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Wondering about the Ekara API offering and what it can do for you?
What sets it apart from other market solutions that run technical API tests? How is it different from Ekara Web, desktop client, or mobile monitoring?
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces): A Brief Reminder
An API is a set of rules or methods that allow different programs to communicate with each other.
Almost everything that happens on the Internet involves APIs. They work in the background to perform tasks such as address validation, credit card processing, booking, or appointment scheduling.
This is what we call technical monitoring. Indeed, web and mobile applications use APIs without the user even noticing. If something goes wrong, the user only sees an error message, without knowing that the issue comes from the API.
Behind a simple click, you’re most likely calling an API method—either to retrieve information or to send an order. The API receives your request, executes the action, and returns the result in a specific format.
How to Test and Monitor an API in General?
Many solutions on the market allow API testing (SoapUI, Postman, JMeter, Assertible…).
POSTMAN is a reference in this field, and almost all Ekara clients are familiar with it.
Developers create their collections in Postman, specifying the methods to be tested. The result of these tests is usually very basic: simply « OK » or « KO ».
How to Test and Monitor an API with Ekara
We simply ask Ekara to replay a Postman collection. The client sends us their collection, we create an Ekara journey to read it, and that’s it.
Now, let’s address some practical questions about Ekara API, such as:
How Ekara uses Postman collections to deliver richer results
What Ekara API brings beyond Ekara Web or Ekara Mobile for API supervision
How Ekara API enhances results with detailed metrics
At first glance, if clients already test their APIs by providing Postman collections to Ekara specialists who then create Ekara journeys from them, one might ask:
“Why use Ekara if the client can already do it directly in Postman?”
The answer is that Ekara enriches API test results with advanced analytics that go far beyond a simple OK or KO. In other words, Ekara adds intelligence to the client’s collection. For example:
Ekara can analyze and validate the content of responses.
Ekara can trigger alerts if content is inconsistent.
If the client’s API allows it, Ekara specialists can chain multiple method calls into a single journey (see the example in the last part of this article).
What Are the Advantages of Ekara API Compared to Web or Mobile Monitoring?
When an Ekara Web or Mobile scenario checks the application via the interface, it inevitably calls the APIs. So one might wonder:
“Why use an Ekara API scenario instead of a Web or Mobile scenario?”
The answer lies in frequency and proactivity:
A Web/Mobile scenario validates application availability and performance. It checks if the web server is functional, if pages load properly, and so on, typically every 15 minutes.
An Ekara API scenario, however, targets only the services that power the application. It doesn’t test the web servers or the UI. As a result, these scenarios execute much faster, allowing for higher frequency (as often as every 5 minutes). This enables proactive monitoring. API scenarios are also less sensitive to UI or frontend changes.
Ekara API Reporting: The Details Speak for Themselves!
In the final part, you’ll see concrete examples of the benefits of Ekara API in terms of metrics reporting, provided in multiple formats.
In the example below, which performs an authentication flow, information is passed from one method to another to complete the journey:
A simple click on the chart allows you to view step-by-step details at the specific time in question:
These are just a few of the metrics, traces, and insights derived from the response analysis provided by the Ekara API solution. For more information about monitoring, API metrics, alerting and reporting features, or any other questions, we are at your disposal.