API Testing with C#

RestSharp

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Table of Contents

1. Understanding APIs:
 Concepts
2. Serialization and Deserialization:
 JSON files
3. API Testing with C#:
 GitHub API Requests
 NUnit + RestSharp
Integration and API Testing
Concepts
Brief Recap on Integration Testing
 Validates combined functionality of software modules
 Detects interface defects, verifies data flow and
communication
 Follows unit testing; precedes system testing
 Applies to database integration, APIs (REST, SOAP, GraphQL),
service interactions
 Objective: Ensure system integrity and seamless functionality
What is API Recap
 API == Application Programming Interface
 APIs serve as the intermediaries that allow two applications to
talk to each other
 Set of functions and specifications that software programs and
components follow to talk to each other
 API examples:
 JDBC – Java API for apps to talk with database servers
 Windows API – Windows apps talk with Windows OS
 Web Audio API – play audio in the Web browser with JS
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Web Services and APIs
 Web services expose back-end APIs over the network
 May use different protocols and data formats: HTTP, REST,
GraphQL, gRPC, SOAP, JSON-RPC, JSON, BSON, XML, YML, …
 Web services are hosted on a Web server (HTTP server)
 Provide a set of functions, invokable from the Web (Web API)
 RESTful APIs is the
most popular Web
service standard

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SOAP APIs
 SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) APIs are protocol-based,
ensuring high levels of security and standardized
communication via XML
 Preferred for enterprise-level web services where security and
transactional reliability are paramount
 Testing Focus: Requires thorough validation of the SOAP
envelope, headers, and body, along with adherence to WS-*
standards

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SOAP API Example
 National Weather Service (NWS) SOAP-based API for weather data
 http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/xml/DWMLgen/wsdl/ndfdXML.wsdl
 Includes WSDL (Web Services Description Language) document for
describing the services offered
 Operation: Get weather forecast
 SOAP Action: LatLonListCityNames
 Request: XML formatted SOAP envelope specifying the desired operation
and parameters(of city names or geographic coordinates)
 Response: XML-formatted response (weather forecast data for
the requested locations)
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GraphQL APIs
 Defined by GraphQL (query language) that allows clients to
request exactly what they need, making it highly efficient for
data retrieval
 Enables clients to define the structure of the data required,
reducing over-fetching and under-fetching issues common in
REST APIs
 Testing Considerations: Emphasizes validating query responses,
handling dynamic data retrieval, and ensuring efficient
performance
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GraphQL APIs Example
 GitHub offers a GraphQL API, enabling clients to request
exactly the data they need
 GraphQL queries are tailored by the requester
 GraphQL API has a single endpoint:
 https://api.github.com/graphql
 More on GitHun GraphQL API:
 https://docs.github.com/en/graphql

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GraphQL APIs Example
 Fetching a user's name and the last three issues from a repository
query {
repository(owner:"octocat", name:"Hello-World") {
issues(last:3) {
edges {
node {
title
url
}
}
}
}
}
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RESTful APIs
 Based on the Representational State Transfer architectural
style, emphasizing simplicity, statelessness, and a
uniform interface
 Utilizes standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)
for operations, making it widely adopted for web services
 Offers scalability, performance, and ease of use,
with data typically exchanged in JSON or XML format

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RESTful APIs Example
 The GitHub REST API - widely used for actions like creating
repositories, fetching user data, or automating workflow processes
 Base URL for GitHub API v3: https://api.github.com
 Example Operation: Fetching a user's public repositories
 Request Type: GET
 Endpoint: /users/{username}/repos
 Sample Request: GET https://api.github.com/users/octocat/repos
 Retrieves data in JSON format, listing public repositories for the
specified GitHub username
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RESTful API Testing
 The process includes sending various HTTP requests to
the API endpoints and assessing the responses against
expected outcomes
 Endpoints: Each URL that allows access to the API's resources
 HTTP Methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc., which define the
action on the resources
 Response Status: HTTP response status codes like 200 OK,
404 Not Found, etc.
 Data Exchange: Validating the request payload and
response body
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 {}

