diff --git a/ietf/utils/tests_restapi.py b/ietf/utils/tests_restapi.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0c9441edb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ietf/utils/tests_restapi.py
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+import debug
+debug.debug = True
+
+from tastypie.test import ResourceTestCase
+from ietf.utils.test_data import make_test_data
+
+
+    
+
+class RestApi(ResourceTestCase):
+    def list_recursively(self, resource, format):
+        """
+        Recurse down all the app trees, retrieving all the data available.  This ensures
+        that all the data represented in our test fixtures can be retrieved without raising
+        any exceptions.
+        """
+        # print('  fetching %s' % resource)
+        r = self.api_client.get(resource, format=format)
+        if format == 'json':
+            self.assertValidJSONResponse(r)
+        elif format == 'xml':
+            self.assertValidXMLResponse(r)
+        else:
+            raise Exception("Unknown format found when testing the RestApi: %s" % (format, ))
+        data = self.deserialize(r)
+        for name in data:
+            if 'list_endpoint' in data[name]:
+                resource = data[name]['list_endpoint']
+                self.list_recursively(resource, format)
+
+    def test_json_api_explore(self):
+        make_test_data()
+        self.list_recursively('/api/', format='json')
+
+    def test_xml_api_explore(self):
+        self.assertValidXMLResponse(self.api_client.get('/api/doc/', format='xml'))
+
+    def test_json_doc_document(self):
+        """
+        Retrieve the test-data doc_document instances, and verify that some of the expected
+        test-data documents are included.  There's assumption here that we don't have more
+        than 100 documents in the test-data (the current count is 10)
+        """
+        make_test_data()
+        r = self.api_client.get('/api/doc/document/', format='json', limit=100)
+        doclist = self.deserialize(r)["objects"]
+        docs = dict( (doc["name"], doc) for doc in doclist )
+        for name in (
+                "charter-ietf-mars", 
+                "charter-ietf-ames", 
+                "draft-ietf-mars-test", 
+                "conflict-review-imaginary-irtf-submission", 
+                "status-change-imaginary-mid-review", 
+                "draft-was-never-issued",
+            ):
+            self.assertIn(name, docs)
+
+    def test_json_doc_relationships(self):
+        """
+        Follow all the relations given in the test documents, this testing that representation
+        of relationships give URLs which are handled without raising exceptions.
+        """
+        make_test_data()
+        r = self.api_client.get('/api/doc/document/', format='json')
+        doclist = self.deserialize(r)["objects"]
+        for doc in doclist:
+            for key in doc:
+                value = doc[key]
+                if isinstance(value, basestring) and value.startswith('/api/'):
+                    self.api_client.get(value, format='json')
+                    
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