API Automation Framework For Exhaustive

Functional Testing

BITS ZG629T: Dissertation

By

GAURAV KHURANA

2011HZ13006

Dissertation work carried out at

NetCracker Technology Solutions, Hyderabad

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

PILANI (RAJASTHAN)

November, 2013
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API Automation Framework For Exhaustive

Functional Testing

BITS ZG629T: Dissertation

By

GAURAV KHURANA

2011HZ13006

Dissertation work carried out at

NetCracker Technology Solutions, Hyderabad

Submitted in partial fulfillment of M.S. Software Systems

Under the Supervision of

Mr. Rakesh Biswal,
NetCracker Technology Solutions, Hyderabad

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE

PILANI (RAJASTHAN)

November, 2013
iii
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Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Work-Integrated Learning Programmes Division

First Semester 2013-2014

BITS ZG629T: Dissertation

ABSTRACT

BITS ID No. : 2011HZ13006____________________

NAME OF THE STUDENT : GAURAV KHURANA__________________

EMAIL ADDRESS : [email protected]___________

STUDENT’S EMPLOYING : NetCracker Technology Solutions, Hyderabad_

ORGANIZATION & LOCATION

SUPERVISOR’S NAME : Rakesh Biswal_______________

SUPERVISOR’S EMPLOYING : NetCracker Technology Solutions, Hyderabad _

ORGANIZATION & LOCATION

SUPERVISOR’S EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]___

DISSERTATION TITLE : API Automation Framework for Exhaustive

Functional Testing
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project would not have been possible without the support of many people. I would like to
acknowledge and extend my heartfelt gratitude to the following persons who have made the
completion of this project possible.
My Supervisor, Rakesh Biswal, for his full support and guidance throughout this project.
My Manager, Mr. Devaraj Dey for encouraging and supporting me to pursue the project
Prof. Prasanna Chennupati from BITS Hyderabad, for giving the feedback at various stages of the
project which acted as a motivation for working on the project
My testing team members who have helped me during various phases of the project.
Last but not the least, I would like to express my love and gratitude to my beloved family, for their
understanding & motivation, through the duration of this project.
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED

API: Application Programming Interface

TC: Test Case
POT: Proof Of Testing
ENV: Environment
CACS: Customer Acquisitions and Customer Services
CSA: Communication Service Areas (CSAs)
HTML: Hyper Text Markup language.
IDL: Interactive Data Language
XML: Extensible Markup Language
CDR: Call Detail Record
SDLC: Software Development Life Cycle
EFT: Electronic Fund Transfer
BO: Business Object
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 : Technical Architecture of Atlys ........................................................................................... 2
Figure 2 : Current Mode of Operation .................................................................................................. 3
Figure 3 : API Trends ........................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 4 : API acting as Interface ......................................................................................................... 9
Figure 5 : XML APIs .......................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 6 : Execution from Backend .................................................................................................... 11
Figure 7 : Classification of Data ......................................................................................................... 14
Figure 8 : Overall flow of Tool .......................................................................................................... 16
Figure 10 : Input Path ......................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 11 : Base Form ........................................................................................................................ 22
Figure 12 : Detailed Level Attribute Values ...................................................................................... 22
Figure 13 : Final form ......................................................................................................................... 23
Figure 14 : Model for Testing............................................................................................................. 24

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 : Naming convention ............................................................................................................. 21
Table 2 : Statistics before tool implementation .................................................................................. 25
Table 3 : Statistics after tool implementation ..................................................................................... 25
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Table of Contents
Ch No. Title Page No
i) Certificate iii
ii) Abstract iv
iii) Acknowledgements vi
iv) List of Abbreviations vii
v) List of Figures viii
vi) List of Tables viii
Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Organizational Background .................................................................................................... 1
1.2 About the Product ................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Architecture ............................................................................................................................ 2
Chapter 2 Project Overview ................................................................................................................ 2
2.1 Current Mode of Operation .................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Problem with the existing solution ......................................................................................... 4
2.3 Suggested solution .................................................................................................................. 4
2.4 Objectives ............................................................................................................................... 4
2.5 Expected features .................................................................................................................... 4
2.5.1 User friendly design............................................................................................................. 4
2.5.2 Cost Reduction .................................................................................................................... 5
2.5.3 Training ............................................................................................................................... 5
2.6 Scope of Work ........................................................................................................................ 5
Chapter 3 Motivation for Tool............................................................................................................. 6
3.1 Automated Testing ................................................................................................................. 6
3.2 When we should do the Automation ...................................................................................... 6
3.3 Automation is suitable for following types of Testing ........................................................... 6
3.4 Benefits of Automation .......................................................................................................... 7
3.5 Areas where Automation can be attempted first .................................................................... 7
3.6 Disadvantages of Automation ................................................................................................ 7
3.7 Trends in industry ................................................................................................................... 8
Chapter 4 XML API ............................................................................................................................. 9
4.1 What is an API ? ..................................................................................................................... 9
4.2 What is XML? ........................................................................................................................ 9
4.3 Working of XML API .......................................................................................................... 10
4.3.1 Extension Layer ................................................................................................................. 10
4.3.2 Integration layer ................................................................................................................. 10
4.3.3 Business Layer ................................................................................................................... 11
4.4 Why XML APIs.................................................................................................................... 11
4.5 Testing APIs ......................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 5 Design for Tool .................................................................................................................. 12
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5.1 XML Parser .......................................................................................................................... 12

