An API tester lets you check different aspects of an application program interface to see how well it works. You can examine a variety of parameters on your API to see if they function like they should, and if they need any tweaking.
Free Tools Are Available
You don’t have to pay money to get started in testing your API. You can use apps that offer free trials, like API Tester. The full range of features is only unlocked once you pay for the app, but you can give it a trial run to see how well it might work for your QA needs.
Before you pay for a tool to help you with testing, check for ones that have free trials. You can often try out some basic functionality on testing tools before you make a full purchase. This lets you play around with the tool and its interface, so you can see if its easy to use and intuitively designed or if it is just going frustrate you.
A Range of Functionality
By using a tester app like this, you can run your API through a series of tests to see if it is working as you expect it to. Here are some of the functions you can examine using your typical API tester application:
- Query parameters
- Sharing requests
- Duplication requests
- Imported request collections
- Pathway variables
- Create requests
- Send requests
- GraphQL
- Authorized actions
- WebSocket
- and more…
Why an API Tester Tool Is Indispensable
You may not even use all of these functions listed above, but if your API has at least some of those functions, you will want to test them before you finish development. Dedicated testing tools can drastically improve the success of your QA efforts, helping you see flaws and inconsistencies you might have overlooked. They will help you catch programming pathway errors that could be disastrous for your application.
The best APIs work on a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Dockers, and MacOS. Before you commit to any API tester, make sure that it works on the operating system you use. You might want to change operating systems in the future or work with multiple OS, so having that option can be beneficial.
API testers often work with TravisCI, Jenkins and other CI/CD tools. This allows you to create a testing pipeline and check functions from beginning to end.
You don’t want to be left struggling to learn a new tool as you develop your app, so look for testers that have extensive documentation and instructions to help get you started.
No one wants to release an app that’s full of bugs, so consider using an API tester to work those out ahead of time.