Photo by on Jantine Doornbos Unsplash In this article, we are going to learn how to create specifications using , running automated tests against the back-end implementation using , and how to use to build an prototype without even writing a single line of code. API’s API Blueprint Dredd Apiary API I really got inspired to learn about this topics after hearing the last podcast about API’s. Thanks to and for their amazing work. http://twentypercent.fm Daniel Couldbourne Caleb Porzio Commonly, when we develop web applications, we do it based on a defined visual design that tells us the story of what the client expects the site to look like in the end. At the same time having a visual of the product gives the client this confidence about how good the end product is going to be. What happens when we develop ? API’s Probably the client, send us the same design, so we have to figure it out how to translate that visual design into a bright, friendly and useful API specification, an that can be used by other developers (web, mobile, etc.) to build a user interface to interact with the product. API So, at the end we probably end up building step by step every endpoint of the , without thinking in the next one, then we can go back, fix something and repeat the process. API The problem with this approach is that when we build we have a higher responsibility because this part of the project is going to be the heart of the business.So, it needs to be consistent, and we have to respect the “contract” (the specification), because every change we made on any endpoint, could mean more work on every front-end implementation of our . API’s API Design API specifications with API Blueprint https://apiblueprint.org/ is a “ ” and allows us to design our using a simple syntax. API Blueprint Hight level API description language for web API’s API This is how a simple specification looks like: API FORMAT: 1AHOST: http://127.0.0.1:8000 # Basic ACME Blog API Welcome to the **ACME Blog** API. This API provides access to the **ACME Blog** service. # Group Blog Posts ## Posts [GET /api/post] + Response 200 (application/json) + Body

        \[  
            {  
                "id": 1,  
                "title": "foo title",  
                "body": "bar body",  
                "author": 1  
            }  
        \] But is this not just a plain doc? At the moment, yes, but let’s see how we can use other tools to add more value to our developing process. API Blueprint and dredd https://github.com/apiaryio/dredd Dredd is a language-agnostic command-line tool for validating API description document against backend implementation of the API. Yes, you are reading fine. Blueprint not only allows you to write the documentation/specification of your but also it works as set of tests that could be executed by other tools like “ ” to check if every endpoint is working as it should be. API dredd Getting started with dredd: The first thing you need to do is install dredd using node: // Globally installnpm install -g dredd // Local installnpm install — save-dev dredd Now we can start creating our specification by creating an file in the root of the project ( stands for blueprint file). API API-description.apib apib API FORMAT: 1AHOST: http://127.0.0.1:8000 # Basic ACME Blog API Welcome to the **ACME Blog** API. This API provides access to the **ACME Blog** service. # Group Blog Posts ## Posts [GET /api/post] + Response 200 (application/json) + Body

        \[  
            {  
                "id": 1,  
                "title": "foo title",  
                "body": "bar body",  
                "author": 1  
            }  
        \] # Group Authors Resources in this groups are related to **ACME Blog** authors. ## Authors [GET /api/author] + Response 200 (application/json) + Body

