Free event: Seven Common API Load Testing
April 8, 2020 Comments Off on Free event: Seven Common API Load Testing
I’ll be part of a lineup of virtual speakers at the upcoming SmartBear Connect 2020 event. I will be speaking about some of the most common API load testing mistakes that I’ve seen over the past 15 years. Here’s what I’ll be covering:
Just about everyone understands why it’s so important to run functional tests for APIs and microservices. However, a surprisingly large percentage of organizations shortchange the equally important task of placing these resources under realistic loads to determine what kind of performance they can expect in production.
In this informative session, Robert Schneider from WiseClouds will describe seven of the most frequent mistakes when running these vital tests. These include:
1. Not performance testing a full business process
2. Using hard-coded data to drive tests
3. Neglecting to calibrate the virtual users
4. Concentrating load generation from a single location
5. Not factoring in external API calls
6. Trying to simulate GUI security interactions via API
7. Failing to explore multiple load generation scenarios
You can learn more here. I hope to see you at this free virtual event soon!
SmartBear Connect 2020 will be online!
March 21, 2020 Comments Off on SmartBear Connect 2020 will be online!
I had the opportunity to meet a number of blog readers during the most recent SmartBear Connect. Many others who were unable to attend the event in person have reached out to me to request access to the advanced ReadyAPI and SoapUI training I provided that day.
If you’re interested in these topics, you should know that SmartBear has just announced that SmartBear Connect 2020 will be delivered virtually (in no small part thanks to the current COVID-19 lockdown). It’ll be taking place on April 27-28, 2020.
I’ll be making a presentation (details to follow soon) during that event. You can learn more here.
Free open passes for upcoming API World in San Jose
September 16, 2019 Comments Off on Free open passes for upcoming API World in San Jose
I’ll be speaking at API World (October 8-10, San Jose Convention Center) and it would be great if you could join me at the event. Click here to register for your free open pass (available for the first 25 visitors so don’t delay), which gives you access to:
- Main Stage Keynotes
- OPEN Talks
- API World Expo
See you there!
Speaking about best practices for testing Microservices at API World in October
September 10, 2019 Comments Off on Speaking about best practices for testing Microservices at API World in October
If you’re going to be in the Bay Area in October, I invite you to join me at API World in San Jose. I’ll be giving a talk about applying hard-earned best practices from SOA and Web services to the exciting new world of microservices.
Here’s the abstract of what I’ll be presenting:
Microservices represent the next logical step in the evolution of distributed computing, rather than a complete break with the past. When implementing this type of fresh approach, it can be tempting to come up with an entirely new set of procedures for carrying out important tasks. While this is certainly helpful when these responsibilities haven‚ been encountered before, it‚ wise to avoid reinventing the wheel whenever possible.Fortunately, carrying out the vital job of ensuring that your microservices are highly reliable and performant can profit from well-established best practices and patterns for testing mission-critical distributed software assets. These have been utilized for more than 10 years, and have helped make the API era possible. All of these proven techniques can be invaluable to microservices designers, developers, and testers.In this thought-provoking event, we cover a number of practical, easily-applied guidelines that will serve you well as you develop and expand your microservices portfolio. These will include:
- Using automation to assist in attaining 100% code testing coverage
- Going beyond traditional unit testing to incorporate anticipated composition and orchestration into your quality assurance process
- Employing statistically significant quantities of meaningful data to fuel your tests
- Subjecting your microservices to realistic load volumes and geographically distributed consumers-
- Organizing and evolving your microservices testing inventory via effective governance.
You can learn more here.
Advanced SoapUI Training Agenda at SmartBear Connect 2018
September 30, 2018 Comments Off on Advanced SoapUI Training Agenda at SmartBear Connect 2018
I’m looking forward to presenting a series of eight advanced SoapUI API testing talks at the upcoming SmartBear Connect conference in Boston on October 29. Here’s what I’ll be covering:
- Determining if your API is behaving properly requires examining the contents of the responses it returns. This session will showcase some of SoapUI’s most powerful message evaluation assertions.
- Automating your API tests means avoiding hard-coded, rigid message response evaluations. This session will teach you how you can apply flexibility when examining what your APIs return.
- Using XPath expressions in your SoapUI assertions offer tremendous productivity enhancements versus writing Groovy code. This session will show you how to create powerful and flexible XPath.
