
Postman: a powerful HTTP client (for Chrome) to test web services - caiobegotti
http://www.getpostman.com/
======
a85
Thanks for the great comments everyone. Postman developer here. Woke up to
find the link at the top of HN. Feels awesome. :)

~~~
SimonW43
Thanks for the great tool.

First I thought "Damn, that's no news. I use it for ages ...", but some things
are worth to be reminded of from time to time.

~~~
a85
Haha. You are welcome!

------
stock_toaster
I prefer cli tools for api driving/testing, and httpie[1] works pretty well
for that.

[1]: [https://github.com/jkbr/httpie](https://github.com/jkbr/httpie)

~~~
a85
I like httpie but the app can do a lot more than sending requests now (which
you might not be able to do in a CLI tool). You can write tests and run a
bunch of requests together to simulate different scenarios:
[http://www.getpostman.com/docs/jetpacks_writing_tests](http://www.getpostman.com/docs/jetpacks_writing_tests).

~~~
glutamate
Here's a library in Haskell if you are inclined to do this with an embedded
domain-specific language instead:

[http://hackage.haskell.org/package/http-
test](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/http-test)

------
te_chris
I use Rested, it's a simple, cheap, mac app and works great.
[http://www.helloresolven.com/portfolio/rested/](http://www.helloresolven.com/portfolio/rested/)

EDIT: Why the hell was I downvoted for suggesting a good app? goddammit...

~~~
jonahx
probably because your suggesting a paid app to solve a problem that is well
solved by free ones

~~~
LocalPCGuy
Also a Mac app when the original app works across platforms

~~~
bottled_poe
I would say an app for chrome is just as accessible as an app for mac.

~~~
ollyculverhouse
Chrome can be quickly installed (free) on all platforms. If I don't have a
Mac, which I don't, how would I install this Mac application?

------
mikegioia
I auditioned about 10 different Chrome/Firefox extensions to send HTTP
requests and this was by far the best one. It's clean, simple to use, and
handles auth really well.

~~~
dfc
Do you remember your favorite for firefox? I have never found one that I was
very happy with.

~~~
wickedOne
you might want to give restclient a go: been using it nearly daily for the
last year and am quite happy with it.
[http://restclient.net/](http://restclient.net/)

------
Osiris
I've been using Postman for quite a while now and it's really handy. You can
save requests in collections so you can rerun the same requests for testing
purposes. It's great if you're deving a REST API and need a simple client for
basic testing.

~~~
jbl
It's also great for sharing collections of API calls as a sort of live demo.

------
hdra
Would be perfect if it can stop being a chrome packaged app though. The window
switching in OS X makes it really hard for me to get to it when I have a
chrome window open at the same time.

I wish it could be wrapped in a native app or even just let it run in a chrome
tab.

~~~
solox3
Believe it or not, Postman was _better_ (used to run inside a tab instead of
its own window)

Edit: here it is, both the extension (tab) and the packaged app (window):
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/postman?hl=en](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/postman?hl=en)

~~~
hdra
Yes, I know about that POSTMAN used to run inside a tab, but it seems to have
been abandoned for quite some time. I still have it installed, but it still
telling to to 'upgrade' to the packaged app.

That Postman extension that you linked, I actually didn't know about this
before, but that doesn't seems like something provided by the original
developer. Any idea whats the story behind it? EDIT: Nevermind, just Googled
the domain. Its the same developer.

~~~
a85
The earlier app ran as a "legacy" Chrome app. Chrome has deprecated those
style of apps and it's not accepting new submissions for legacy apps. I can
only push updates now. The newer style Chrome apps run in a sandbox and have
access to better APIs. This allows Postman to have features like collection
runner, test scripts, OAuth 2 etc. Unfortunately, window management is a bit
screwed up and am hoping support improves there from Chrome's side.

------
namigop
{ Full disclosure, I'm the author of WCFStorm.Rest }

If you're on Windows and is looking for an alternative, check out
wcfstorm.rest ([http://www.wcfstorm.com/wcf/learn-more-
rest.aspx](http://www.wcfstorm.com/wcf/learn-more-rest.aspx)). It has a lot
features similar to postman and adds some more, like saving requests and
responses into functional test cases which includes a showing a graphical
"diff" between the actual and expected responses as well as being to define
custom validation rules that is executed against the http response. It can
also do a single load test as well a distributed load test using several
machines ([http://www.wcfstorm.com/wcf/how-to--distributed-
performance-...](http://www.wcfstorm.com/wcf/how-to--distributed-performance-
test.aspx))

WcfStorm.Rest is a paid software but it has a LITE version which is available
for free and works well for ad-hoc testing and exploring REST API endpoints.

------
Garbage
I am surprised how many people didn't know about Postman.

