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 2: Principles of API Design

You might be surprised that there is a chapter on API design in a book about API testing and development. Don't designers work on making things look good? An API doesn't really have much to look at, so why would I spend a whole chapter talking to you about API design?

I believe that design, testing, and documentation are just as much a part of creating a quality product as development is. Perhaps they are even more important. Good design can make the life of a developer or tester much easier. Designing something isn't so much about making it look good as it is about ensuring that it brings satisfaction. We humans enjoy things that look nice and so designs can sometimes be focused on the look and feel of something, but even in the realm of APIs where there isn't much to "see," good design can make it much more enjoyable to use and thus improve the quality.

This chapter will go over the principles of API design...