Serialization and Deserialization

Data Handling in RESTful APIs
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Data Exchange
 During RESTful API interactions, data is frequently exchanged
between a client and a server
 The data must be in a format that both can understand
 Serialization: Converts complex data structures or object
states into a flat format suitable for HTTP communication,
storage, or file-based persistence
 Deserialization: Reconstructs the flat data back into usable
objects or data structures after it's received
Built-in JSON Support
 .NET has built-in JSON support through the
System.Text.Json NuGet Package

 It supports serializing objects and deserializing

(parsing) strings
 Include the following namespaces into your project
using System.Text.Json;
using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
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Serializing JSON
 The System.Text.Json serializer can read and write JSON
class WeatherForecast
{
public DateTime Date { get; set; } = DateTime.Now;
public int TemperatureC { get; set; } = 30;
public string Summary { get; set; } = "Hot summer day";
}

static void Main()

{
WeatherForecast forecast = new WeatherForecast();
string weatherInfo = JsonSerializer.Serialize(forecast);
Console.WriteLine(weatherInfo);
}
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Deserializing JSON
 To deserialize from a file, we read the file into a string and then
use the Deserialize method
static void Main()
{
string jsonString = File.ReadAllText(file);
WeatherForecast forecast =
JsonSerializer.Deserialize<WeatherForecast>(jsonString);
}

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What is JSON.NET?
 JSON.NET is a JSON framework for .NET
 More functionality than built-in functionality
 Supports LINQ-to-JSON
 Out-of-the-box support for parsing between JSON
and XML
 Open-source project: http://www.newtonsoft.com
 To install JSON.NET use the NuGet Package Manager

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General Usage
 JSON.NET exposes a static service JsonConvert
 Used for parsing and configuration to
 Serialize an object
var jsonProduct = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(product);

 Deserialize an object
var objProduct =
JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Product>(jsonProduct);

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Configuring JSON.NET
 By default, the result is a single line of text
 To indent the output string use Formatting.Indented
JsonConvert.SerializeObject(products, Formatting.Indented);
{
"pump": {
"Id": 0,
"Name": "Oil Pump",
"Description": null,
"Cost": 25.0
},
"filter": {
"Id": 0,
"Name": "Oil Filter",
"Description": null,
"Cost": 15.0
}
} 23
Configuring JSON.NET
 Deserializing to anonymous types Incoming JSON
var json = @"{ 'firstName': 'Svetlin',
'lastName': 'Nakov',
'jobTitle': 'Technical Trainer' }";
var template = new
{
FirstName = string.Empty,
LastName = string.Empty, Template
JobTitle = string.Empty objects
};
var person = JsonConvert.DeserializeAnonymousType(json,
template);
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JSON.NET Attributes
 By default JSON.NET takes each property / field from the class
and parses it
 This can be controlled using attributes
public class User Parse Username
{ to user
[JsonProperty("user")]
public string Username { get; set; }
[JsonIgnore] Skip the property
public string Password { get; set; }
}
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JSON.NET Parsing of Objects
 By default JSON.NET takes each property / field from the class
and parses it
 This can be controlled using ContractResolver
DefaultContractResolver contractResolver =
new DefaultContractResolver()
{
NamingStrategy = new SnakeCaseNamingStrategy()
};
var serialized = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(person,
new JsonSerializerSettings()
{
ContractResolver = contractResolver,
Formatting = Formatting.Indented
});
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LINQ-to-JSON
 LINQ-to-JSON works with JObjects
 Create from JSON string
JObject obj = JObject.Parse(jsonProduct);

 Reading from file

var people = JObject.Parse(File.ReadAllText(@"c:\people.json"))

 Using JObject
foreach (JToken person in people)
{
Console.WriteLine(person["FirstName"]); // Ivan
Console.WriteLine(person["LastName"]); // Petrov
}
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LINQ-to-JSON
 JObjects can be queried with LINQ
var json = JObject.Parse(@"{'products': [
{'name': 'Fruits', 'products': ['apple', 'banana']},
{'name': 'Vegetables', 'products': ['cucumber']}]}");

var products = json["products"].Select(t =>

string.Format("{0} ({1})",
t["name"],
string.Join(", ", c["products"])
));

// Fruits (apple, banana)

// Vegetables (cucumber)
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 RestSharp
Simplifying REST API Calls in C#
RestSharp: REST API Client for C#
 RestSharp is popular REST API client library for .NET
 Very simple, quite powerful
 Official site: https://restsharp.dev
 Execute HTTP requests (sync & async)
 Submit HTTP parameters, forms, query string, URL segment, etc.
 Send / receive / serialize / parse JSON and XML payloads
 Multiple authentication schemes: Basic, JWT, OAuth
 Community of millions developers
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Using RestSharp
 Installing RestSharp through NuGet:

