Getting StartedYour First Automated Suite

Your First Automated Suite

This guide provides a complete walkthrough of the ReAPI workflow, taking you from a single test case to a fully automated test suite running in the cloud. Each stage builds on the last, creating a scalable and maintainable testing practice.

Prerequisites: Setting the Stage

Before you build your first test, two foundational steps are required.

  1. Define Your API Specification: The first step in any ReAPI project is to establish the blueprint of the API you want to test. This is the single source of truth that powers the entire workflow.

    📖 Guide: Please follow our guide to Creating Your First API Specification to learn how to use our no-code visual editor or import an existing file.

  2. Configure Your Environment: Next, set up at least one Environment. This defines the context for your tests, including servers and authentication.

Stage 1: Create a Test Case

Goal: Build and validate a single, self-contained test scenario. This is the foundation of all testing in ReAPI.

Why: Test Cases allow you to focus on a specific piece of business logic (e.g., “User logs in successfully”) and confirm it works as expected. The visual, no-code interface empowers the entire QA team to build these foundational blocks.

How:

  1. Create a Test Case: From your workspace, create a new test case.
  2. Build the Flow: Drag a START node and connect an API node to it.
  3. Configure the API Node with Spec Data: Instead of manually typing everything, select an endpoint from your API Specification. ReAPI will automatically populate the URL, method, parameters, and request body structure, saving you time and preventing errors.
  4. Add Assertions: In the API node’s “Response” tab, add assertions to validate the response. Use JSONata expressions (e.g., body.user.email) to target specific data points.
  5. Run & Debug in the Browser: Click the “Run” button to execute the test case directly in your browser environment. (For seamless testing, our Chrome Extension helps bypass common CORS issues).

Passing Data Between Steps: Most real-world tests require chaining multiple API calls together—for example, creating a user and then fetching their details. Use Context (ReAPI’s data bus) to extract data from one response and use it in the next request. Add Context Operations to your API node to extract values (e.g., context.userId = response.data.id), then reference them in subsequent nodes using {{context.userId}}.

📖 Learn more: Context & Variables

Stage 2: Assemble a Test Runner

Goal: Group multiple Test Cases into a cohesive, executable test suite.

Why: While individual test cases are great for focused validation, you need a way to run them together to perform regression testing or validate an entire feature. A Test Runner acts as this collection.

How:

  1. Create a Runner: From your workspace, create a new test runner.
  2. Add a SELECTOR Node: Inside the runner’s flow, add a SELECTOR node.
  3. Configure Selection: Configure the node to select the test cases you created in Stage 1, typically by the folder they are in or by a specific tag. This dynamic selection means any new test case added to that folder is automatically included in future runs.

Stage 3: Configure a Test Deployment

Goal: Make your test suite environment-aware by linking your Runner to a specific Environment.

Why: A test suite is useless if it can’t be run against different environments (e.g., QA, Staging). A Deployment binds your generic test logic (the Runner) to a concrete configuration (the Environment), making your tests portable and reusable.

How:

  1. Create a Deployment: Navigate to your Test Runner and use the “Create Deployment” action.
  2. Select an Environment: In the deployment configuration, select the Environment you created as a prerequisite. This will automatically apply the correct server base URLs, authentication credentials, and environment variables.

Stage 4: Execute & Automate Your Suite

Goal: Run your test suite in a reliable, automated fashion. ReAPI offers two primary environments for this.

Option A: ReAPI Cloud (Recommended for ease of use)


Why: The simplest way to achieve automation. No infrastructure to manage.


How: 1. Set a Schedule: In your Test Deployment settings, add a schedule (e.g., every 1 hour). 2. Analyze Cloud Results: Once the run completes on our serverless infrastructure, the results are automatically available.

⚠️

Option B: Self-Hosted with the Node.js CLI (Advanced)


Why: For running tests on your own servers or specific CI/CD runners.


How: Use our Node.js CLI tool to trigger your Test Deployments from any machine. This gives you full control over the execution environment.

Developer Extensibility: Remember, developers can act as “force multipliers” by creating custom functions (e.g., value generators, assertions) that instantly become available as no-code building blocks for the QA team to use in the editor.

ReAPI's PhilosophyFoundational Concepts