Twitter Tweets API vs Twitter Accounts API). Twitter vs Slack) or it could be two different groups of APIs for a single API (ie. This could be as simple as two totally different APIs (ie. This is handy for organizing your requests into different groups. CollectionsĪ collection is a group of requests. You’ll want to create new requests for each type of endpoint which will allow you to move between them when testing. This will be a single type of request, whether it’s a GET or POST to a specific endpoint. RequestsĪ request is kind of what it sounds like, it’s a specific API request. It might seem a bit overwhelming, but let’s break down some of the key concepts that we’ll need to know. The first time you open up Postman you’ll immediately be shown a launchpad with a bunch of options to get started. Once downloaded, go through the standard installation instructions, open it up, and we should be ready to go! Part 1: An introduction to Postman The good news, is Postman is available for free on Mac, Windows, and Linux, so you should be able to find a version that works for you. Part 0: Getting set up with Postmanīefore we get started, you’ll need Postman in order to follow along with this walkthrough. For this, you’ll need to register for a free account for an API key. Once we understand how the basics work, we’ll use the Lord of the Rings API to learn how authentication works with APIs. We’ll then use the Yoda Translator API for one part to demonstrate how to make specific HTTP requests. We’re going to walk through two different example APIs to cover the concepts of Postman.įirst, we’ll walk through some simple HTTP requests with a public API for Pokémon. If you're part of a team, they have paid tiers that allow you to sync up your collections to make sure everyone has the most recent and up to date collection. The free tier includes exporting and importing collections of saved API requests as well as creating shared links. The best part about it – Postman provides collaboration features. Maybe a Project Manager wants to verify that things work or might find it easier to make a change straight with the API, or a QA Engineer needs to make sure everything still works, or a developer wants to actively make changes while working on the API itself. The beauty is that this can be used for many aspects of working with APIs for many different members of the team. It comes stocked with features you would expect when dealing with APIs, including authentication, setting headers, customizing the payload, and a bunch more that help reduce the friction of using an API.Īnd it’s not just for testing. Postman is a tool teams can use to reliably test APIs using easy to use configurations.

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