RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution Directions
Service-oriented architecture has evolved to be the backbone for large-scale integration between different applications and platforms. This concept has led to today’s reality of cloud services. Many of the major business platforms are providing their services to end-users and other companies as well...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-04-01
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Series: | Applied Sciences |
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/9/4369 |
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author | Adeel Ehsan Mohammed Ahmad M. E. Abuhaliqa Cagatay Catal Deepti Mishra |
author_facet | Adeel Ehsan Mohammed Ahmad M. E. Abuhaliqa Cagatay Catal Deepti Mishra |
author_sort | Adeel Ehsan |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Service-oriented architecture has evolved to be the backbone for large-scale integration between different applications and platforms. This concept has led to today’s reality of cloud services. Many of the major business platforms are providing their services to end-users and other companies as well. Companies are crafting ways to allow other businesses fast service integration and to get on board quickly in the market. REST (representational state transfer) has emerged as the standard protocol for implementing and consuming these services, which are called RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs). As the internal details of the RESTful APIs are not completely available during consumption, thorough testing has been a major challenge. Any unprecedented change in the APIs can cause the major failure of service operations, which can cause an organization to face both financial and trust losses. Research efforts have been made to alleviate testing challenges by introducing different frameworks and auto-generating unit test approaches. However, there is still a lack of an overview of the state-of-the-art in RESTful API testing. As such, the objective of this article is to identify, analyze, and synthesize the studies that have been performed related to RESTful APIs’ testing methodologies and unit test generation. With this perspective, a systematic literature review (SLR) study was conducted. In total, 16 papers were retrieved and included based on study selection criteria for in-depth analysis. This SLR discusses and categorizes different problems and solutions related to RESTful APIs’ testing and unit test generation. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:22:23Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-e493f4a7ef6f49d98a6298378d6227b4 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2076-3417 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-10T04:22:23Z |
publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
record_format | Article |
series | Applied Sciences |
spelling | doaj.art-e493f4a7ef6f49d98a6298378d6227b42023-11-23T07:48:05ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-04-01129436910.3390/app12094369RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution DirectionsAdeel Ehsan0Mohammed Ahmad M. E. Abuhaliqa1Cagatay Catal2Deepti Mishra3Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, QatarDepartment of Computer Science & Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, QatarDepartment of Computer Science & Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, QatarSoftware, Data and Digital Ecosystem Group, Educational Technology Laboratory, Department of Computer Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 2815 Gjøvik, NorwayService-oriented architecture has evolved to be the backbone for large-scale integration between different applications and platforms. This concept has led to today’s reality of cloud services. Many of the major business platforms are providing their services to end-users and other companies as well. Companies are crafting ways to allow other businesses fast service integration and to get on board quickly in the market. REST (representational state transfer) has emerged as the standard protocol for implementing and consuming these services, which are called RESTful application programming interfaces (APIs). As the internal details of the RESTful APIs are not completely available during consumption, thorough testing has been a major challenge. Any unprecedented change in the APIs can cause the major failure of service operations, which can cause an organization to face both financial and trust losses. Research efforts have been made to alleviate testing challenges by introducing different frameworks and auto-generating unit test approaches. However, there is still a lack of an overview of the state-of-the-art in RESTful API testing. As such, the objective of this article is to identify, analyze, and synthesize the studies that have been performed related to RESTful APIs’ testing methodologies and unit test generation. With this perspective, a systematic literature review (SLR) study was conducted. In total, 16 papers were retrieved and included based on study selection criteria for in-depth analysis. This SLR discusses and categorizes different problems and solutions related to RESTful APIs’ testing and unit test generation.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/9/4369auto-test case generationcloud servicesJSON base servicesmicro servicesRESTful APIstesting frameworks |
spellingShingle | Adeel Ehsan Mohammed Ahmad M. E. Abuhaliqa Cagatay Catal Deepti Mishra RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution Directions Applied Sciences auto-test case generation cloud services JSON base services micro services RESTful APIs testing frameworks |
title | RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution Directions |
title_full | RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution Directions |
title_fullStr | RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution Directions |
title_full_unstemmed | RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution Directions |
title_short | RESTful API Testing Methodologies: Rationale, Challenges, and Solution Directions |
title_sort | restful api testing methodologies rationale challenges and solution directions |
topic | auto-test case generation cloud services JSON base services micro services RESTful APIs testing frameworks |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/9/4369 |
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