01-first-steps

First steps

Table of Contents

• Request builder
  • Simple request
  • Simple JSON request
    • With query params
  • Saving requests
  • Sending a basic POST request
• Using Postman

Request builder

This is the primary area above the Response area that allows one to configure requests using:

• HTTP method
• Address
• Body
• Headers
• Cookies

Simple request

• Method: GET
• Address: httpbin.org

Once the request is sent and we get a response there are a few areas we can evaluate in the Response section. It's good to get into a habit of first checking the status of the response before anything else.

Body lets us evaluate the response, which we can see for this request is HTML, as Raw, Prettyprinted, or Preview which renders the page.

We can also see that the History tab in the sidebar on the left now has our latest request listed there, too.

Simple JSON request

• Method: GET
• Address: httpbin.org/get

In Body in the Response section we can now see that we have a json response.

With query params

• Method: GET
• Address: httpbin.org/get?myparam1=1&myparam2=my-string

httpbin.org responds with a json object including an args property with our query parameters.

To make working with query params easier, Postman has a PARAMS button left of the SEND button that is populated with parameters in the address.

We can add parameters here, disable them, reorder them, and delete them.

Disabling parameters is great for saving time during manual testing.

Saving requests

The previous request can be saved, but a collection first needs to be created. Postman only saves requests to collections. Postman will save the request with the address of the request by default, but this can be changed to something easier to read.

Sending a basic POST request

• Method: POST
• Address: httpbin.org/post
• Body:

  {
    "name": "John",
    "email": "[email protected]"
  }

In the request builder the Body tab is disabled when the active method is GET because a body of data can't be appended to a GET request.

Switching to POST we see that Body is enabled.

In Body there are a number of ways that data can be sent in the request:

• form-data
• x-www-form-urlencoded
• raw
• binary

To send data as json one needes to select raw and then from the Text button that appears on the right select JSON.

With the details of the request above we can see that the response we get from httpbin.org includes a json property with the payload we sent in the request.

Using Postman

Postman is useful in a number of different ways:

• manual API testing
• creating mock servers
• collaborating with a team library
• documenting APIs
• scripting
  • creating workflows
  • writing tests
• automatic API testing
  • collection runner
  • Newman
    • Jenkins
    • other CI servers
  • monitors