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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Main Authors: Adeel Ehsan, Mohammed Ahmad M. E. Abuhaliqa, Cagatay Catal, Deepti Mishra
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-04-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
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.
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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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AT cagataycatal restfulapitestingmethodologiesrationalechallengesandsolutiondirections
AT deeptimishra restfulapitestingmethodologiesrationalechallengesandsolutiondirections