Thingifier

An experiment in Model Based API Development.

Download

Thingifier comes preconfigured for download as:

• a simple todo list
• a more complex todo list manager

When you download one of the .jar files then use:

• java -jar runTodoListRestAPI-1.5.2.jar

Where you replace the name of the .jar file with the name of the file you downloaded.

• then visit http://localhost:4567 and you will see the welcome gui.
• there are links to the API documentation, and the View GUI

Command line options are:

• -port=1234 to change the port to 1234
• -version=1 to start with a different version.
  • Each api comes preconfigured with multiple versions, by default the 'best' version is used, so if you switch to an earlier version you might find more bugs.

Cloud Deploy

An online version of the application can be found at:

• https://apichallenges.eviltester.com

The API Challenges is built on a simple todo thingifier model.

This version will reset all data every 10 minutes.

If you want to practice seriously then I suggest downloading the .jar and running it locally.

We are not responsible for any data that you find on the cloud deploy.

We reserve the right to remove the cloud deploy or change the reset time if we discover it is being misused.

Usage

Currently Thingifier is suitable for using as a Practice Test App for API Testing.

Code Formatting

Java source formatting is enforced with Spotless and google-java-format using the AOSP four-space style.

To format the code:

mvn spotless:apply

To check formatting without changing files:

mvn spotless:check

The repository includes a pre-commit hook that runs the Spotless check before each commit. Enable the versioned hooks in a clone with:

git config core.hooksPath .githooks

On Unix-like systems, if Git reports that the hook is not executable, run:

chmod +x .githooks/pre-commit

GitHub Actions also runs mvn -B spotless:check in both Java 17 and Java 21 matrix builds before running the Maven tests.

Details

Based on my Compendium-TA tool from 2003/2004.

If you actually want an ER Based tool then check out:

• Jeddict
• Evolutility

If you want to generate test data for an api, investigate:

• next.json-generator.com
• Java-Faker

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• Alan Richardson
• https://www.eviltester.com
• https://www.compendiumdev.co.uk
• https://uk.linkedin.com/in/eviltester
• https://twitter.com/eviltester

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Current TODO List:

• test clear down internal challenger databases after time
• add additional challenges about instance limits e.g. try to exceed 20
• add additional challenges around field validation values and limits