5.2 Dynamic Control Generator ................................................................................................. 13
5.3 Script Template..................................................................................................................... 13
5.4 Script Generator .................................................................................................................... 14
5.5 Classification of Data ........................................................................................................... 14
5.5.1 Integer ................................................................................................................................ 14
5.5.2 String ................................................................................................................................. 14
5.5.3 Float ................................................................................................................................... 15
5.5.4 Boolean .............................................................................................................................. 15
5.5.5 Date .................................................................................................................................... 15
5.5.6 Query ................................................................................................................................. 15
5.5.7 Custom Values ................................................................................................................... 16
Chapter 6 Implementation .................................................................................................................. 17
6.1 Base Class ............................................................................................................................. 17
6.2 Dynamic Generation of controls........................................................................................... 17
6.3 Generic Functions ................................................................................................................. 18
Chapter 7: Project Details ................................................................................................................... 19
7.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 19
7.2 Hardware Requirements ....................................................................................................... 19
7.3 Software Requirements......................................................................................................... 19
7.4 How to run ............................................................................................................................ 19
7.5 Compatibility ........................................................................................................................ 20
7.6 Features of Framework ......................................................................................................... 20
Chapter 8 Testing and Results ............................................................................................................ 24
8.1 Testing .................................................................................................................................. 24
8.2 Results .................................................................................................................................. 24
8.3 Before implementation ......................................................................................................... 25
8.4 After implementation ............................................................................................................ 25
Chapter 9 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 26
Chapter 10 Recommendations and Future works ............................................................................... 27
Appendix I .......................................................................................................................................... 28
Category partitioning ...................................................................................................................... 28
Bibliography ....................................................................................................................................... 30
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Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Organizational Background

NetCracker Technology is the proven partner for communications service providers and cable
operators offering comprehensive, end-to-end solutions and delivery capabilities to optimize their
enterprise. With its global reach, leading-edge technology, and unbroken track record of successful
implementations, NetCracker helps eliminate operational and business silos and delivers real-time
experience in an on-demand world.
In 2008, following 15 years of independent and profitable growth, NetCracker Technology was
acquired by NEC Corporation. The acquisition was followed by NetCracker’s large-scale business
expansion whereby NEC consolidated its services business under NetCracker. The assets
encompassed innovative applications and service platforms, including customer and service
management, network management. In May 2012, NetCracker completed the acquisition of the
Convergys Information Management (IM) business. The Convergys IM business, with its long
history of innovative BSS solutions, successful implementations, and managed services,
strengthened the expansion into the BSS space.
NetCracker’s BSS/OSS solutions and services have been implemented and used successfully by
hundreds of customers worldwide, including Fortune 1000 companies and the U.S. government

1.2 About the Product

Remove the details about “company product” due to policies

You may add about the product here

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1.3 Architecture

Figure 1 : Technical Architecture of our Product

Remove the details about “company product” due to policies

You may add about the product here

Chapter 2 Project Overview

2.1 Current Mode of Operation

● User has to provide the values manually for the APIs for all attributes.
● The current API execution is being done via browser which is a lengthy process.
● User has to paste the API in the given textbox and then press the submit button to submit the
API to the particular server.

