API Testing Overview
Overview of REST API testing in ContextQA — request configuration, response validation, API chaining, and hybrid test flows.
Who is this for? Developers and SDETs who need to test REST APIs, validate response contracts, and chain API calls — including hybrid flows that combine API setup with UI verification.
ContextQA provides a built-in API testing layer that lets you write, execute, and validate REST API requests without leaving the platform. API steps live alongside UI steps in the same test case, which means you can build hybrid flows that call an endpoint and then verify the result in a browser — or seed data through an API before a UI workflow begins.
What API testing covers
REST API requests. You can configure any HTTP method (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE), set request headers, supply a JSON body, and capture the response in a named variable. All of this is done through the API testing panel inside the test case editor.
Response validation. Two validation modes are available:
Payload validation — assert that a specific field in the JSON response matches an expected value. You point to the field using a JSON path expression (for example,
result.email) and compare it against a string, number, or boolean.Structure validation — compare the entire response object against an expected shape. This catches unexpected additions or removals of fields across API versions.
Status code assertions are configured in the same validation section, letting you confirm a 200, 201, 401, or any other expected code in the same step.
Variables and secrets. Sensitive values such as access tokens are stored as test-scoped variables and referenced with ${variable_name} syntax in headers and body fields. This keeps credentials out of test step definitions and makes token rotation a one-field change.
API chaining. Responses from one API step are stored in named variables and can be read by any later step — API or UI. The canonical pattern is a POST /auth call that captures a short-lived access token, which is then injected into the Authorization header of subsequent requests. Field values extracted from an API response can also be typed into UI form fields, closing the loop between backend and frontend validation.
Swagger / OpenAPI import. ContextQA can consume a Swagger or OpenAPI specification file and generate a full suite of test cases from it — one test per endpoint and status-code combination documented in the spec. This gives teams a coverage baseline on day one without any manual step authoring.
Hybrid test flows. API and UI steps coexist in a single test case. A typical pattern: call an API to create a resource, capture the resource ID, navigate to the corresponding UI record page using that ID, and assert the data is rendered correctly.
In this section
Configuring requests, using variables, sending calls, Swagger import
Payload validation, structure validation, status codes, headers
Extracting response values and passing them between steps
When to use API testing in ContextQA
Validate that backend changes have not broken published contracts before merging a PR
Set up test state (create records, generate tokens) faster than a UI flow would allow
Assert API behavior in parallel with UI behavior in the same test run
Generate a first-pass test suite from an existing OpenAPI spec in minutes
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