Postman is a good tool for API debugging and is very popular with web developers. Yet API debugging is only one part of API management in web development. We have to use other tools, such as Swagger for API designing, Jmeter for API testing, and so on. What a pain if API data is inconsistent with different tools.
Pains in web development
"As a web developer, I only want to design the APIs and make whatever changes/modifications I want. Currently, I have to switch different tools and do repetitive work. I hate this."
—— Backend developer
“While writing user interfaces, I need to write scripts to mock data based on API definitions. I cannot even know if the API design is changed or not. After the coding is done, there is more than half chance to fail on calling the actual APIs.”
—— Frontend developer
“I am doing testing on Jmeter, yet I have to copy the API information over here. What a disaster if developers modified the API definition or changed some parameters and did not notify us. Only because of a small change, I have to run the test process again and again”
—— Test engineer
In summary, maintaining data consistency from different tools is very difficult and inefficient. Data inconsistency causes inefficient team collaborations and frequent mistakes, which is absolutely a disaster for web development.
- How could we resolve data-inconsistency problems and improve collaboration efficiency?
- Is there one place where all the above roles can efficiently collaborate on API work together?
Apidog, an All-in-One workspace for APIs
- Here is the official site of Apidog: apidog.com, which is an All-in-One workspace for API design, documentation, debugging, mocking, and testing.
- Apidog has integrated the above API management functionalities and made core innovations of visualizations and interactions.
- This tool supports one workspace for different roles in web development, and easily maintains data consistency and synchronization. For DEV teams, every minute counts!
Apidog core functionalities
- API design and documentation
We can design an API very quickly in minutes and the documentation is generated automatically, which will be synchronized in the project and to the team. The API-First design follows all the OpenApi and JSON Schema rules, and the auto-generated API documentation can be easily shared.
Data Schema is also supported in Apidog for response data and request parameters. Once defined, we can reuse the data schema through different API designs by referencing the schema model.
More impressive, we can do all of the above visually.
- API Debugging
For API debugging, all functionalities of Postman are supported in Apidog, and more innovations of visualization like pre/post processors we can discover.
Apidog supports environment variables, pre/post scripts, etc., fully compatible with Postman. Moreover, the pre/post operations (assertions, variable extractions, database operations, etc.) can be conducted visually. And request parameters support dynamic variables as well.
Multiple API cases can be directly saved according to the API definition while debugging, and we can use different cases separately at any time.
- API Data Mocking
Another wonderful design of Apidog is the smart mock with an integrated rule engine of Faker.js. We can mock various types of data according to the API definitions. Of course, advanced mocking, like setting up an expectation, is also supported in Apidog.
No more manual scripts for data mocking, and no more repetitive modifications based on API changes.
- API Testing
For testing, we can check all the API definitions in one workspace and directly reference the API/APICase in our test cases, which supports customized pre/post scripts (compatible with Postman) as well. All the test cases can be executed visually, meanwhile, the test reports are directly generated, which can be easily exported if needed.
Apidog follows Data-Driven testing, where we can manage our datasets (add/modify/import/export) very conveniently. In addition, we can directly add iterations and threads in test cases for performance testing.
Even more innovations
- Data schema auto verification
Apidog will automatically verify the returning data schema while debugging APIs. We don't have to check manually or use scripts.
- Set assertions visually
Setup Assertion:
Assertion result after running:
- Database operations
- Smart mocking
Let's check the differences: Apidog can mock almost real data without any manual scripts.
This is actually a wonderful design and innovative point. Apidog has a built-in Faker.js rule engine and can automatically generate mock rules according to the API definitions (data schema, field types, etc.). E.g. Auto mocking a URL of an image if String type data contains "image"; auto mocking a timestamp string if String type data contains "time"; auto mocking a real city name if String type data contains "city".
Therefore, relying on the built-in rules, various types of data can be auto-generated, such as image, username, phone number, URL, timestamp, etc. Furthermore, to satisfy individual needs, Apidog supports customizing mock rules as well, via using RegEx or wildcards.
- Online API documentation
API documentation can be easily shared online for collaborations: Demo URL
- Code auto-generation
Apidog supports code generation of almost all the regular programming languages and frameworks (over 130), and the code templates can be customized as well.
- Import/export functionality
Apidog is actively working on functionalities for enriching the API ecosystem. We can directly export various data types (OpenApi, Markdown, Html, etc.) for further API work and import different data types (OpenApi, Postman, YApi, etc.) to Apidog for easy project migrations.
Conclusion
Apidog, an All-in-One workspace for APIs, starts with collaboration, focusing on efficiency, insisting on innovation, and aiming for the next generation of Postman.
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