API Testing:

Application Programming Interface

Shift Left Testing

Web Services Vs Web APIs (Web Services are a subset of Web API.)

Important Terms:
1. Interoperability
a. Interoperability is the process that facilitates multiple applications to
communicate with the other applications residing on a different platform.
2. Authentication And Authorization
a. Authentication means validating something whereas Authorization means
giving/having the right to access something
3. Loosely Coupled Architecture

a. This means that the interfaces of Web Services are dynamic (changes during
a given timeline) in nature. But the client logic does not necessarily have to
change while interacting with the service.This facilitates the integration of
multiple software in a more efficient way. If it was a Tightly Coupled
Architecture, then each time when the interface changes, the client logic has
to be changed to make it synchronized with the service.
4. Artifact
a. It is a term that is used in Web Services to denote information or data.
5. End Point
a. This is a very common term that is used in every request of the web service. This
is the complete URL that hits the instance of the Web Service.
6. Idempotent
a. This is in the client-server interaction in which it does not matter how many times
you hit the instance of the service, and the server will always return the same
response to the client.
7. Marsgalling and Demarshalling
a. When we wrap or encapsulate data into payload (XML) to form a SOAP message
and send it to the server, then this process of encapsulating is called Marshalling.
b. Demarshalling is just the reciprocal of Marshalling. The method of decapsulating
or unwrapping data and code (XML) from the SOAP message is called
“Demarshalling”.

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol which is a Stateful protocol)

Uses XML as payload or request body,

The Architecture Of SOAP Service

Every SOAP service depends on three entities that ultimately form the architecture of SOAP Service.

Service Provider: All software systems or application that is a part or provides Web Service.

Service Requester: All software systems or applications that is a part of requests Web Service from
Service Provider.

Service Registry: A registry or repository where all the information about Web Service is provided by the
Service Provider.

WSDL (Web Services Description Language)

This defines where the Web Service actually resides and the type of Web Service to be
picked up for a specific request. 
UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration)

UDDI is responsible for letting a client find out (UDDI provides a repository for WSDL)
where the WSDL’s XML file is located. This is how a Web Service is defined and described.
XML-RPC
It stands for Extensible Markup Language – Remote Procedure. Another very important
component of Web Service is XML – RPC which is responsible for sending messages
across systems. Requests and responses are in the form of XML and are sent/received
through the HTTP POST.

REST (Representational State Transfer, which is a Stateless Service.)

Method or Verbs
Each method in REST has its significance. Given Below is the briefing about each of
them.
 GET: This method is used to retrieve the information that is sent to the server using
any of the methods like PUT or POST. This does not have a request body.
Successful execution will give you 200 response objects.
 POST: This method is used to create a document or record using a request body,
specified URL, document key, context key, etc. The same can be retrieved using the
GET method. Successful execution will give you a 201 response.
 PUT: This is under the CUSTOM option that is available in POSTMAN or
PARASOFT. This method is used to update any document or record that is already
present. Successful execution will give you a 201 or 200 response.
 DELETE: This method is used to delete any record. Successful execution will give
you a 204 response (no content).
Difference between SOAP and REST:
Their differences are listed down for your reference.
 SOAP envelope can be used in the REST but not vice versa. E.g. A user token
which is created in SOAP can be passed in the REST request under the HTTP
header manager -> Authorization.
 SOAP is typically more secure than REST services as SOAP services provide WSS
apart from SSL. This SSL is present both in SOAP and REST.
 SOAP is slower than REST as the request processing takes more time in SOAP due
to the XML data format. REST uses JSON which is very light-weighted and thus
makes it faster.
 SOAP does not have any inbuilt method but REST does have GET, PUT, POST, etc.
 SOAP is stateful whereas REST is stateless.
 The request and response bodies in SOAP support only the XML data format. In
REST, the request and response bodies support many data formats like JSON, XML,
Plain Text, etc.

BSON (Binary JavaScript Object Notation)