Whether the live API endpoints are working smoothly or not is ensured by way of API testing. Almost all the companies make use of the API testing tools to make their applications and products bug-free. 

Before users notice any discrepancy in the applications, testers fix it. Still, there are slight chances of users noticing the minute issues concerning the API which can take serious turns if not looked into. 

Consequently, businesses take advantage of API testing. Be it in staging or development environments, APIs are tested in both to confirm whether the application is meeting the set requirements or not. 

But before that, you need to be familiar with API testing, types of API testing, the distinction between GUI and API, and many more things to go. Here’s everything you need to know regarding API testing. 

API Testing 

API testing is a crucial part of software testing and development as it plays a crucial role in connecting and transferring data across systems and applications. The sure shot way to improve the efficiency of the testing strategy as a whole is to carry out its testing. It will not only aid in efficiency but also help you deliver software faster than ever. 

These are connecting tissues between different systems of a particular application. The API testing usually has three layers which include the data layer, service layer, and presentation layer. 

The API layer consists of the business logic like how the users are interacting with the services, data, and functions of an app. In addition to this, the API layer directly touches the data layer and presentation layer. As compared to API testing, traditional testing is more inclined towards UI. 

Much of the focus of the API testing is on the business logic, security, data responses, and performance bottlenecks. Compared to the other testing, API testing is considered more advantageous. Let us learn more about the benefits of API testing and other crucial things about the same. 

Benefits of API Testing 

The benefits that API testing enjoys are quite huge as compared to the traditional types of testing. Here are some amazing benefits of API testing. 

Easy maintenance 

The foremost benefit of API testing is its easy maintenance. Contrary to it, UI’s keep on changing from time to time depending on their browsers, devices, screen orientation, and whatnot. Due to all this, the testers need to put in efforts to keep up with the actual code in production. 

But API changes are controlled and do not take place frequently. There are times when API files such as openAPI spec can make tests seem a work of some seconds only. 

Fast-paced 

There are times when API tests fail but fixing those failures does not demand such work and effort. The testers are exactly familiar with their systems like where the system broke and the likely defect. 

Knowing all this minimizes time spent during the build-ups, integrations, and different team members. 

Independent language 

The next benefit of API testing is its independent language. You can use almost any language for carrying out the test automation as the data is exchanged through XML and JSON. These are structured data formats that make the verification fast and stable. 

The provision of built-in libraries extends adequate support and prevents the comparison between data using these formats. 

API Automation 

As the name itself indicates, API automation refers to the automatic API creation, publishing, consumption, and deployment. With the help of API automation, you can speed up the digital transformation. Besides this, it also assists in improving innovation efforts and accelerates the process of services in new channels and markets. 

Features of API Automation 

API automation is much better than the usual automation. Let’s have a look at some of the features of API automation. 

 

  • API automation enables minimal human intervention which means humans can only interfere when it is required. 
  • It is a centralized fashion to manage API product automation. 
  • Integrates publishing, consumption, product creation, and many more things. 

Benefits of API Automation 

Effective products 

The foremost benefit of API automation is that it effectively creates high-quality API products and that too in a controllable and repeatable manner. 

Addresses concerns 

The next advantage of choosing the API automation is that it addresses concerns be it from a critical provider or the consumer. It is the metadata-driven product provisioning that allows you to address the concerns regarding API access, security policies, targeted documentation, and whatnot. 

Improves digital transformation 

API automation has a huge role to play in bringing about digital transformation. The improvement in the digital transformation is brought about by API innovation, technical efficiency, and workforce automation. 

The emphasis on innovation pipelines

API automation makes room for the developers and technical staff to emphasize more the innovation principles rather than the repetitive tasks. 

Minimizes operational costs 

The operational costs of the API management tend to reduce by nearly 30% but only for such organizations which combine hyper-automation technologies with operational processes. Consequently, this is another major benefit of API automation. 

Challenges API Automation Faces 

Usually, people assume that API automation is easy and can be done by anyone. But the reality is quite different from what people imagine. Numerous enterprises struggle hard to scale their automation. All due to the challenges they face during the same. 

Consequently, we have mentioned some of the challenges that API automation goes through to overcome those at the earliest. 

