What is Interface Testing(Types & Example)?

What is Interface Testing?

Interface testing is a sort of software testing that confirms the proper connectivity between two separate software systems.

An interface is a link that connects two components. In the computer world, this interface might be anything from APIs to web services. Interface testing is the process of evaluating these connected services or interfaces.

An interface is a software program that contains a collection of instructions, communications, and other properties that allow a device and a user to communicate with one another.

How to do Interface Testing?

Interface testing consists of two major sections −

• Interface between a web server and an application server

• The connection between the application server and the database server.

The interface testing is performed for the aforementioned scenarios.

• Check to see whether servers are being performed appropriately.

• For each inquiry done by an application, faults are managed properly or an error code is returned.

• Examine the results when the link to a web server is restored in between.

Example of Interface Testing

Assume that the interface for every XYZ application accepts an XML file as input and returns a JSON file as output. All that is required to test the interface of this application are the parameters of the XML file format and the JSON file format.

We can generate a prototype input XML file and send it in to the interface using these specs. Then comes to interface testing, which involves evaluating the input (XML) and output (JSON) files against the requirements.

Why Interface Testing?

Interface testing is carried out for the following reasons −

• To guarantee that clients have no problems when utilizing a certain software product.

• To determine which application parts are often used by consumers and to assess their usability.

• To ensure that security standards are met while communication between systems is being propagated.

• To determine if a system can tolerate network failures between an application server and a website.

Types of Interface Testing

Different kinds of testing are performed on the interface during interface testing, which includes −

• Workflow: It guarantees that your typical processes are handled correctly by the interface engine.

• Edge cases -unexpected values: This is taken into account when testing with the date, month, and day reversed.

• Performance, load, and network testing: Based on the interface engine and connection architecture, a high-volume interface may need more Load Testing than a low-volume interface.

• Individual systems: This entails testing each system separately. For example, the retail store's billing system and inventory management system should be able to function independently.

Interface Testing Strategy

The Interface Testing Strategy is a way for testing interfaces using similar tests independent of implementation. For each execution of the interface testing technique, we may employ generic test scenarios and build actual representations of the Test Case. The base/abstract test cases run implementation-neutral tests, whereas actual test cases create test objects and conduct implementation-specific tests.

Interface Testing Vs Integration Testing

Summary

• Interface testing is used in software engineering to evaluate the link that connects two parts of the system.

• Interface testing consists of two major sections −

  • The interface between a web server and an application server

  • The interface between the application server and the database server.

• This testing assures that customers will have no problems when utilizing a certain software product.