Postman is a tool for API development that allows users to design, test, mock, document, monitor and publish APIs. It has native apps that are more full-featured than the Chrome extension and overcome restrictions of the Chrome platform. Postman provides integrated tools at every stage of API development including mock servers, documentation, testing, monitoring and publishing APIs. It also has professional features through paid plans like Postman Pro and Enterprise.
2. Agenda
● Postman Native App
● Key Elements In POSTMAN
● POSTMAN User Interface
● Parameterization with variables
● Dynamic Variables
● Level up your Postman Game!
○ Documentation
○ Mock Server
○ Monitoring
○ Publishing
● Why Postman Pro and Enterprise
● Demo
3. Stop Using Postman Chrome Extension.
● Postman Chrome extension has been deprecated.
● Google is planning to remove packaged and hosted Apps from Chrome.
● Chrome extension Limitations :
○ Performance Issues : Chrome extension had crashed with frequent switching.
○ No support for cookies management: User need to use separate interceptor.
○ Restricted headers: Extension has restrict the headers like origin, user-agent.
○ Redirect Options: Extension automatically redirects the request with 300 response code.
○ Restricted Menu Bar : Only chrome extension menu bar exist.
○ No console support: Extension doesn’t have any console, which restricts to view the network
request details for API calls.
“It's time to switch on Postman Native Apps”
4. Postman Native App:Why?
● The native apps cover all the features and functionality of the Chrome app and Chrome extension together, and more.
● The native apps run on Electron overcoming a lot of the restrictions of the Chrome platform.
● Features exclusive to the native app:
○ COOKIES: The native apps let you work with cookies directly. No Separate extension required.
○ BUILT-IN PROXY: The native apps come with a built-in proxy that you can use to capture network traffic.
○ RESTRICTED HEADERS: The latest version of the native apps let you send headers like Origin and User-
Agent. These are restricted in the Chrome app.
○ DON'T FOLLOW REDIRECTS OPTION: This option exists in the native apps to prevent requests that return a
300-series response from being automatically redirected. Previously, users needed to use the Interceptor
extension to do this in the Chrome app.
○ MENU BAR: The native apps are not restricted by the Chrome standards for the menu bar.
○ POSTMAN CONSOLE: The latest version of the native apps has a built-in console, which allows you to view the
network request details for API calls.
8. DATA DRIVEN TESTING WITH POSTMAN VARIABLES
● Variables are symbolic names that represent the information you store in them. The information, the variable represents
can change, but the operations on the variable remain the same.
● Variables allow you to reuse values in multiple places. if you want to change the value, you can change the variable
once with the impact cascading through the rest of your code.
● You can use variables in the following form in the Postman user interface - `{{variableName}}`.
● Working with data files: Using data files is a powerful way to test the behavior of APIs with varying data in unexpected
circumstances.
○ Postman Support Two types of data files:
■ JSON
■ CSV
10. Built-InTools
● Integrated tools for every stage of API life cycle.
■ Design and Mock [Mock Services]
■ Debug [Test]
■ Test Automation [Collection Runner]
■ Documentation [View In Web]
■ API Monitoring [Collection in a monitor]
■ Publishing [Public API documentation]
11.
12. API Documentation
● Postman users can use two different webviews while authoring documentation for their Postman Collections:
private and public.
○ Private API Documentation: Only the author can view private documentation unless the collection is shared
within a team workspace. In this private web view,
■ You’ll be able to see each request in the collection, their descriptions, and code snippets generated from
the environment and the language you’ve selected.
■ Private URL is only accessible to Postman users logged in with the appropriate permissions
○ Public API Documentation: Public documentation is accessible through a URL that Postman generates at the
time of publication. This link displays immediately, and can be found in your Postman Dashboard. If you’ve opted
to use a custom domain, you’ll find your published documentation link in the Postman Dashboard.
13. Mock Server
● Postman lets you create two types of mock servers: private and public.
○ Private Mock Server : Only Available for POSTMAN PRO and POSTMAN Enterprise users. If you create a
private mock server,
■ Users to add a Postman API key in the request header. x-api-key:<your postman API key>
■ users can share the underlying collection with the team or specific team members, and provide
permissions to edit or view.
