How do you test your REST API?

#question #help #api #testing

I have a basic REST API in a server file. If I want to run tests on the routes, how do I do so?

I can think of 2 ways to do so:

In the test command, first start the server using a child process and then send requests to localhost in the unit tests.
Write unit tests for all the functions I've written in my code and run them without running the server (Does this mean I can't do integration testing?)

I'm really not sure what to do, I need help.

Top comments (10)

LikeLocusts • Mar 13 '20

Did you have a look at Postman? It's a really helpful tool for testing your API. It enables you to do integration testing

Katie Nelson • Mar 13 '20 • Edited

And don’t forget Postwoman

Jim Burbridge • Mar 14 '20

Tests

Well, I use Fastify most times for APIs and it has a nice method called inject, which is mostly just used for testing. The setup ends up looking something like

// server.js
const Fastify = require('fastify');
const app = Fastify();

app.get('/some-route', async () => "data");

app.listen(3000, err =>  {
  if(err) { console.error(err); process.exit(); }
  console.log('listening');
});

module.exports = app;

// main.test.js
const test = require('ava');
const app = require('../server.js');

test('API Testing', async t => {
   await app.inject({ url: '/some-route' })
     .then(res => { t.is(res.statusCode, 200); })
     .catch(err => t.fail());
   });
});

(note: roughed most of this from memory so it might not be 100% runnable).

Otherwise

Most people use something like Postman. I've switched over to the Insomnia REST client.

🎲Danil Rodin🎲 • Mar 17 '20

The good alternative to Postman is a TestMace. I liked the way they looking at the testing environment as a filesystem project, so you can easily version control it and share across your team.