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You do not need to wait for an entire backend to finish before building a frontend. Agree on the contract for the blocked endpoints, mock those calls, and leave ready, useful services connected to their real implementations. This selective approach—partial API virtualization—is a workflow, not a separate product or standardized mode. Replace each mock with the real service and verify the integration when it becomes available.
What to mock—and what to leave real
Start with a user flow or screen state, then identify the specific API calls preventing that work. A missing search endpoint may block search results while authentication and profile services are already usable. Mock the blocked call rather than switching every request to simulated data.
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This keeps frontend work moving without hiding the parts of the system that are ready for real integration. The mix is a team workflow: the tools below provide mocks and related capabilities, but the cited documentation does not describe a universal “partial mode.”
Agree on the contract before generating responses
For each endpoint you plan to mock, agree on its method and route, request fields, response shape, status codes, and representative examples. Record that contract somewhere both API and frontend developers can use. If your team works from an OpenAPI description, it can supply routes, schemas, examples, and validation rules to the mock.
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Prism can generate responses from examples or a schema, and validate incoming requests against an API description. Its guide notes that response quality depends on the quality of that description: a specific example or well-defined schema gives the mock more to work with than a vague endpoint outline. Prism HTTP Mocking guide
Choose a mock path that fits the work
| Need | Option | Documented fit |
|---|---|---|
| Generate behavior from an OpenAPI description and validate requests | Prism | Open-source HTTP mock and proxy; responses can draw from examples or schemas, and requests can be validated. Repository documentation describes local CLI use, including in CI. Guide · Repository |
| Share a mock without running a local server | Stoplight hosted mocks | Stoplight describes hosted mock servers. Check the current product plan and limits before relying on specific availability. Prism repository overview |
| Hand-author stubs, record and replay an upstream, or simulate faults | WireMock OSS | WireMock documents JSON or Java stubs, recording, templated responses, basic scenarios, and fault simulation, with JAR, Docker, and Kubernetes deployment approaches. WireMock service virtualization |
| Give a team or CI a shared hosted mock | WireMock Cloud | WireMock documents shared hosted APIs and workspaces, OpenAPI integration, drift detection, statefulness, chaos capabilities, governance, and a hybrid Runner. WireMock service virtualization |
These options have different capabilities and deployment models; the cited documentation is not a neutral benchmark. Choose by how closely your team needs to work from a contract, how much custom state or failure behavior you need, where mocks should run, how developers and CI will share them, and how you will check for drift once the real service exists.
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Set up selective virtualization in five steps
- Choose the blocked flow. Identify the screen or action to build and list the requests it depends on. Mark which calls are unavailable or unreliable and which can remain real.
- Write down the contract. Specify the route, method, request fields, response shape, status codes, and examples for each mocked endpoint. Keep the description shared with the API team; use OpenAPI if that is already your team’s contract format.
- Start the mock. For an OpenAPI-first workflow, Prism can create a mock HTTP server from the description. For manually authored behavior, recording and replay, stateful flows, or fault scenarios, WireMock documents relevant capabilities. See the Prism repository and WireMock service-virtualization documentation.
- Route only the selected calls to it. Configure the frontend’s development setup so blocked endpoints use the mock while ready services continue to use their real endpoints. Keep the routing choice visible to the team so developers know which responses are simulated.
- Exercise the cases the UI must handle. Add relevant validation errors, alternate status codes, empty results, latency, timeouts, or multi-step state. Prism’s request validation and response negotiation can help with contract-driven cases; WireMock documents fault simulation and scenarios for more customized behavior.
Know what a passing mock does—and does not—prove
A mock can let a client proceed while an upstream is unfinished, unavailable, unstable, or costly to use. WireMock describes service virtualization as replacing real upstream services with controlled simulations so teams can develop and test without those dependencies. That is a description of the practice from WireMock’s documentation, not a quantified claim about time saved or defects prevented. WireMock service virtualization
A successful frontend flow against a mock shows that the client can work with the behavior the mock provides. It does not establish that the production implementation follows the agreed contract. When the endpoint is ready, compare it with the API description and exercise the integration against the real service. Prism’s repository documents a validation proxy for finding discrepancies between an API description and an implementation. Prism repository overview
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