        \[  
            {  
                "id": 1,  
                "name": "jhon",  
                "email": "[jhon@mail.com](mailto:jhon@mail.com)"  
            }  
        \] Let’s create a dredd config file from the command line by running . dredd init $ dredd init? Location of the API description document api-description.apib? Command to start API backend server e.g. (bundle exec rails server)? URL of tested API endpoint ? Programming language of hooks php? Do you want to use Apiary test inspector? No? Dredd is best served with Continuous Integration. Create CircleCI config for Dredd? NoConfiguration saved to dredd.ymlInstall hooks handler and run Dredd test with: http://127.0.0.1:8000 $ composer require ddelnano/dredd-hooks-phpdev$ dredd At the end, we should have a file similar to this one: dredd.yml dry-run: null hookfiles: null language: php sandbox: false server: null server-wait: 3 init: false custom: {} names: false only: [] reporter: [] output: [] header: [] sorted: false user: null inline-errors: false details: false method: [] color: true level: info timestamp: false silent: false path: [] hooks-worker-timeout: 5000 hooks-worker-connect-timeout: 1500 hooks-worker-connect-retry: 500 hooks-worker-after-connect-wait: 100 hooks-worker-term-timeout: 5000 hooks-worker-term-retry: 500 hooks-worker-handler-host: 127.0.0.1 hooks-worker-handler-port: 61321 config: ./dredd.yml blueprint: api-description.apib endpoint: 'http://127.0.0.1:8000' Running the specification tests Remember, the advantage of using and is that you can use your documentation as a set of tests to check the back-end implementation of your . dredd API Blueprint API Something fundamental here: you are testing your specifications, these are high-level tests that don’t even care which programming language you are using to write your . API API To run the tests just type on the command line and hit enter: dredd …complete: 0 passing, 2 failing, 0 errors, 0 skipped, 2 totalcomplete: Tests took 96ms Of course, we are receiving a failure because we haven’t written the code of the yet. In this case, I’m using so, let’s create a quick implementation just by editing the routes file. API Laravel api.php Route::get('post', function () { _return_ response()->json(\[

    \[

        "id" => 1,

        "title" => "foo title",

        "body" => "bar body",

        "author" => 1

    \]

\]); }); Route::get('author', function () { _return_ response()->json(\[

    \[

        "id" => 1,

        "name" => "jhon",

        "email" => "jhon@mail.com"

    \]

 \]); }); Let’s execute again. dredd info: Configuration ‘./dredd.yml’ found, ignoring other arguments.info: Beginning Dredd testing…pass: GET (200) /api/post duration: 62mspass: GET (200) /api/author duration: 36mscomplete: 2 passing, 0 failing, 0 errors, 0 skipped, 2 totalcomplete: Tests took 103ms And now we can see how the output changes to let us now that our is working as expected. API Building an prototype using Apiary API Apiary is a platform that uses API Blueprint and helps you to generate your documentation, run automated tests, report errors, and even gives you a place to test your in different environments, like your production app.Also, it will create a of your , so you can start testing event without haven’t written a single line of code. API Mock API The first thing you need to do is create an account on and link your profile to it. apiary.com GitHub Then you can create a new project using apiary. and link this project to one of your GitHub repositories by clicking the button at the top left corner. Click on “link this project to GitHub”. And search for the specific repository. At the end, Apiary will open a window to create a new commit that will add the file to your repository. apiary.apib That’s it! You are ready to start creating your docs and tests. And because uses , you can also run your local tests using . API specification Apiary API Blueprint dredd What is beautiful about is that gives you set of tools out of the box, like a nice documentation interface. Apiary If you click on any title of the docs, You’ll have access to the interactive panel. Then you can select the environment to try any endpoint You can even add form params or headers to the request if you need to.And this is the best part, remember this is entirely new, and we haven’t built the . API You can select the option and send the request. will mock the back-end implementation and will return whatever you specify in your docs as response. Mock Sever Apiari Isn’t that great? Now you can design your , write the documentation, and thanks to the rest of the team could start to write the front-end implementation using the mocked , and in the meanwhile, you can begin developing the back-end side of the project. API Apiary API Of course, both tools and have more complex configurations that you can use to take more advantage of them and bring more value to your developing process. Apiary dredd I hope this article could give you enough background so you can start using this tools from the basics and keep going to develop better API’s. Contributions & Credits Thanks to and for their help with the editing. Caleb Porzio Jeff Kilroy Resources: API Snapshot Testin podcast: http://twentypercent.fm/api-snapshot-testing Dries Vints — Building your API with Apiary & Dredd — Laracon EU 2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBxTGmF7kP4 Dredd docs: https://dredd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ Apiari website: https://apiary.io/ API blueprint website: https://apiblueprint.org/ Say hi on twitter!! _The latest Tweets from Jeff (@Jeffer_8a). I do believe in OpenSource. Trying to learn new things everyday.. #Web…_twitter.com Jeff (@Jeffer_8a) | Twitter

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