This is shown in the figure 2 how the browser is being used to fire the APIs.
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Figure 2 : Current Mode of Operation

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2.2 Problem with the existing solution

● User has to query the database and get the values manually which is time taking
● Each and every time user has to copy the API, change the contents in case of errors and re-
paste into the designated area and send it for processing.
● This execution involves three software to be opened simultaneously. A notepad for the
backup of file, a browser to run the APIs, a word document to take the POT for the scenarios.
● It not only consumes space in system but also makes the system slow. It also distracts the
user from the main task of testing the API.
● With all the above mentioned problems, user is not able to test all the possible scenarios.
● Some attributes get the same value each & every time for many releases.
● Only few set of values get tested.
● All the error codes are not tested every time.
● The most importantly it’s a time taking process.

2.3 Suggested solution

Considering the different problems faced in the existing way of manual execution of API, the project
includes the following different aspect to facilitate the user with necessary automation and overcome
the problem providing additional advantages.

2.4 Objectives

● Reduce the number of Person-hours required to complete testing thus saving a lot of effort
for the project
● Cover Scenarios which are not possible to be done manually covering Black Box testing
techniques.

2.5 Expected features

The solution should be made to bring automation into operation part of execution of API including
the following basic feature

2.5.1 User friendly design

This project should provide the user with the ease of avoiding the hassle of querying database every
time using three software’s simultaneously. This will save a lot of effort as the user interface that is
being designed is very easy considering the factor that anyone in the team can use it.
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2.5.2 Cost Reduction

Reduce the number of Person-hours required to complete testing thus saving a lot of effort for the
project APIs that are run manually as of now. Preparing an API which is having attributes as many
as forty in numbers takes a lot of time. It is done in every release. Normally it takes more than half
an hour in preparation of the API itself searching all the data from database. For new resources in
the team it takes even more time. A person should even be knowledgeable enough to remember all
the tables from which data needs to be taken for those APIs. As sometimes even that is not there in
the test case. So it takes time to go through the table’s link and check the various different attributes
before finalizing the values for the attributes. There are chances that a tester needs to refer to more
than one table for getting the values.
So making the above process automated will save a lot of time as it would be a one-time effort
creating an automated script for each API. That script can be used forever for the API with minimal
interaction with user until the API gets modified.

2.5.3 Training
The solution should be designed in such a way that end user can create automation scripts without
the knowledge of any scripting language.
User should be able to use the software with minimal training.

2.6 Scope of Work

● Analysis and categorization of different kind of APIs available in the system.
● Creating a user friendly UI for the end user for using the system.
● Covering Positive as well as negative testing of the API.
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Chapter 3 Motivation for Tool

3.1 Automated Testing

"Automated Testing" involves automating the manual testing process currently in use. This
section will be limited to API automated testing

Automation refers to the use of such tools which can reduce the need of manual or human
involvement in redundant, time taking tasks. API Automation process includes – Creation of test
scripts, which have been derived from raw APIs having some default values

A test environment in *nix operating system with a database is needed such that test scripts are
able to be repeated each time there is need to run the APIs
Automation is the basic motivation for creation of the tool and due to listed discussions.[4]

3.2 When we should do the Automation

Lot of effort and skills are required for automating any manual execution. It involves a lot of
time. The maintenance part plays a major role as with time and new functionalities as per the
request from the client gets added into the existing system which makes the automation script
obsolete.
Hence some sort of cost-benefit analysis is quite helpful before investing money and putting
efforts into it.

3.3 Automation is suitable for following types of Testing

 Functional Testing – concentrates on operations part which performs as per the

expectations.
 Regression Testing – To make sure no side effects on the unchanged part of the system
changed.
 Negative Testing – Testing with error prone date in the system.
 Performance Testing – to provide assurance that the performance of the system will not
be impacted when run in production environment business projections and
requirements.



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 Load Testing – to determine the points at which the capacity and performance of the
system degrades to the situation that hardware or software upgrades would be required.

In this project, our focus is on first three points, however we will cover last two points also indirectly
with some manual intervention

3.4 Benefits of Automation

 Reliable: Tests perform precisely the same operations with different data each time they are run,
thereby eliminating human error
 Repeatable: We can test how the software reacts under repeated execution of the same
operations.
 Efficient: Tests run in a reasonable amount of time.
 Sufficient: Tests verify all the requirements of the software being tested.
 Programmable: We can program complex tests that bring out hidden information
from the application.
 Comprehensive: We can build a suite of tests that covers every feature in our application.
 Reusable: We can reuse tests on different versions of an application, even if the user interfaces
changes.
 Better Quality Software: Because we can run more tests in less time with fewer
resources
 Fast: Automated Tools run tests significantly faster than human users.
 Economical: As the number of resources for regression test are reduced.