- Many applications incorporate multiple APIs. In this session, you’ll learn how to use the SoapUI data sources that enable feeding the output of one API to subsequent API calls.
- It’s important to use diverse data when testing your APIs. SoapUI includes robust data generation features, which we’ll explore in this session.
- Testing APIs means coping with ever-changing endpoints, security credentials, database connections, and so on. As you’ll learn in this session, SoapUI’s environments greatly simplify this vital responsibility.
- API testing responsibilities are often shared among multiple people. In this session, you’ll see how easy it is to utilize composite projects and Git to boost your teamwork.
- SmartBear continues to significantly improve SoapUI’s integration with the entire software development pipeline. This session will highlight just one example by demonstrating how to link your API testing efforts with Jenkins’ continuous integration/continuous delivery features.
Participate in SmartBear’s State of Testing Survey
July 31, 2018 Comments Off on Participate in SmartBear’s State of Testing Survey
SmartBear provides a highly useful, well-integrated set of software design, development, testing, and management solutions. Once again, they’re polling the marketplace to get feedback on how enterprises are testing their vital software resources.
It’s definitely worthwhile to participate in this survey, because it provides critical insights that helps guide product direction and thus deliver more accurately targeted tools to the market. We use the survey results as well when enhancing our ReadyAPI and SoapUI training classes. You can find the survey here.
Advanced SoapUI Pro training at SmartBear Connect!
April 30, 2018 Comments Off on Advanced SoapUI Pro training at SmartBear Connect!
SmartBear has just announced its second annual user conference, to be held in Boston on October 29 & 30. Training will be a big part of this year’s agenda. If you’re interested in strengthening your SoapUI Pro skills, you’ll want to stay tuned to this blog for more details about a whole day of hands-on advanced training that we’re planning to deliver.
Swagger Inspector from SmartBear: a very nice free online tool for testing APIs
January 30, 2018 Comments Off on Swagger Inspector from SmartBear: a very nice free online tool for testing APIs
SmartBear, makers of ReadyAPI (the most comprehensive and widely adopted Web service and REST API testing platform) have just released an excellent, free tool for carrying out quick and easy interactions with your API.
Swagger Inspector does a superb job of working with APIs (all HTTP methods are available), and it supports parameters, authentication & headers, and message payloads. It even generates OpenAPI documentation. If you’re designing, developing, testing, or simply using an API, you’ll want to check out this exciting new offering.
We’ll be incorporating Swagger Inspector into our SoapUI Pro training as well as our multi-model database design training course.
SoapUI training & certification track at SmartBear Connect on September 12
August 31, 2017 Comments Off on SoapUI training & certification track at SmartBear Connect on September 12
If you’re going to be in the Boston area on September 12, and would like to learn how to deliver high quality APIs by applying robust functional, performance, and security tests, be sure to check out the special training course that will take place during the SmartBear Connect user conference.
This all-day class – which is usually only available for private organizations – will be delivered by SmartBear’s Mike Giller using a significant subset of the training materials WiseClouds presents during private sessions. Mike will discuss:
- The ReadyAPI Platform
- Establishing Connectivity to your APIs
- Developing Functional Tests
- Validating API Responses with Assertions
- Data-Driven Testing & Programmatic Test Control
- Performance Testing & Virtualization
- Best Practices for ReadyAPI
Along with increasing your skill levels, attending this class will prepare you for the optional SoapUI certification exam. And to make things even more interesting, there will be additional tracks and events dedicated to the other major components in SmartBear’s far-reaching product portfolio.
You can learn more here.
Helpful REST API 101 guide available online
July 1, 2016 Comments Off on Helpful REST API 101 guide available online
For software developers and architects tasked with creating programmatic interfaces to their applications, there’s been a longstanding debate between utilizing the structure and standards of SOAP-based Web services versus offering the freedom and flexibility of REST APIs.
In the midst of all these deliberations, I’ve observed a great deal of confusion about what, exactly, defines a REST API. SmartBear has come up with a helpful resource that provides a nice overview of the origins, attributes, and goals of REST APIs. You can view the guide here.
If you’re interested in learning more about REST API design, development, and testing, check out my other postings on the subject.
rdschneider 
You must be logged in to post a comment.