{"id":2384,"date":"2015-02-09T01:04:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T06:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qxf2.com\/blog\/?p=2384"},"modified":"2015-04-12T08:34:39","modified_gmt":"2015-04-12T12:34:39","slug":"api-testing-ui-tools-postman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qxf2.com\/blog\/api-testing-ui-tools-postman\/","title":{"rendered":"API Testing: UI Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this post we will explore three UI tools you can use for API testing: Postman, SoapUI and Runscope. We do a deep dive into using Postman<\/a> for API testing because we<\/a> love using Postman. This post is the second in a series of blog posts on API testing. You can find the first part here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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1. Postman<\/h3>\n

Postman is an extremely efficient tool to work with APIs. You can construct simple as well as complex requests quickly. You can process different types of request like GET, PUT, POST, DELETE etc, pass different URL parameters along with the headers and cookies. All the transactions processed will be saved in History section and can be accessed for later use. You can also create your own collection which lets you group individual requests together. You can also view the response in different formats like JSON, XML, HTML and Text. Postman can dramatically cut down the time required to test and develop APIs.<\/p>\n

Getting started with Postman<\/h3>\n

1. Installing Postman client
\n2. Create a test
\n3. Create a request by adding Request URL, method and URL params
\n4. Run the test
\n5. Check the result<\/p>\n

Detailed steps<\/h3>\n

STEP 1: Installing Postman client<\/strong>
\nYou can install the Postman – REST Client in your google chrome browser by clicking on this link<\/a>.
\n\"Launch<\/a><\/p>\n

Once you install you can use the chrome app launcher to open the postman client as shown below.
\n\"Launch<\/a><\/p>\n

STEP 2: Create a Test<\/strong>
\nAs an example we will test the public api at OpenFDA<\/a>. OpenFDA is an Elasticsearch-based API that serves publicly accessible data about drugs, devices and food. We will add a test to search for records listing a specific drug with count of the ten most frequently reported patient reactions. <\/p>\n

STEP 3: Create a request by adding Request URL, method and URL params <\/strong><\/p>\n

\r\nhttps:\/\/api.fda.gov\/drug\/event.json?count=patient.reaction.reactionmeddrapt.exact&search=patient.drug.openfda.pharm_class_epc:\"nonsteroidal+anti-inflammatory+drug\"&limit=10\r\n<\/pre>\n
In the Normal tab you can create request by entering  URL, adding parameters, headers etc<\/p>\n