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Agenda-
--Introduction to Postman
--How to Install Postman
--First Postman Request
-- Using Postman on the Web
Introduction of Postman
Postman is a standalone software testing API Platform. Postman is one of the most popular software testing tool which is used for API testing. There is No extra work or set up of framework is required while sending and receiving requests in Postman. It is a simple Graphic User Interface. This tool has the ability to make various types of HTTP requests like GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, HEAD, DELETE, LINK, UNLINK, COPY, PURGE, LOCK, UNLOCK, PROPFIND, VIEW and OPTIONS and convert the API to code for languages like JavaScript and Python.
This application used by Testers and Developers for better testing of applications. Easy to integrate with your Continuous Integration (CI) & Continuous Development (CD) Pipeline. Postman can store and manage API specifications, documentation, workflow recipes, test cases and results, metrics, and everything else related to APIs. It helps to accelerate the API lifecycle from design, testing, documentation, and mocking to the sharing and discoverability of your APIs.
Postman is available to download for free as it is an open-source project. It is as easy to download and install as any other computer application. We can use it anywhere after installing Postman into the device by simply logging in to the account. While using Postman we need to build test suites called collections and let Postman interact with the API. Tests can be performed in several repetitions or iterations by using the Collection Runner or Newman. The design of multiple environments results in less replication of tests as one can use the same collection but for a different setting. To debug the tests, the postman console helps to track what data is being retrieved. We can import or export collections and environments to enhance the sharing of files and we can use a direct connection to share the collections.
There are four different kinds of Postman workspaces.
1. personal
2. team
3. Partner
4. public workspaces.
How to Install Postman
The very first step is to install postman to your local computer. Open URL - https://www.postman.com/
Click on Download Postman.
My machine is Windows – 64 bits so here I am downloading Windows 64-bit version of Postman. Choose as per your machine configuration.
Once Download is successful Click on .exe file. You will see a Desktop App for Postman.
It will ask you to create an Account or Sign in. If you have an Account already then click on Sign in. For the purpose of this blog, I am going to create an account.
Provide your email ID, Username and Password to create an account.
Follow through next few screens and provide necessary information.
Once all the necessary information is given, you will see home page for Postman.
You can create your Workspace which will be used to organize your work.
Your first Postman request –
For demonstration purposes, I am using a very simple Grocery store API. Documentation related to this API can be found at below location.
API is available at --https://simple-grocery-store-api.glitch.me
We are simply going to check if API is UP and Running. For this you can use /status API extension. See below Screenshot
Select “Get” and Click on Send. If the API is up, then you should see a response from this API as shown in the diagram below. Postman always requires correct address.
The response basically means that your API is able to accept your request, process it and give back a meaningful reply. You can send both HTTP and HTTPS request through Postman. There is no difference between HTTP and HTTPS. HTTP and HTTPS are both protocols for transferring data over the internet, the main difference between two is that HTTPS uses an encrypted connection to secure the transmission of data, while HTTP does not. When you make a request to an API in Postman, URL specifies the protocol to use (such as HTTP or HTTPS) Regardless of whether use HTTP or HTTPS in the URL, the way you use postman to make the request and inspect the response will be essentially the same.
Using Postman on the Web—
When you open Postman on the Webpage you can see the option Auto-select agent
These additional options open up. By default, postman will select agents automatically for us, but you need to understand use of different options of agents. When we disable auto-select option and send request thorough browser agent, you will get an error. We need additional agents because your browser does have some limitations and cannot be used for most API’s. When you select Cloud agent then you get the Status Response. Brower will send request to postman cloud agent from their servers and then cloud agent will send request to API. However, Cloud agent also have Limitations. If you send many requests and postman cloud server is blocked, then you will see limited responses. In order to overcome cloud agent limitation, you can install Desktop Agent. We have installed Desktop agent already at the beginning of our blog. You can select Desktop agent in Postman Browser and send/receive request responses from API. Lastly you can also use browser’s own agents and request responses from API’s.