API testing is one of the most important software testing processes. This ensures that each software application component works fine and communicates well when integrated. This also ensures the delivery of correct functionality by various components of the software applications. Along with these, it also verifies the security of the software application.
API testing can be executed with or without human interference. However, testers and developers highly prefer automated API testing due to its capabilities. An automated API test is less error-prone and can test software applications faster than manual testing. Thus, it saves time and effort.
Various tools and frameworks are available to execute automated API testing. Postman is a popular API development and testing tool developers and testers use due to its collections feature and user-friendly interface. Thus, using Postman collections for API Testing is considered a good choice.
Here, we will learn how to structure Postman collections for API testing. Along with these, we will also know about various challenges while structuring. At last, we will give an insight into the best practices to overcome the challenges while performing API automation testing.
What are Postman Collections?
While working with software applications, we require various APIs to integrate various components of our software application so that they can communicate and exchange data securely. Testers need to execute API testing to check whether these APIs have been integrated well with the software applications. Automated tools and frameworks are highly preferred to execute API testing due to their efficient and effective testing nature. Postman is one of those tools.
Postman is a popular API platform that allows testers and developers to use pre-built APIs and build new ones. It serves testers and developers with various tools that help them to build APIs faster. Postman is highly recommended because it can help you in every aspect, such as designing, testing, and documenting your API building. Postman also has an API repository that can store your build APIs at one central platform so that all the development team members can use it. It offers its users a workspace and governance to build a standard API. Postman comes with its Postman Collection, a gold standard for API organization.
Postman Collection allows you to link various APIs together. This helps testers and developers easily edit, test, share, and reuse the API requests. Using Postman Collection will enable you to bundle all the required API elements in one place easily. This will allow you to define and send API requests without entering commands in the terminal. It also generates automated documentation for the collection you have bundled, which you can customize according to your understanding. Thus, the Postman Collection plays a significant role in executing API testing.
How do you structure the Postman Collections for API Testing?
There are various ways to structure your Postman collection for API testing, but it is best to follow up on the following to make your structure efficient.
● Naming Convention: Significantly naming your collection, workspace, and environment is important. This will tremendously impact the stakeholders, as with the name. They can easily understand the purpose of the collection. For naming, you must always establish a common strategy for using upper and lower cases. It would help if you used a name similar to the code or API. Next involves the use of space. You must be clear about whether you will use a space or an underscore to separate two words in the name. You may even opt to use camelCase in your naming convention. You must also focus on symbols and establish a common approach.
Once the standards for the naming convention are decided, it must be made sure that every stakeholder uses the same convention. For this, you may publish a document of all the standards that must be followed while naming a collection, environment, or workspace. Later, this will save you from various conflicts.
● Domain-driven Design: Another way to structure your Postman Collection for API testing is through the domain. Try to understand what is being delivered through the APIs and then categorize them based on the API endpoint. Create folders within your collection and store those with similar endpoints. This will help you to locate them easily whenever an API request is sent.
● Use Variables and Environment: Variables and environments can be used to structure the Postman Collection in API testing. Testers and developers consider it a powerful approach. A key-value pair is used for variables that can be integrated with the API request as a part of the request. Thus, whenever a request is made, it becomes easier to locate it as the key cannot be duplicated. Also, for this, you are not required to hard-code your data. Thus, testers can easily execute API testing.
● Write Descriptive and Assertive Tests: Postman collection allows you to write a descriptive and assertive test script with each request. The descriptive tests consist of all the essential information related to the API request. It includes its name and description. It also consists of comments that help the various team members understand the API’s purpose and logic. Furthermore, these comments include the expected output that must be produced once the API request has been sent. The assertive test scripts attached to the API contain assertions for unexpected output against certain exceptions or predefined criteria. Further, the assertive and descriptive test script attached to the Postman collection allows you to maintain your test easily.
● Use Prerequisite and Test Scripts: Postman collections can be structured using prerequisite and test scripts for API testing. Pre-request scripts are simple JavaScript codes that can be executed to perform various actions or calculate necessary details before or after sending your requests in Postman. The action here may include generating random data or encrypting data for security purposes. The team members also used further test scripts after the Postman responded to your request. The main action that is performed here is the validating or parsing of data. Further, these are also used to send requests to another endpoint if required. However, prerequisite and test scripts can help automate API testing.
● Run and Monitor Your Test: Postman collection can be structured to API testing by executing and monitoring the test cases. Test cases can be executed with very little effort with the help of automation testing. Testers just need to monitor the test case execution. Also, the Postman Collection serves various tools such as Postman Monitors or Collection Runner that allow you to execute the test cases for API testing effectively and efficiently. These also let you ensure that the software application performs effectively and is reliable whenever an API request is processed.
Challenges while structuring the Postman for API Testing.
Here is a list of challenges you may encounter while structuring the API Testing Postman.
● While structuring the Postman for API testing, you need to decide the naming convention for your project. Maintaining consistency in naming convention becomes challenging when you have a large and dynamic project with a huge team. Even though you have prepared a guide, it can lead to confusion. Thus, it becomes challenging for everyone to stick to a dedicated naming convention.
● The main motive for designing and developing an API is to process dynamic data, and testing is often done using static requests. Thus, it becomes challenging for the testers and developers to test dynamic API requests using static parameters, as this complicates the testing process.
● Everything needs to be updated and modified with time; the same goes for the documentation within the Postman Collection. At the same time, updating this documentation requires a good amount of time, whereas not updating it may lead to confusion, and errors may occur during testing.
● With time, everything evolves, and so does an API. So, you need to update and modify them according to current technological advancements. But doing this and maintaining compatibility within a Postman Collection is a challenge. It requires time and effort. Meanwhile, the changes made to the API structure may also affect the testing process by impacting the existing requests.
Safest practices for Structuring the Postman for API Testing.
Testers and developers may follow the best practices below to overcome the challenges while structuring the Postman Collection for API testing.
● To ensure that every team member uses the same naming convention, you must always review that everyone is stuck to the enforced guidelines. Also, various automated tools are available with the Postman Collection that helps in maintaining consistency.
● Here is another way in which you can save time and effort. Use cloud-based platforms. This has various APIs that have already been created. You may use and integrate them into your API testing. Also, API can be accessed easily by anyone from the team. One such platform that can be used is LambdaTest, a widely used cross-browser testing tool.
LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform to run manual and automated tests at scale. The platform allows you to perform real-time and automation testing across 3000+ environments and real mobile devices.
● You must use the automated documentation feature with Postman Collection to save time. This feature allows you to update the documentation simultaneously with the updation of the API structure. Also, it allows you to customize the automated documentation as per your understanding.
● Postman Collection provides you with an environment where you can securely store all the sensitive information. Also, you can provide it with guidelines for handling sensitive data. It provides you with restrictions on access to sensitive data. Using the feature, you can restrict everyone from updating and modifying confidential data.
Conclusion
By now, you must have understood that the Postman Collection for API testing must be appropriately structured to test software applications efficiently. Thus, following up on all the correct methods to structure your Postman collection efficiently is important. The article consists of all the important areas you should follow up on to perform an efficient testing process and develop a quality software application that delivers and performs various functionalities as expected when an API request is made.
Everything has various challenges integrated into it, and so does the Postman Collection, but following up on the best practices can defeat those challenges, too. The method mentioned above, and best practices will help you structure your Postman collection for API testing, allowing you to develop a quality software application to provide a seamless user experience.