■ If you are a paid user, your team members can use their Postman API keys to consume the mock. Team
members can use the mock if they have permissions to access the underlying collection.
○ Public Mock Server: Mock Servers are public by default,
■ Public mock servers are accessible to anyone.
■ When you share a public mock server, users don’t need to add a Postman API key.
14. MONITORING
● Postman monitoring lets you run a collection periodically to check for its performance and response.
● You can set up a monitor to run as frequently as 5 minutes to check if all the requests in your collection are up and
healthy.
● When you set up a monitor,
○ Postman servers will hit the endpoints in your collection according to the specified frequency.
○ You can also select a corresponding environment to use and store variables.
○ If you have written tests for your requests , the monitor would run these tests to validate the response and notify
you when a test fails.
○ You can configure how to receive the alerts from a wide number of integrations available.
15. Why Postman Pro and Postman Enterprize
● Postman Pro : Provides Some market leaders integrations.
■ Github
■ Slack
■ Pagerduty
■ DataDog [Datadog is a monitoring service for cloud-scale applications]
■ DropBox [Dropbox is a file hosting service]
■ APImatic [A Developer Experience Platform for APIs]
■ Gitlab
■ Hipchat
■ Keen
■ Microsoft Flow
■ Microsoft Teams
16. Postman Enterprize
● Audit Logs
● Running Monitors from static Ip’s
● SSO Support [Single Sign On]
For More Details Visit Here : https://www.getpostman.com/pricing
What is Electron: Electron is an open source library developed by GitHub for building cross-platform desktop applications with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Electron accomplishes this by combining Chromium and Node.js into a single runtime and apps can be packaged for Mac, Windows, and Linux.
POSTMAN’s API DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT : NOW the question is what do you mean by API development environment : An API Development Environment - or ADE - is a platform that supports and enhances API development. A good ADE will streamline the development process, create a single source of truth for an organization&apos;s APIs, and enhance collaboration on APIs across the organization. So the POSTMAN justify this definition with the combination of following three things : WORKSPACE : A workspace is a view of all the Postman things you’ve come to use: collections, environments, mocks, monitors, and more. Individuals can organize their work in personal workspaces and teams can collaborate in team workspaces.
Collection : Group of request
Built in tools : Supports lot of builin tools like mock server, collection runner, monitors etc.
New Button : We can use it to create new request, collection, environments, monitors, documentation and mock server.
Import Button: Enables to imports Postman collections, environments, WADL, Swagger, RAML, or cURL into Postman using files, links, or raw text.
Runner Button : Opens a collection runner
Interceptor/Proxy icon - Manages proxy or Interceptor settings
IN SYNC status icon - Updates the status of your Postman account.
Settings icon - Manages Postman app settings and finds other support resources.
Notifications icon - Receives notifications or broadcasts.
Heart - Love Postman? Click on this button to share the love.
User dropdown - Displays current user and provides these options: “Profile”, “Account Settings”, “Notification Preferences”, “Active Sessions”, and “Add a new account”.
New Window : Toopen a new tab in your request builder, collection Runner or a postman window.
Show/hide Sidebar
Search in collection, environments, and globals
Postman Console
Continue where to left from.
Two Pane layout.
Keyboard Shortcut
Get help or provide feedback.
You can view different kinds of buckets in which values reside. If a variable is in two different scopes, the scope with a higher priority wins and the variable gets its value from there. Postman resolves scopes using this hierarchy progressing from broad to narrow scope.
FOR EX : If a variable from the currently active environment shares its name with a global variable, the environment variable will take priority.
Postman’s API Documentation feature lets you view private API documentation or share public API documentation in a beautifully formatted web page.
Delays on the front- or back-end make it difficult for dependent teams to complete their work efficiently. Postman’s mock servers can alleviate those delays in the development process.
As a result, all teams in the development process can work in parallel; and dependent teams experience fewer delays.
Each Postman user gets 1,000 monitoring calls for free per month. Paid teams have higher limits: Postman Pro teams have 10,000 monthly monitoring calls included