3.5 Areas where Automation can be attempted first

Highly redundant tasks or scenarios

 Repetitive tasks that are boring or tend to cause human error.
 Well-developed and well-understood use cases or scenarios first
Relatively stable areas of the application over volatile ones must be automated.

3.6 Disadvantages of Automation

Though this automation has many advantages, it has its own disadvantages too. Some of the
disadvantages are:
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 Test maintenance is needed which is cost consuming if API is getting changed frequently.
 People with the knowledge of scripting languages are required to debug in case of errors.
 Problems if got while creation of scripts will remain forever if not checked.

3.7 Trends in industry

Figure 3 clearly shows how the importance of API calls has been increased in industry . Similar trend
has been observed for telecommunication service providers. Since at the back end there are many
systems that works together so API correct functioning is important not only for better functioning of
the system but for collaborations with external partners.

Figure 3 : API Trends

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Chapter 4 XML API

4.1 What is an API ?

An Application Programming Interface (API) is a particular set of rules and specifications that a
software program can follow to access and make use of the services and resources provided by
another particular software program that implements that API. It serves as an interface between
different software programs and facilitates their interaction, similar to the way the user interface
facilitates interaction between humans and computers[3]
An API specifies how some software components should interact with each other. It’s an interface as
being depicted in Figure 4.
In addition to accessing databases or computer hardware, such as hard disk drives or video cards, an
API can be used to ease the work of programming graphical user interface components. In practice,
many times an API comes in the form of a library that includes specifications for routines, data
structures, object classes, and variables. In some other cases, notably for SOAP and REST services,
an API comes as just a specification of remote calls exposed to the API consumers.
An API specification can take many forms, including an International Standard such as POSIX,
vendor documentation such as the Microsoft Windows API, the libraries of a programming
language, e.g. Standard in C++ or Java API. Web APIs are also a vital component of today's web
fabric. An API differs from an application binary interface (ABI) in that an API is source code based
while an ABI is a binary interface. [1]
They are good for users because they guarantee that all programs using a common API will have
similar interfaces.

Figure 4 : API acting as Interface

4.2 What is XML?

Stands for Extensible Markup Language

Is a markup language much like HTML
Was designed to describe data.
Tags are not predefined in XML. We must define our own tags
Is self-describing.
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4.3 Working of XML API

WE have three layers in XML API which are mentioned below in Figure 5

4.3.1 Extension Layer

– Interface with Middleware
– Interacts with integration layer
– Always return success

Middleware
interface

Extension Layer

Integration Layer

Business Layer

Figure 5 : XML APIs

4.3.2 Integration layer

– Extract data from Node class

– Perform minimum validation
– Interact with BO (can be more than one)
– Populate the output
– Return Success to extension layer
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4.3.3 Business Layer

– Perform data related validations

– Perform business logic validations
– Interact with Database
– Throw exception if any validation or DB operation fails
– Return Output back to integration layer

4.4 Why XML APIs

• A single XML server can execute both as a CORBA server and Tuxedo server
• No IDL files required
• Factory registration and interface advertising is accomplished dynamically.
• XML offers data portability and reusability across different platforms and devices.
• It is also flexible and extensible, allowing new tags to be added without breaking an existing
document structure.
• Based on Unicode, XML provides global language support.

4.5 Testing APIs

4.5.1 Using testMWBusClient

– Booting the servers

– Executing the test driver testMWBusClient < apiNameData.xml

Below figure 6 shows the execution of API at Unix prompt

Figure 6 : Execution from Backend

4.5.2 Executing the server directly
<serverName> -stdin < apiNameData.xml

Below figure 7 shows the execution of API at Unix prompt in standalone mode

Figure 7 Execution in standalone mode

4.5.3 Executing through Browser

This is shown in Figure 2 where we paste the API is browser session and submits it for
processing.
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Chapter 5 Design for Tool

Designing involves problem solving and planning a software solution. This includes both low-level
component and algorithm design and high-level architecture design. This is one of the crucial stages
in SDLC.

We have divided the tool into four different components. The first one is the parsing component i.e.
the XML parser, then we have the Dynamic Controls Generator, after this come the Automation
Template in Perl, and the final one is the Script Generator. Apart from discussion on the components
design talks about the classification of input which is the core thing of the tool on the basis of which
input data for the tool is getting decided. Figure 8 shows the overall flow of the tool.