It's an amazing tool. I have been using it almost daily since long back.

~~~
joshmn
I love the importing/exporting of collections. Makes sharing with my team so
simple.

------
Ind007
I find Advanced REST Client is more friendlier

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/advanced-rest-
clie...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/advanced-rest-
client/hgmloofddffdnphfgcellkdfbfbjeloo)

------
greenbee
I've been using Postman for a while. Overall, very impressed as it was
intuitive straight from the first use. However, when putting files in a post
request, it doesn't remember the files for you. Also, there is no way to stop
an ongoing request besides resetting and clearing all the parameters. I really
hope they would accommodate these options in the future.

~~~
a85
There is now a new Chrome API which can help remember files. Looking into it
right now.

------
chandraonline
POSTman is an awesome testing tool and also a great way to document APIs to
share within a team. I wish it had support for storing information in
responses as variables for use in later requests. I currently use globals
within environments to set things that rarely change like API keys and secret
but it doesn't work for things that change in every invocation for eg., it
would be nice if I can save the access token of an oath call in $token and
then refer only to $token in other protected resources.

------
lnanek2
I use Simple REST Client for Chrome. This might have a few extra features,
though, so guess I'll try it out. Seems like a common, over served extension
idea, though.

------
andeh89
We've been using Postman for a while now, it's invaluable for
testing/validating APIs across our environments. One feature we've been
waiting a long time for however is live collection sharing; to have a
centralized set of endpoints/etc that's kept updated and synchronized (without
needing everyone to export and import JSON files). There's a feature request
on GitHub but it's been in stasis for a long time now.

~~~
jamra
why not use something like zookeeper or etcd to sync your config files?

~~~
andeh89
Interesting, I'll have a look into whether that's possible with the current
client (my understanding was that Collections don't detect or update changes
unless you explicitly make any yourself). Still, ideally this is something
that'd be very handy to have as a core feature within the app (author has
looked into Google Drive integration in the past)

------
tzury
Great tool, added to toolchain.

If you never came across Firefox Tamper Data Add-on, this might be a great
opportunity to mention it.

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tamper-
data/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tamper-data/)

A different tool, yet targeting similar audience (us).

------
deanmoriarty
And let's not forget is the only one I've seen that automatically remembers
cookies, very very handy.

------
hasancc
I've been using it for quite a while now. I'm ashamed to say that it's
simplistic approach on collections often made me question the urgency of
writing API documentation when developing a private API. Why not just send the
collection of examples? Well, we all know why but still...

------
lilpirate
Postman works great. The only feature I would like to see added is to somehow
easilu swap a base URL in requests. So I have to maintain just one collection
per API and not multiple collections for multiple API deployments (production,
testing, staging).

~~~
redwoolf
You can do this by using the environments feature. Create an environment and
add a key to that environment to represent the base URL. Then in the the URL
line replace your base URL with the reference to the key. For example
[http://{{base-url}}/api/](http://{{base-url}}/api/)

~~~
lilpirate
Aha. I thought environments could only be used for setting additional HTTP
headers! Thanks for this.

------
SixSigma
"no more fiddling with the command line"

If you have to fiddle with the command line, you're doing it wrong. It drives
us nuts in the Plan9 community that Bash history and readline is seen as some
sort of productivity tool. We have powerful shell primitives but the command
line is seen as the last resort of composing them. Admittedly we have a
terminal window with which you can edit text in two dimensions but use a
proper set of tools with a bit of forethought and you get much more done.

If you need an oauth client, write one with a few bits of script and use it
everywhere. It's the Unix way.

~~~
canadev
> It drives us nuts in the Plan9 community that Bash history and readline is
> seen as some sort of productivity tool.

I don't understand what this means, can you explain?

I personally have a .bash_profile (more generally, a collection of dot files)
in a git repo that I share between machines. I also find myself using Meta-.
and CTRL-R quite frequently.

------
politician
Postman is an amazingly productive way to test or explore an API. It's a cheap
win to export a request collection, and stick it in version control to capture
the known state of an API at a point in time.

------
alex440
I tried postman and found it rather weird. What did not suit me: problems with
remembering history - i'd expect the much labored-at settings and vars and
options to be stored in the cloud and not vanish if I re-install the extension
or use other machine. no custom cookies - that's a deal breaker.

I prefer the excellent Fiddler tool for manual fiddling, and yet have to find
a good test-suit tool. Or write it myself...

------
jroseattle
I use both postman and restconsole alternatively for testing our JSON API.
Wrapped in with the console open to the Network, it's indispensable.

------
threeseed
Also would take a look at SoapUI if you are dealing with multi step flows:

[http://www.soapui.org](http://www.soapui.org)

~~~
sleepyhead
Perhaps the worst software I have ever used.

~~~
mnkypete
maybe for REST, but seriously, if you ever need to test SOAP services - I hope
you don't - this is probably the best there is..

~~~
sleepyhead
Yes I was in need of that when I tried it. And I still gave up.

------
ninjakeyboard
I've been using this for a while. I usually go to curl if I need to do any
really heavy work but it's a handy quick tool.

------
uuid_to_string
Our current testing utilities are relatively small and compile with modest
amounts of RAM. Hobbit's netcat, WR Stevens' sock, etc.