Security risks 

The primary challenge API automation is facing for quite a time is regarding the security risks. Cybersecurity practices have somewhat lagged behind the rise of API. Consequently, the APIs have become risky likewise the digital tools and tactics. 

One way out of this is that enterprises should address common API practices that pose a serious risk to security to automate API management tasks. Before embarking on a new automation campaign, one should think about the security to avoid the trouble later on. 

Communication 

Every organization has its ways to approach API management which are quite diverse from one other. Usually, the challenges companies face are while attempting to scale their business automation. 

But for this to happen, all the developers and project managers must stay on the same page and discuss automation and other things. 

Investment 

Investing in the tools that can support the process is vital irrespective of whether you are planning to automate API creation tasks or DevOps API. one should consider investigating whether they are supporting automation or not when one is selecting the digital API management tools. 

Besides this, you should also enquire about if they require a great deal of custom coding or not to proceed with it. 

Repeated tasks 

The next challenge in API process automation is repeated tasks. It is because not all aspects of API management can be automated and there are some repetitive tasks. Consequently, you need to search for the development tasks that are replicated manually. 

Uploading minute changes and updating policies from time to time and that too manually is a cumbersome task and consumes much time. Keeping this in mind, one should look for updating the entire documentation all at once. It will also improve your efficiency. 

API lifecycle 

Some teams end up automating specific development or an API task. But this is not at all-sufficient. Organizations should strive to achieve full lifecycle API management automation. 

Initially, it might seem a huge challenge to automate the entire lifecycle but once done, it streamlines digital transformation and accelerates time to market. But for this, you need to select an ideal platform that gives you instant access to automation tools such as the promotion of API across the entire lifecycle. 

Tasks to Automate 

Numerous people are struggling to decide which tasks to automate and which ones to leave. It is because there are dozens of tasks and processes which require automation. But it is not going to be easy as it is difficult to scale some tasks. Let’s have a look at some of the automation tasks. 

 

  • Entire lifecycle automation 
  • API access security policies
  • Authentication procedures
  • API products updates
  • Schema compliance and malicious content security policies 
  • Deployment of API 

Why Choose Skilled Pragati for API Automation? 

The real challenge which businesses face these days is which company to hire for API automation. It is because the number of companies providing such services has increased which has made it difficult to choose. 

Whether you are a beginner or an expert in scaling API automation, Skilled Pragati is there to help you. 

 

  • API automation with time to market
  • Eliminates manual processes
  • Gets you a Top-notch API marketplace 

But no matter what, you have to make this difficult decision. Fortunately, Skilled Pragati is one such company that can help you with API automation. Here are some reasons to choose Skilled Pragati for your business. 

Modern frameworks 

The foremost advantage of choosing Skilled Pragati over others is the modern frameworks that it uses. It makes data-driven testing seem simple by employing multiple data sources such as CSV and XLS. These databases also extend full support to cucumber files and gherkin editors. 

Scalable platform 

The built-in integrations enable CI and DevOps practices which in turn it into a scalable platform. The deployment is also fairly easy with docker containers. The team at Skilled Pragati also does local and remote execution with real-time analytics. 

Less maintenance 

The maintenance in API automation testing is quite minimal. The execution plans and test scenarios are only defined in accordance with test suite management capabilities. 

API centered 

Skilled Pragati does the API automation by keeping in mind the API-centered approach. Our company supports numerous types such as REST, SOAP/1.2, and SOAP/1.1 requests. In addition to this, you can also import the tests from Postman, Swagger, and WSDL. 

Highly productive 

The skilled Pragati API process is highly productive. You can get the processes optimized be it scripting, debugging, or maintaining tests. Besides this, we are highly skilled in code inspection, references, snippets, dual interface, and so on. 

Developer portal 

By choosing Skilled Pragati, you tend to get a developer portal where you can publish, promote and manage technical aspects of API. 

Tools 

Once we are done with developing your API automation, we also provide you with tools to monitor and support your APIs throughout the lifecycle. 

Analytics reports 

Skilled Pragati assists you in creating customized analytics reports which can give you an insight into the charts. 

Final Thoughts 

Getting the API automation will bring efficiency into your business as all the manual processes will be automated. This in turn will automatically take the business to greater heights than before. Contact Skilled Pragati now for getting your API automation done.