5.1 XML Parser

This is the first component of the tool which should get initiated as soon as the user starts the tool. It
gets the input XML file and it should extract necessary information out of it after parsing it.
There are five fundamentally different ways to parse XML, the "best" method depends both on the
particular development situation we are in and on the style of programming we prefer.
Each technique is based on a different .NET Framework class and its associated methods:

XmlTextReader:- Is appropriate for lower level of abstraction

XmlDocument: - Is appropriate if we need to extract data in a non-sequential manner.

XPathDocument:- Is appropriate when the XML file to parse is deeply nested or has a
complex structure.

XmlSerializer:- It gives less control over the parsing of XML.

Dataset :It has a very relational database feel, provides medium level of abstraction

After analyzing all the above different ways for parsing the API, It was concluded that
XmlTextReader should be used because of the following reasons.

It is straightforward and effective

Operates at a lower level of abstraction

Programmer can keep track of where we are in the XML file

We have used the read function of XmlTextReader to first read the elements and then used the
HasAttributes function to check if the element has attributes as we are interested in only those
elements which have some values, others are just ignored. Values for all three namely elements,
attributes and corresponding values are being stored as soon as they are retrieved.
MoveToNextAttribute function is being used for moving to the next element.

Using the above methods, we should be able to get the required things from the API, from where we
can proceed to our next step after parsing.
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5.2 Dynamic Control Generator

This tool is generic tool which is having the capability of automating any API. So there are different
APIs which will act as the input for the tool. So tool will have a dynamic control generation
capability so that it can generate interface for the user for any size of API. So Dynamic Control
Generator has been designed considering this factor into mind to generate controls.

We have used the following controls in our forms which are designed to have interaction with the
user[7]

5.2.1 Labels: - A Label control is used as a display medium for text on Forms. Label control does
not participate in user input or capture mouse or keyboard events.
We have used it extensively in the tool to provide necessary information to the users mostly near the
buttons and textboxes.

5.2.2 Combo Boxes: - Combo Box is a combination Textbox with a drop-down. Its drop-down list
presents preset choices. Only one list item is displayed at one time in a Combo Box and other
available items are loaded in a drop down list. The user can type anything into the Combo Box, or
select something from the list.
We have tried to use combo boxes at most of the places so that user has minimum opportunity to
type and try to cover maximum choices in the pre-defined list. We have restricted the user to type
user defined choices to avoid unpredictable behavior.

5.2.3 Textbox: - It lets user’s type letters and enters data. Many events and properties are available
on the Textbox control. We have used the properties to adjust the textboxes covering all the different
requirements of sizes as per the data types of the attributes.
We have given preference to combo boxes at most of the places and where we are not able to
accommodate combo boxes, we have used text boxes to get customized data from the user.

5.2.4 Buttons: - It accepts click events and performs other actions in the user interface. This control
provides a way to accept input and invoke logic based on that input. Button controls provide a way
for users to commit a command or perform an action, like submitting or resetting a form.
We have used it to allow users to proceed to next forms, generate the final automation script, and
add new objects into existing form

5.3 Script Template

In any automation, we try to collect some set of steps which were performed manually earlier and
put them in one place in such a way that there is chain of events between all the events and things
start working in an automatic way. So here comes to rescue scripting languages which help us to
achieve this task of automation. We have chosen Perl as a scripting language as it’s very easy to
modify and syntax has minimal restrictions. Also there are more than one way of doing things in
Perl.
This template should be used as a base for all the automated scripts. It should have all the basic
things like database connectivity, execution of APIs, putting the input API and its corresponding
output results for later verification. It should be written in a generic way to accommodate the
different APIs. Environment details should have generic variable so that it can be used in any
environment

It should create a script which should have edit permission so that if the user wants any modification
in the input file
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5.4 Script Generator

This is the last component in the flow which should use the script template and the values received
from the user and generate the final script. It first uses the script template to an extent and then uses
the user provided values and transforms the data into the form which is correct in logically and
syntax form for Perl.

