Automated functional testing for REST API: the Secrets and Pitfalls

One essential thing for a modern application is cross-platform approach provided with several different clients and backend as RESTful service. Ensuring the quality of data in API, we provide the proper quality of the entire product line. But manual testing of a web service is rather long, complicated and tedious task. What's the solution?

It is obvious that the testing of such a technical product as an API could be easily automated. However, in my speech i want to discuss not only automated tests but the whole set of tools to provide the quality of a web service at different stages of development.

How to ensure the API format is correct? How to keep the documentation up-to-date? What is the best choice for a functional test architecture?

You will get the answers attending my presentation - I'd be happy to share my experience received in 2GIS LLC. We will discuss the JSON-schema and parameterized tests, the ways to test an API as a black-box and how to choose the initial data for testing.