POSTMan is Required

Though it looks like a job posting but in developer’s world, it is a useful tool available as a Chrome extension. When my friend referred it, I tried it and liked it so I recommend it every other developer. At least, many hours of efforts can be saved and obviously, this is what we require from every piece of code.

What is POSTMan?

It is a Chrome app which lets you help test and document APIs. I think coders might know APIs but for new developers, I have included the meaning of APIs by an example.

What is API?

API stands for Application Program Interface. In high level terms, we express an API as a bridge via which one Internet application can exchange information with another application. Application Program Interface standards include a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. These standards are discussed and finalized by developers team to create an API for their program.

For example: We can have ratings and reviews or ecommerce APIs developed by companies which can be integrated in our application. It is an interface that queries their database to help programmers in the integration of their applications. These consist of specialized Web services and programs and specialized scripts that can be consumed or called in our applications and get mixed with our websites look and feel.

Why POSTMan?

Before I heard of POSTMan, we were doing full length coding even to test these webservices or APIs at a premature stage. If the webservice is corrupted or not returning proper results, it was only discoverable only after the coding is finished.

With POSTMan, we can verify these API calls before hand with just few clicks and it provides accurate results.

Let’s go through these tools.

Features of POSTMan

• Create requests quickly:
  • Compact layout
  • HTTP requests with file upload support
  • Formatted API responses for JSON and XML
  • HATEOS support
  • Image previews
  • Request history
  • Basic Auth and OAuth 1.0 helpers
  • Autocomplete for URL and header values
  • Key/value editors for adding parameters or header values. Works for URL parameters too.
  • Use environment variables to easily shift between settings. Great for testing production, staging or local setups.
  • Keyboard shortcuts to maximize your productivity
• Document and share APIs
  • Use collections to organize requests
  • Document requests inside collections. You can even store entire HTML notes. Postman uses Bootstrap so you can use it too to style your notes.
  • Download and share collections with your team of developers

Installing POSTMan

There are two ways to install it:

• Open this Link: POSTMan Chrome and click on Add to Chrome.

  

• Go to Chrome extensions and Search for POSTMan and Add to chrome.

How to Use It?

• Click on POSTMan and it will open this window.

  

• Enter the request URL. Just to give an example, I have taken a Google maps API link available on code.google.com.

  

• On click of send, we received a JSON response.

  We have two buttons available URL params and headers. These two options can be used to add extra information to our call and receive a different response.

  This request was served under Normal Tab. We have more tabs like Basic Auth and OAuth 1.0 to send the authorization header for improved security. We even have a collections button to create a collection of sent requests.

I would suggest that everyone go through this tool. This is very beneficial for your projects. If you have more information about this tool, please share it with us and we can include it here.CodeProject

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