We have security auditing rules that require us to compile the programs we run
from source. We prefer small programs as they are easier to audit.

Does anyone know how much RAM is required to compile Chromium?

Can it be done on a laptop?

~~~
dfc
Do you have to compile everything from source, e.g. gcc, glibc, etc? There is
no need to get into the whole "reflections on trusting trust" spiel, but I
imagine at some point you must rely on your distro? Just use the chromium
package from your distro. If not why not build on a desktop/server and copy
package to laptop?

------
free
I switched to Postman because it supports attaching files to make multipart
request, which the RestClient does not.

------
nodesocket
Postman is an awesome tool. If your intereseted in a php library to go a bit
further and curl urls and expect certain json response bodies, headers, and
status codes, check out
[https://github.com/commando/dogpatch](https://github.com/commando/dogpatch).

------
ShaneCurran
I've been using Postman pretty much every day for the past couple of years.
It's a really handy tool for testing out APIs in particular which is primarily
what I use it for. It's definitely worth upgrading your package and I think
the developer well deserves it.

------
cl8ton
Postman is exactly what I have been looking for. I used Fiddler for years and
always thought it to be heavy and awkward to use. It's strange I never heard
about Postman before this post.

I like working out of the browser and Postman has just the right amount of
features I need.

------
qianlifeng
Dev Http Client [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dev-http-
client/ae...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dev-http-
client/aejoelaoggembcahagimdiliamlcdmfm)

------
atonse
I love postman but am not a fan of the just slightly weird behavior of chrome
apps.

------
idlemind
It's a great tool, we use it all the time on our team. It's the easiest way
I've found to share a full demonstration of the API all in one go, with
documentation. Couldn't live without it now!

------
jug6ernaut
I know i am missing something here....but how on earth do you launch this?

~~~
thematt
Seriously, it's a pain in the ass. Click the apps launcher in the upper left
of the Chrome start page.

~~~
ttdmayshark
I'm glad to know I'm not the only person who struggled with this.

~~~
stretchwithme
you are not. I'm quite sure this used to be easier.

------
rdvrk
Super useful. It's nice that you can set auth parameters
(basic/digest/oauth1&2) and headers easily.

I use it as a packaged app, so launching it is the same as it is for native
stuff.

------
pingburg
I've used Postman for a while and it is great for those trying to understand
integrating with web apis. The ability to save requests in a namespace is
invaluable.

------
techaddict009
I had tried many other similar tool but all of them started crashing my chrome
but Postman didnt cause any issue to performance of the browser.

I will suggest Postman for sure.

------
vtempest
I've been using this for a while. I wish it had the feature of logging the
http requests going on currently, similar to other addons or Wireshark.

~~~
viig99
Postman comes with an interceptor which basically saves all the API request to
postman while you are browsing through your site,
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/postman-
intercepto...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/postman-
interceptor/aicmkgpgakddgnaphhhpliifpcfhicfo?hl=en)

How to use it, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxf-
o_DLSLw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxf-o_DLSLw)

------
ams6110
[https://github.com/pashky/restclient.el](https://github.com/pashky/restclient.el)
for the emacs fans.

------
vitalus
Our team's been using this for about 6 months as a regular part of our
workflow. I now lean on it heavily while developing JSON APIs

------
themez
What impress me is that far they can go as a chrome app, chrome is turning
into a platform like adobe air now. It's amazing.

------
karangoeluw
I'll recommend Postman to anyone any day. I make a ton of API's and it's the
best tool for testing them.

------
munimkazia
This tool is very popular in my place of work and geek circle. We've been
using it for quite a while now.

------
sinzone
[http://mashape.com](http://mashape.com) is a proud supporter of Postman

------
jayjohnson
Great tool we use during development of our REST APIs. Liking the collections
for testing regressions too.

------
domrdy
I've been using this the past few days for testing elasticsearch queries,
great tool!

------
reinier_s4g
Postman is a great tool, i cant imagine developing applications nowadays
without it.

------
shaneqful
Or you could just use curl.

------
digitalpacman
Been using postman forever. But it needs lots of work.

------
theboss
Super useful for testing web-apps for vulnerabilities

------
shivaas
love this tool!! indispensible if you are working with a REST api, or even
debugging SOAP responses

------
victormx
the only flaw it's you can't see size of request without using chrome tab

------
malkia
postman turned real useful for me while getting some jira rest stuff to work

------
forlorn
> for Chrome

Thank you but no.

~~~
SimonW43
While I have issues with a lot of services Google provides I think Chrome is
safe to use here. I don't think they're capturing your communication using
Chrome (you could easily find out using Wireshark). They do in many other
ways, though.

~~~
i39d
Chrome is proprietary, use Chromium instead. If they aren't doing bad stuff
today, they might implement bad stuff tomorrow and automatically push that
update to you. You can't turn of updates in your browser, you have to edit the
configuration file for the autoupdater. I prefer any Firefox or any Mozilla
based browser, but that is just personal preference.

