System and Method for Validating Documentation of Representational State Transfer (Rest) Services

• US 20170279691A1
• Filed: 04/10/2017
• Published: 09/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rackspace US Incorporated (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Williams, Jorge Luis, Cramer, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,177,996 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5077 wherein the managed service relates to simple transport services, i.e. providing only network infrastructure
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/50 Testing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]

Abstract

A validation tool is provided for a representational state transfer (REST) service. In one embodiment, a method for validating documentation of a REST service includes including detecting one or more messages for a REST service by a validator, wherein the one or more messages are intercepted for the REST service, translating documentation of the REST service, by the validator, into a representation of an automaton, and validating the one or more messages by the validator based on the automaton, wherein validation of the messages determines conformance of the REST service to the documentation of the REST service.

Claims

1-36. -36. (canceled)

37. A method for validating documentation of a representational state transfer (REST) service, the method comprising:

receiving, by a validator, one or more messages describing a REST application programming interface (API);

translating, by the validator, the description of the REST API into a machine representation of a corresponding REST service, wherein the machine representation maps an internal state and one or more inputs into an internal state transition, and wherein one or more states are associated with API responses;

initializing a current state for machine representation of the REST service;

receiving, by the validator, an API message;

evaluating the API message by the machine representation, wherein evaluating the API message includes;

identifying one or more transitions within the machine representation of the REST service;

executing the one or more identified transitions resulting in a new state;

responding to the API message according to the new state; and

executing any automatic transitions identified for the new state; and

wherein an API message conforming to the documentation of the REST service results in the transition to a non-error state, and wherein an API message that does not conform to the documentation results in the transition to an error state.