If you are a developer who spends quite a lot time writing RESTful, OData, or any other type of Web API, then you will probably find yourself doing testing for a reasonable amount of time. If that is the case, then this post might be something worth reading.
Get to know your Postman
Postman is a simple Web REST client that allows you to easily create and monitor requests and responses from your existing Web API.
It's extremely easy to use and while it may not go as far in-depth as Fiddler, its ease-of-use and clean yet refined interface provide many of the same features you would expect and commonly use.
One of the best things about it is that you get all of the convenience of testing your API without ever leaving the browser because Postman is available as a Chrome App. Simply, download it, open it up, target your API, and fire away!
If you need to really dive deep into issues with your API and examine the requests / responses at the byte-level, then use Fiddler, by all means. But as I have found, Postman does a fine job most of the time.
Some Fun Features
- The UI
The interface is certainly worth mentioning as the application runs extremely well and is quite intuitive. Adding custom headers? Easy. Need to re-run previous requests? No problem. It just works.
- Authentication made easy
Making requests to secure APIs becomes much easier with Postman. If you are using basic Authentication, it's just a few keystrokes away from getting the job done. Or, if you actually use some type of Forms Authentication and already have the token in your browser, the Interceptor feature will take care of it for you.
- Flexibility
One of the nicest things about Postman is that you can run it in your browser (as a Chrome App) or you can install the actual application on iOS.
- The Price
Unless you need some of the cool team-related features and other premium functionality that Postman offers, it is free.
See it in Action
Update
It appears the following video and tutorial series is no longer available. You can consider checking out this tutorial series on YouTube or just use your favorite search engine for examples.
While I could have made a walk-through video going through the entire process of setting everything up, all of my developer principles told me that it had already been done. Sure enough, Jerrie Pelser of ASP.NET Casts had already created a video walking through this process.
So, if this post or the video above piqued your interest, then I'd encourage all the readers to download it and play around with it. I know, I've been using it quite a long time, since originally running across it; and thought it was worth sharing.