It will show the user the final output path of the script generated

5.5 Classification of Data

We have classified the data into following to cover the possible scenarios.[5] Basic data types are
being considered for classification to help user to achieve operations covering most of the things.
Information given in Appendix 1 is used to come to below classification. Some of the possible
things are intentionally removed as there is very less probability of those values in any of the
available APIs. This will save user time too by avoiding unnecessary information. The data types are
shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 : Classification of Data

5.5.1 Integer

Fixed Length
Maximum Integer Length

i. Variable Length
ii. Minimum Integer Value
iii. Maximum Integer Value

5.5.2 String

Fixed Length
Variable Length
Alphanumeric-Fix
Alphanumeric-Variable
Numbers-Fix
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Numbers-Var
SpecialCharacters-Fix
SpecialCharacters-Var

All the above have one sub-category that is “Maximum String Length” which will be suffice for
covering most of the scenario.

5.5.3 Float

Upto 1 Decimal Point

Upto 2 Decimal Point
Upto 3 Decimal Point
Upto 4 Decimal Point

All the above have two further below sub-categories that are
Minimum Float Value
Maximum Float Value

5.5.4 Boolean

Since Boolean can always have two values. But those values are not fixed. Those values vary as
per the implementer of the API and sometimes as per the client’s requirements. So it has been
given as a choice to the end user to put any two values here.

First Boolean Value

Second Boolean Value

5.5.5 Date

Date is a non-trivial type of attribute. It has several representations and the way they are being
used in API. So we have decided to take the below one’s which are specific to our project. Since
there is no specific standard for dates anywhere. We have to list down few only. However with
some modification some new ones can be added

YYYY-MM-DD
DD-MM-YYYY
YYYYMM
MMYYYY
YYYYMMDD
DDMMYYYY
DD-MMM-YYYY

5.5.6 Query

This is the most important attribute among all, as this is the place where user can take out data
from the database. This will be random data. This part of the tool will cover the different valid
values retrieved from database. User is advised to give generic query so maximum data could be
checked. User may take advantage of this by providing those query which are not specific to
retrieve data from some customer database but to form patterns using the dual table.
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5.5.7 Custom Values

There are chances that we might have missed something in the classification above. So this data
type is defined providing user the flexibility to define customized values. User is given the
choice to fill up custom values. User is allowed to give maximum 7 different values.

Figure 8 : Overall flow of Tool

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Chapter 6 Implementation

6.1 Base Class

We have created one namespace named as “API_Automation_Tool”. This namespace contain the
class that has all the storage elements which are responsible for parsing the XML API which is being
passed by the end user. That XML file will be parsed here and is stored in the system which will be
utilized by the tool.

Raw data that is being received is classified into elements, attributes and values of those attributes.
We have used three different arrays to store the three types parallel at same indices all the three
arrays
This class contains the load function which contains the logic of XML parsing, and is being called at
the start of execution of the Tool.

6.2 Dynamic Generation of controls

6.2.1 Base Form : This is the first form which will be shown to the user. It will be having all the
elements and attributes from the API provided as input and will be having corresponding combo
boxes and textboxes to allow user to take actions

This form has the following functions in its implementation

createLabelsTextboxes :- This generic function is designed to create Textboxes on the form

dynamically on the basis of input data. It can alone handle creation of labels Textboxes and also
combo box for the first basic form which gets open as user start the tool. It will show the available
choice to the user. User may select any values from combo boxes or may prefer to keep the default
values.

Next_Click :- Clicking on the “Next” button on “Base Form” will call this function which will now
parse the controls on the form and stores the values selected by the user. It will show the further
selection combo boxes which has detailed information regarding the values already selected after the
initialization of the form.

Proceed_Click :- After the user has selected the detailed choices too, he/she may press the
“Proceed” button which will take the user to a new form.

6.2.2 Final Form

This form is generated on the detailed level selection by the user on the first form. It will allow user
to provide values in various form. This form is different from the first as it is having information at
the lowest level and may have textboxes enabled , disabled based on the last inputs. Some of the
textboxes will be disabled here as user might have selected.
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Create_TextBoxes_2_form :- This function is to create textboxes on the second form.

Generate_Script_Click :- This is where the tools functionality comes to end. As this button will
generate final script for the input API. This script would be in Perl and can be run in Linux
environment.

6.3 Generic Functions

We have tried to implement reusability in the code. There are some generic functions which are
common for all the forms which any function can use to achieve the purpose.

ValueSelelected :- This function is written to check which are the values selected by the user. As we
need this functionality required by multiple forms. This one is written in a generic way.
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Chapter 7: Project Details

7.1 Introduction

Below Steps define the standards and practices which should be adopted for
Automation Tool.

