Best Practices for Endpoint Testing and Evidence Collection with Postman

Why is it Important to Test API Endpoints?

In the world of software development, API endpoints play a crucial role in communication between different systems. Ensuring that these endpoints function correctly is essential to the reliability and security of any application. Testing APIs is not just a verification step, but a continuous practice of monitoring and optimizing code quality.

Collecting evidence during testing is a fundamental practice. This evidence not only helps identify gaps and areas for improvement, it also provides a clear record for auditing, analysis and compliance. In the corporate world, documentation of tests and results can be decisive for compliance with safety and quality standards.

The Relevance of Evidence in the Corporate World

In the corporate context, API testing evidence is often requested to validate the integrity of a system, ensure that functions are operating as expected, and prevent security vulnerabilities. Companies need to document testing to ensure software delivery is reliable, scalable, and conforms to customer requirements.

Testing Endpoints with Postman

Postman is one of the most used tools for testing APIs, offering a user-friendly and powerful interface for making API calls, validating responses, and collecting evidence. With Postman, we can automate tests, perform performance and security checks, and ensure that the API is working correctly.

Test Case Examples

Here are some test cases that can be performed to ensure the quality of your endpoints:

1. Status Code Validation (Response Codes)

Purpose: To ensure that the server returns the correct status code for different types of requests.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Verify that the API response returns code 200 for a valid GET request.

Code Example:

2. Validation of Required Fields in the Response

Objective: Ensure that the response contains the required fields, with the correct values ​​and in the appropriate format.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Check if the response from a GET endpoint returns the id, name, and email fields correctly.

Code Example:

3. Content-Type Validation

Purpose: Verify that the server returns the correct content type (e.g. application/json).

Example Test Case:

• Test: Check if the Content-Type header is application/json.

Code Example:

4. Response Validation with Valid JSON

Purpose: Ensure that the response returned by the API is valid JSON.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Check if the response is valid JSON.

Code Example:

5. Data Validation in JSON Response

Objective: Validate that the data within the response is correct and in the expected format.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Check if the value of the status field in the response is "active".

Code Example:

6. Response Time Validation (Performance)

Objective: Validate that the API responds within the expected time, ensuring good performance.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Check if the response was received in less than 2000ms.

Code Example:

7. Response Validation in Case of Error (Example: 404 or 500)

Purpose: Ensure that the API returns correct error codes and provides appropriate information in case of failures.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Check if the API returns the 404 code when an invalid URL is accessed.

Code Example:

8. Test Authentication Endpoint (Login)

Purpose: Ensure that the authentication endpoint returns a valid JWT token when providing correct credentials.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Verify that the login endpoint response returns a valid JWT token.

Code Example:

9. Pagination Validation (For Lists)

Objective: Ensure that the API implements pagination correctly for large volumes of data.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Check whether a list response has the nextPage and previousPage pagination fields and whether they are correct.

Code Example:

10. Security Check (Example: SQL Injection)

Objective: Validate that the API is protected against common vulnerabilities such as SQL injection.

Example Test Case:

• Test: Verify that the API does not allow SQL injection, trying to send a malicious payload.

Code Example:

Conclusion

Performing tests on API endpoints is a fundamental practice to ensure the quality, security and performance of your applications. Using Postman, with its automation and results documentation functionalities, is a powerful tool that can not only streamline the testing process, but also help teams collect the evidence needed to ensure the system is operating in accordance with specifications. business requirements and best development practices.

Collecting evidence during testing is essential for subsequent analysis, documentation and also for audits in companies. Therefore, investing in good testing practices and using appropriate tools such as Postman are fundamental steps towards success in the development of APIs and systems integration.

The above is the detailed content of Best Practices for Endpoint Testing and Evidence Collection with Postman. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!