understand how an API works. In many ways, the ability to create and use mock data is essential to good API testing and development. However, creating and using mock servers can also seem a bit intimidating if you are new to API testing concepts. It seems like a big and difficult thing to understand, let alone create and use.

I remember when I first started learning about mock servers and I thought that it was going to be a difficult and complex thing to use. I was expecting I would need to learn a whole bunch of new and different concepts in order to be able to use them. In some ways I did have to learn a lot of new stuff, but in other ways it turns out that if you have the right tools, creating and using mock servers is actually pretty easy...