7.2 Hardware Requirements

Any Windows machine with matches the following criteria:

Processor: Pentium 1 GHz or higher

RAM: 850 MB for x86 / 2GB for x64
System Type: 32 bit Operating System/64 Bit Operating System

7.3 Software Requirements

Dot net framework 4.

Windows XP SP3 or higher.

7.4 How to run

1. Place the input xml into C:\API_AUTOMATION\input.xml

2. Start the tool.

3. Verify the Values on the Base form and click Next

4. Further select the values categorization & click proceed

5. Now fill the final details at the detail level & click Generate Script

6. Now you can verify the output script in C:\API_AUTOMATION\output

7. You have the script now, ftp it to the environment

8. Just type the name and press enter.

9. Output file will be generated in the same path. Make sure your user id has write permission
in the directory
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7.5 Compatibility

The Current Automation framework supports windows platform only.

7.6 Features of Framework

 Work for various kinds of API.

 Provides easy to use interface.
 Script Generation in Perl language which is simple to understand.
 Provision of providing custom values as well as system retrieved Values.

 Provision of showing API result was success of failure based on certain parameter.
 Flexibility to user to decide how many times the script should be run
 Provision of saving all the iteration of the API to be stored as POT for later
verification

7.7 Assumptions and limitation

User of the tool has basic knowledge of the API

API should have the ‘ISO-8859-1’ encoding tag into it.
In case of errors, tool has to be run again.

7.8 Naming Conventions

Attributes values are named combining the names of elements and attributes so that end user can
differentiate in case there are duplicate attributes for different elements

For example

The below API is for swapping price plan (services) for a subscriber.

<envelope>
<body>
<inputSwapPlan >
<sourceSvc svcName =”Service 300 Minutes”>
<targetSvc svcName = “Service 600 Minutes”>
</inputSwapPlan>
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</body>
</envelope>

So if we get such API, we have same Attribute name (svcName) which is common for two
elements. So in this case, to facilitate the user we are providing the name like below, so it’s easy
for end user to understand which attribute belong to which element
1) sourceSvc.svcName
2) targetSvc.svcName

The following Table 1 lists recommended conventions for various controls which are
being used.

Control Type Prefix Example

Textbox txt txtElementAttribute
Combo box cmb cmbElementAttribute
Label lbl lblElementAttribute

Table 1 : Naming convention

The images shown below Figure 10-13 depicts the execution of tool

Figure 9 : Input Path

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Figure 10 : Base Form

Figure 11 : Detailed Level Attribute Values

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Figure 12 : Final form

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Chapter 8 Testing and Results

8.1 Testing
As the title of the Dissertation says this tool is for Functional testing, we have made in such a
way that to do that in an exhaustive way.
Functional testing is a quality assurance (QA) process and a type of black box testing that bases
its test cases on the specifications of the software component under test. Functions are tested by
feeding them input and examining the output, and internal program structure is rarely
considered. Functional Testing usually describes what the system does.

For this tool, Testing was conducted in phases, as we have implement iterative model where
development and testing went on side by side for each module as correctly shown in figure 14.

Figure 13 : Model for Testing

8.2 Results
There are many regression issues that were found that were residing in the system since long.
The following are some of the issues which are shown in a generic way

1) Negotiation API failing for a floating amount near to the maximum limit.
2) Some API were throwing wrong error messages
3) Code was shown instead of error messages
 25

4) Reference data was not there for many tables.

5) There were time out errors for some APIs for specific set of values
6) Some performance issues were also found during testing.

Apart from these, there are other issues which we are expecting and still it has to be adopted by
the whole team and then we will be able to find more issues. We are using it to make system
better.

8.3 Before implementation

Table 2 : Statistics before tool implementation

This time is just for one iteration of the API and will just test one set of values. If a user want to
test for more than (say 5), for 5 attributes add 14 more minutes, which will turn around to
approx. 40 minutes for running an API.

8.4 After implementation

Table 3 : Statistics after tool implementation

Now you just have to run the API, system will itself prepare the API, and as well as the POT for
the user. User just has to type the name of the script and run.
However there is one time investment of time which for creating the script itself. How much
time that will take depends on the skills of the person and how large the API is.
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Chapter 9 Conclusion
In this Dissertation an effort is made to automate the functional testing for the API and to
minimize the human effort involved in testing the API. It has been observed that API testing
accounts for around 30% of overall testing in the project and rest components of the software
also calls API for getting the work done.