 Executing simple HTTP GET request:

using RestSharp;

var client = new RestClient("https://api.github.com");

var request = new RestRequest("/users/softuni/repos", Method.Get);

var response = client.Execute(request);

Console.WriteLine(response.Content);
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Using URL Segment Parameters
var client = new RestClient("https://api.github.com");

var request = new RestRequest(

"/repos/{user}/{repo}/issues/{id}", Method.Get);

request.AddUrlSegment("user", "testnakov");
request.AddUrlSegment("repo", "test-nakov-repo");
request.AddUrlSegment("id", 1);

var response = client.Execute(request);

Console.WriteLine(response.StatusCode);
Console.WriteLine(response.Content);
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Deserializing JSON Responses
var client = new RestClient("https://api.github.com");

var request = new RestRequest(

"/users/softuni/repos", Method.Get);

var resp = client.Execute(request);

public class Repo {  Reference the

public int id { get; set; } GitHub REST API
public string full_name { get; set; } documentation, which
public string html_url { get; set; } outlines the properties
} of a repository object
var repos = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<List<Repo>>(resp.Content);
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GitHub Authentication
 Reading from a public GitHub project is open to everyone
 Modifying data in a GitHub project requires authentication
 Get an API access token from your GitHub profile:
https://github.com/settings/tokens/new
 Use HTTP basic authentication: username + token

 Under "Select Scopes" Choose Repo

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RestSharp: HTTP POST Request
 Executing HTTP POST request with RestSharp:
var client = new RestClient(new RestClientOptions("https://api.github.com")
{
Authenticator = new HttpBasicAuthenticator("username", "api-token")
});

var request = new RestRequest

("/repos/testnakov/test-nakov-repo/issues", Method.Post);

request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
request.AddJsonBody(new { title = "Title", body = "Body" });

var response = client.Execute(request);

Console.WriteLine(response.StatusCode);
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API Testing for GitHub Issues
Testing RESTful Services
API Testing with NUnit + RestSharp
 Creating API tests in C# with NUnit + RestSharp:
1. Create new NUnit Test Project in Visual Studio
2. Install the RestSharp package from NuGet
3. Write the test methods

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Creating API Tests
 Use MaxTimeout on the RestClient to establish a maximum
timeout that applies to all requests made by that client instance

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Creating API Tests
 Use Timeout on the RestRequest when you want to set a
timeout for individual requests

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Problem: Testing the GitHub API
 Using the GitHub official REST API
cerate the following requests and
test them:
 List all issues from the repo
"testnakov/test-nakov-repo"
 Create a new issue in the same repo
 Edit created issue
 You can check the results in the
project's issue tracker
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Solution: Setup the Test Class
 Setup the test class, create the REST client and configure HTTP
Basic Authentication

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Solution: Get All Issues (HTTP GET)

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Solution: Create New Issue (HTTP POST)

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Solution: Edit Created Issue (HTTP PATCH)

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 Data-Driven API Tests
Using [TestCase] to Assign Data to Tests
Data-Driven Testing Recap
 Data-driven testing == running the same test case with multiple
data (e. g. datasets in the C# code / Excel spreadsheet)
 Each [TestCase(… data …)] creates a separate unit test
Data Set Testing Script

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Zippopotam.us API
 Zippopotam.us is free API
 Provides location data by
country code + zip code
 Example HTTP GET request:
https://api.zippopotam.us/ca/M5S
 Use the "JSON Formatter"
plugin for Chrome to view the
JSON response

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Data-Driven NUnit Tests with [ Main TestCase]

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Data-Driven NUnit Tests with Classes

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Summary

 Understanding
… APIs: Interface for services
 Serialization
… and Deserialization: Data to
format conversion
 …
 JSON: Data interchange and object mapping
 How to use NUnit to structure the tests
and run them, and RestSharp to make
the HTTP requests to the API and verify
the responses
 Data-Driven API Tests 50
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 Unauthorized copy, reproduction or use is illegal
 © SoftUni – https://about.softuni.bg/
 © Software University – https://softuni.bg

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