API testing helps in analyzing an application program interface to ensure it fulfills functionality, performance, security, and reliability. In a continuous delivery pipeline, it’s a must that they include automated functional testing after release. It applies whether you are automating deployments to production or not, as there are benefits to running integration and testing. Here’s the importance of adding API testing to your continuous integration pipeline.
Importance of adding API testing to your continuous integration pipeline
1. Authenticates components unreachable by unit tests
Mostly unit testing is used to integrate /end-to-end testing. However, sometimes it’s impossible to write unit tests for every desired use case. Writing and sustaining unit tests can have various drawbacks, which include:
- Unit tests cannot test functionality from an end-user point of view.
- Isolated unit tests cannot authenticate the behavior of integrated components.
- Small teams might need more resources to make intricate testing harnesses or mocking required to unit test everything.
On the other hand, post-deploy integration tests can cover component interactions and workflows. Therefore, it’s best to have suitable and enough integration tests, unit tests, and end-to-end tests. The appropriate way to start is using the Test Pyramid focuses on using unit tests when possible.
2. Increases application test coverage
Automated functional testing increases test coverage of live environments. When applied against live environments, it can test behavior that can’t be tested at the unit testing level. After solid test automation, adding new test cases for each feature and regression incrementally becomes easier. In addition, increasing the general test coverage of your application becomes easier. This encourages team members to add new tests frequently.
3. Reduces the cost and burden of manual testing
You automate API testing in your continuous integration to reduce the time and hassle required to test repetitive application features and regressions. It’s unfair for any team to test every feature manually at every deployment. Automation of post-deploy app testing makes continuous delivery pipelines more sturdy, similar to how unit testing bolsters continuous integration pipelines.
Each addition of a new automated test to your suite represents functionality that doesn’t need manual testing ever. It will save the team lots of time, allowing testers and developers to concentrate on the present iteration of features or fixing bugs.
4. Tests what the end user sees
The main way to test what your user sees is to test your app in production. Mostly teams manually or make in-house scripts to authenticate a set of functionality against production. The benefit of building out structured, automatic testing is you can share the same test suite across staging and production environments. In addition, incorporating tests that automatically run against production from CI allows you to be the first to know if something goes wrong. In production, bad things are bound to happen once in a while. However, this is good because it allows you to learn about your system. But with proper production monitoring and a functional continuous delivery pipeline, you can build feedback mechanisms. They will help you to identify problems as they occur, and the system fixes them as quickly as possible.