So automation has brought into picture to cover this major part and it is successful, there are
issues which were there in the system for long were not caught for past ten release are caught and
fixed even before coming to the knowledge of client and thus have added significant value to the
system.

Regression testing which is done in every release and is time consuming has been taken first and
API are automated and thus has reduced significant amount of time for team and is more
effective .
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Chapter 10 Recommendations and Future works

This automation tool can be enhanced to do automation directly from the basis of XSD. User
need not to provide anything. System will be intelligent enough to read the XSD and prepare the
automation script.User need not to provide API’s attributes details at all.

Even provision for providing the Pre-written Query could be given for some general basic
attributes which are common in most of the API like phone number, account number, subscriber
id.

Feature can be added to join two scripts so that input of one can act as the output of other. Auto
verification of output can also be accommodated in future version of tool.
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Appendix I
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a collection of software functions and
procedures, called API calls that can be executed by other software applications. Application
developers code that links to existing APIs to make use of their functionality. This link is
seamless and end-users of the application are generally unaware of using a separately developed
API.
During testing, a test harness—an application that links the API and methodically exercises its
functionality—is constructed to simulate the use of the API by end-user applications. The
interesting problems for testers are:
1. Ensuring that the test harness varies parameters of the API calls in ways that verify
functionality and expose failures. This includes assigning common parameter values as well
as exploring boundary conditions.

2. Generating interesting parameter value combinations for calls with two or more parameters.

3. Determining the content under which an API call is made. This might include setting external
environment conditions (files, peripheral devices, and so forth) and also internal stored data
that affect the API.

4. Sequencing API calls to vary the order in which the functionality is exercised and to make
the API produce useful results from successive calls.

Category partitioning

The category-partition technique is a general-purpose functional testing method that goes

through a series of decompositions based on characteristics of the input domain. For our
purposes, there are three basic steps to category-partitioning: 1) create a set of categories that
describe properties of inputs; 2) partition the categories into choices that enumerate specific
values or value-ranges that inputs can assume; and 3) determine constraints among the choices
that describe how the choices interact
Step 1 of the category-partition method requires thinking through attributes of this input that
have an effect on the behavior of the routine. For example, pertinent categories might be the
length of the string and the content of the string because both of these attributes will have to be
varied in order to properly test the routine. In general, categories are not detailed, instead they
represent high-level attributes of the inputs.
Step 2 adds more detail to the categories by further partitioning them into specific values or
value-ranges that can be assigned to the input. For example, the length category could be
assigned a value of 32 or a range of values, say, and 1-16.

Create a choice for each value or value-range that forces a default setting to occur. For
example, if the default is to ignore spaces in the string, then we’d want choices that
specify that spaces be present in the input so that this behavior is tested.
 29

Create a choice for each value that causes the output to change in some substantive way.
Output could be a return value for a function call or visible displayed results. For
example, if the length of the string is set to 0, it is illegal and an error message will be
displayed. In this case, zero should be a choice for the length category so that this
behavior gets tested.
Create a choice for each value on or around distinguishable “boundaries.” Obviously, 0 is
again a choice for the length category and so is 1 since it is adjacent to the actual
boundary.

Step 3 consists of writing constraints that describe how choices for one category affect choices
for another category. For example, a constraint that specifies that an input choice cannot have
embedded spaces and cannot be of length 0 is required to keep us from considering impossible
choice combinations. Conversely, if we want to force certain choice-combinations to occur, then
a constraint can also be written to achieve this.

When category partitioning is complete, a single input, like the string example above, might be
partitioned into any number of actual values that are necessary for testing. When performing
category-partitioning on an API call with multiple parameters, this number can grow quite large
 30

Bibliography

[1] Understanding about API

http://www.3scale.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/What-is-an-API-1.0.pdf

[2] This link provided me with examples to avoid small mistakes in coding
http://www.youtube.com
[3] Overview of various testing concepts
http://en.wikipedia.org
[4] Things to consider during automation
http://www.testpoint.com.au/attachments/093_Seven%20Steps%20to%20Test%20Automatio
n%20Success.pdf

[5] Category portioning techniques for attributes of API

http://cm.techwell.com/sites/default/files/articles/XDD2052filelistfilename1_0.doc
[6] Coding related issues
http://www.stackoverflow.com/

[7] Various Concepts in dot net

http://www.dotnetperls.com/
31