Different approaches to testing with mocks
There are a lot of different ways to test things. In this book, we are obviously looking at how to test APIs, but APIs exist as part of a larger ecosystem. Some APIs are used to support external workflows, and some are built to support internal UIs and workflows. When you think about the ways that we use and test APIs, there are two main things that we are doing.
Sometimes, we are the producers of the API. When we are working in this way, we are looking at how to verify that an API works the way it should, but even in this domain there are different ways to approach testing. Although APIs work below the UI, they still can include a lot of the development stack. An API call will be sent via the internet to a server and then the server will do some processing, including in many cases querying databases. It will then package up the information into the correct format and send it back over the network to the client that sent the API request...