We return again this week looking at the online TestProject blog tutorial focusing on the final two chapters 5 and 6 focusing on Advanced API Testing Automation and Scheduling API Automation Flows and CI/CD Execution respectively. In class, we’ve been working with JUnit integrated with VSCode so it’s been interesting seeing a very different User Interface in TestProject.
Chapter 5 looks at “Advanced” API Testing Automation, which primarily looks at more complex interactions and tests involving JSON objects and schemas. It also goes into some other more complicated calls and tests such as formatting URL-encoded requests, reading and using predefined user data sets and tests involving dynamic parameters. This chapter references public NASA API and tools; a key component that stuck out to me was the error report file generation that’s shown which easily identifies and organizes issues. Compared to previous chapters, I found this one to be less relatable and applicable to the things we’re doing in class, but I still learned a lot and was intrigued by the methodologies for test situations with multiple JSON paths to one target.
Chapter 6 focuses on the scheduling aspect of testing automation in TestProject and interactions with CI/CD/CMD pipelines. As always, there are an abundance of screenshots and images to walk readers through an example test set-up – beginning with the interface for scheduling tests and TestProject’s system of creating and assigning ‘jobs’. Tests are aggregated into jobs (typically as a bundle) which can then be executed as a one-time event or assigned a recurrence time frame. The interface to do so is clear and intuitive and reminds me a lot of CS383 – Cloud Computing where we are working on modules in AWS Academy learning about Amazon Web Services. AWS uses a similar interface and logical structure for assigning roles, jobs, permissions and many other facets making it intuitive for me to follow this TestProject tutorial. This chapter also discusses testing within a Docker container, which we used to implement for Dr. Wurst’s assignments but have recently switched to GitPod.
With this reading, we conclude the TestProject tutorial I originally found at the beginning of this semester. There’s been a lot of really valuable material and examples within these tutorials, particularly in chapters 1-4 as they focus on beginner concepts and I’ve just been getting started with learning about software testing and quality assurance. Probably most interesting and encouraging from this set of tutorials was how frequently concepts came up from other courses like Database Design and Cloud Computing. Software that interacts with those areas must be tested too so it’s important to know how to work my way around them and see visual examples of tests being designed and executed. In conclusion – TestProject seems like a great platform with many features, particularly an intuitive scheduling component, however JUnit’s interface remains my current favorite.
Sources:
Tutorial Intro: https://blog.testproject.io/2020/11/10/automating-end-to-end-api-testing-flows/
Chapter 5: https://blog.testproject.io/2020/11/10/advanced-api-test-automation-and-validation-flows/
Chapter 6: https://blog.testproject.io/2020/11/10/scheduling-api-automation-flows-and-ci-cd-execution/
From the blog CS@Worcester – Tech. Worth Talking About by jelbirt and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.