How To test REST API using REST CLIENT .

How To Test REST API using REST CLIENT 

REST : REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is a simple stateless architecture that generally runs over HTTP. REST is simpler to use than the well-known SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) approach, which requires writing or using a provided server program (to serve data) and a client program (to request data). RESTful APIs are defined with these aspects:

·   base URI, such as http://example.com/resources/

·   an Internet media type for the data. This is often JSON but can be any other valid Internet media type (e.g. XML, Atom, microformats, images, etc.)

·    standard HTTP methods (e.g., GET, PUT, POST, or DELETE)

A sample format of the Rest API with payload and Request method defined as below

URL	Type/Method	Payload (Json)	Response
http://example.com/resources	POST	{ "wsTest": { "Code": “abc", "Name": "test", "enabled": true, } }
http://example.com/resources/1	POST	{}
http://example.com/resources	GET	?keywordcode=abc	{ "wsTest": { "Code": “abc", "Name": "test", "enabled": true, } }

Rest API could be tested via REST client. Rest client is an addon which comes with Mozilla firefox .

 Link to download 

You could also use chrome addon . Link to download restclient addon in chrome 

After installing RESTclient it will ask for the browser to restart .  REST client could be started by clicking on the icon top right corner of the Mozilla firefox browser .

The below snapshot shows the example of GET method 

Steps  > >

1.      Enter the URL / REST API to be tested in the URL field

2.       Select the HTTP method as GET

3.       Set content type to from drop down box .

4.       Click on send button

5.       Check the specified response in response box . can view response as text /JSON 

The below snapshot shows the example of POST method 

Steps  > >

1.       Enter the URL/REST API be tested in the URL field

2.       Select the HTTP method as POST

3.       Enter the JSON request as Payload  eg  :

{

    "noOfResults": 100,

    "start": 0,

    "columns": [

        "itemType",

        "productCode"

    ],

    "fetchResultCount": true,

}

4.       Set content type to from drop down box .

5.       Click on send button

6.       Check the specified response in response box . can view response as TEXT /JSON