Automated Analysis of Inter-Parameter Dependencies in Web APIs

Web services often impose constraints that restrict the way in which two or more input parameters can be combined to form valid calls to the service, i.e. inter-parameter dependencies. Current web API specification languages like the OpenAPI Specification (OAS) provide no support for the formal desc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings pp. 140 - 142
Main Author: Martin-Lopez, Alberto
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Published: ACM 01.10.2020
Subjects:
automated analysis
CSP
DSL
interdependency
Software
Software development management
Software engineering
Specification languages
Testing
Web service
Web services
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Description
Summary:Web services often impose constraints that restrict the way in which two or more input parameters can be combined to form valid calls to the service, i.e. inter-parameter dependencies. Current web API specification languages like the OpenAPI Specification (OAS) provide no support for the formal description of such dependencies, making it hardly possible to interact with the services without human intervention. We propose specifying and automatically analyzing inter-parameter dependencies in web APIs. To this end, we propose a domain-specific language to describe these dependencies, a constraint programming-aided tool supporting their automated analysis, and an OAS extension integrating our approach and easing its adoption. Together, these contributions open a new range of possibilities in areas such as source code generation and testing.
DOI:10.1145/3377812.3382173