{"id":90814,"date":"2021-05-10T18:46:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T18:46:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/?p=90814"},"modified":"2022-05-02T20:37:34","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T20:37:34","slug":"documenting-testing-apis-postman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.red-gate.com\/simple-talk\/development\/dotnet-development\/documenting-testing-apis-postman\/","title":{"rendered":"Documenting and testing APIs with Postman"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no question whether testing is important to the evolution of your APIs, especially when they come in an automated manner<\/a>. Many teams also lack documentation of all sorts to guide new people on understanding and using the endpoints. This article covers documenting and testing APIs with Postman.<\/p>\n

You probably have heard about Postman<\/a>, the famous collaboration platform for API development and testing. Yes, testing. Many developers don\u2019t know the power that Postman can add to their daily lives in automating API tests. The possibility of sharing your test collections along with your team and working together on them is even better.<\/p>\n

In this article, you\u2019re going to dive into the universe of documenting and testing your APIs with Postman. You\u2019ll also get to see some nice tips on discovering some hidden features of the tool that\u2019ll facilitate your automation and increase productivity.<\/p>\n

Setup<\/h2>\n

The first step includes Postman installation<\/a>. Although there\u2019s a web version available, the Desktop version is faster. Additionally, I\u2019d advise you to create an account and stay logged in because that\u2019ll allow Postman to keep your collections and tests synched.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Figure 1.<\/strong> Postman home screen<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>The API<\/h2>\n

For this article, you can use whatever API you\u2019ve created or are working with. The only requirement is that you have, at least, most of the HTTP verbs related to CRUD operations. However, to demonstrate, I\u2019ll stick to an API made with ASP.NET, the CRUD API I\u2019ve developed before in another article: Creating ASP.NET Apps with React<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Make sure to clone the project<\/a> to your machine. Then, cd<\/em> into the \\ReactASPNET\\ReactASPCrud\\ReactASPCrud<\/em> folder, and run the following command:<\/p>\n

dotnet run<\/pre>\n
Once the command terminal prints the \u201cApplication started<\/em>\u201d message, the app is up and running at http:\/\/localhost:5000<\/a>.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Postman: First steps<\/h2>\n
Postman is divided into workspaces. Each workspace corresponds to a set of configurations, collections, and endpoints specific to it. It\u2019s a great way to separate your APIs from the ones of your workplace, for example.<\/p>\n
Right at the home page, click the Workspaces<\/em> option and select My Workspace<\/em> at the following screen.<\/p>\n
The two main sections you\u2019ll be working with are:<\/p>\n