API automation can help you to take a product-led approach to your APIs that gets you to market faster while keeping your developers happy.
What is API automation?
You can automate a wide range of API management tasks. This API automation can encompass tasks during the design, deployment, testing, publishing and consumption phases of the API management lifecycle.
API automation enables developers to design and build API products using controlled processes for repetitive tasks. As such, it can support greater consistency in API production.
Automating API management can support you to level up your API strategy through enhanced consistency, reduced risk and time savings. There are two types of automation paradigms:
- Imperative API automation – this is a step-by-step approach, where you define each step of the process. Many platforms support imperative automation and developers use it widely.
- Declarative API automation – this is a simple approach where you let your chosen automation tool know what you want to achieve, then leave the tool to deliver. You can build the automation into your CI/CD pipeline as part of a GitOps-centric approach to API management.
Benefits of API automation
Automation can free up developers’ time. It can also support enterprises to achieve faster time to market and time to value.
Any enterprise undergoing a digital transformation process is likely to benefit from API automation. It can contribute to enhanced engineering efficiency, enabling developers to focus on innovation and customer satisfaction instead of manually repeating tasks.
API tasks to consider automating
You can’t automate every task connected to creating and publishing APIs – but you can automate plenty of them:
- API documentation – some tools can generate API documentation based on your codebase, providing a large step forward on your journey to market.
- Code generation – you can use tools to automatically create code snippets based on your API documentation or specifications.
- Security testing – there is plenty of scope for API test automation when it comes to security. More on this below.
- Versioning – automation can make it easier to manage multiple versions of your APIs and avoid breaking changes.
- Deployment – automation can underpin more consistent deployment, ironing out some scope for errors and streamlining the process.
- Monitoring – from checking for errors to examining performance metrics, automation has plenty of potential to enhance API monitoring.
With any automation, it’s essential to monitor progress and outcomes regularly, to ensure that everything works. Human oversight is still important. Automation is there to save developers time – not to cut them out entirely!
What is API automation testing, and why do we need it?
API testing ensures an API fulfils its contract in terms of expected functionality. It can test correctness, efficiency, compatibility and security. API automation testing automates many areas of the testing process, enabling you to achieve faster results than manual testing.
There is also scope for increased accuracy and coverage, as you can run automated functional tests more regularly and cover a wider range of functions within each test. As tests are faster, they can also deliver cost savings.
How does API automation testing work?
API automation testing works through test scripts, which interact with the API in numerous ways. These trigger responses that you can analyse and compare against expectations. The test scripts usually use HTTP requests to send and receive data.
You can use various tools for the testing of APIs. With an API management solution such as Tyk, for example, you can embed automation in your development and testing pipeline.
Why you should automate API tests
Automating API testing can save your developers a whole heap of time – time that they could spend creating value in other ways. It can also reduce capacity for human error, providing more accurate results in a shorter timeframe. You can use those results to underpin data-driven decision-making regarding your API. All while ensuring your APIs perform as expected while meeting strict security requirements.
Steps to automating API tests
You can automate API testing in three simple steps:
- Scoping the testing – create a plan to define the scope of your testing, including any online API testing, and which API testing tools you will use.
- Set up the tests – purchase and configure the tools you need, then create test scripts.
- Run and analyse – run your first series of tests and analyse the results to ensure the tests are performing as they should and delivering the responses you need.
Try to maintain the independence of each test case and avoid test cases including too many dependencies, as this introduces greater potential for errors.
API automation challenges
Automated testing can come with challenges. None of these are insurmountable but it’s good to be aware of them.
- Scope – consider whether you need imperative or declarative automation and which tasks and tests you want to automate. Remember that the scope of your automation will impact other decisions, such as which tooling you choose.
- Budget – cost out the new tools you’ll need and the time it will take to set up your API automation.
- Collaboration – development teams must work together to automate multiple tasks and tests. Poor communication can result in tests interfering with each other, so close collaboration is essential.
- Testing live data – API automation testing can throw up curveballs when it comes to testing live data. Developers need to be ready to deal with surprise results and any potential impact on the backend.
Where next?
If you’re using automation as part of your API strategy, why not check out these other strategically focused articles while you’re here, to ensure everything is on track?
