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 11: Designing an API Specification

Magic shows are a lot of fun. The magician does something that seems impossible and it thrills and excites us. How can they possibly do that? I could never do that!

From the outside, software development can seem a lot like that. The developer types out some code and, like magic, something happens in the application. How can they possibly do that? I could never do that!

Of course, if you look on the internet, you can find videos that show you some of the tricks magicians use. It turns out that many magic tricks involve a few simple rules. Similarly, with a bit of time, you can understand how software development works. For those of us who have made it through the frustration of learning to code, we realize that actually, we can do that. It's not so complicated after all. It's just the application of a few simple rules.

I kind of felt that way about API specifications and schemas. I'd heard the term before, and I had...