Test Automation for the REST API

With the REST architecture taking over the old MVC patterns, most API started using just one way to communicate with HTTP. Suddenly the business logic and any kind of data processing was done at the server and the client side was only responsible for representation of data and basic manipulations.


Testing of the REST API layer can be done using the REST-assured library that was developed by jay-way company. RESTful APIs generally are of two types: one returning XML responses and one returning JSON response. The assured - lib supports POST, GET, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, PATCH and HEAD requests and can be used to validate and verify the response of these requests.

• Rest-Assured and its dependencies (https://code.google.com/p/rest-assured/wiki/Downloads)
• POM dependencies for the Rest Assured and its dependencies: 

You can add a flavor of BDD by using tools like cucumber or specflow:

When /^I send a GET request for "([^\"]*)"$/ do |path|
  get path
end

When /^I send a POST request to "([^\"]*)" with the following:$/ do |path, body|
  post path, body
end

When /^I send a PUT request to "([^\"]*)" with the following:$/ do |path, body|
  put path, body
end

When /^I send a DELETE request to "([^\"]*)"$/ do |path|
  delete path
end

Then /^the response should be "([^\"]*)"$/ do |status|
  last_response.status.should == status.to_i
end

Then /^the response JSON should be:$/ do |body|
  JSON.parse(last_response.body).should == JSON.parse(body)
end

Further links that might help: 
http://www.anthonyeden.com/2010/11/testing-rest-apis-with-cucumber-and-rack-test/ 
http://jeffkreeftmeijer.com/2011/the-pain-of-json-api-testing/ 
http://www.cheezyworld.com/2011/08/09/running-your-cukes-in-jenkins/

This course gives a good outline of what you might want to look at while creating your framework:

https://www.udemy.com/automation-testing-rest-services/

Also have a look at:

 


 RESTful API Automation with JavaScript  from Jonathan LeBlanc