POSTMAN.md

Postman: What you need to know for your project

Getting Started

• Postman tutorial
• Postman docs

Free Online HTTP Test Services (to play around)

• JSONPlaceholder
• Postman Echo

Import a Test Collection

1. File > Import ...

   

2. Choose file tests/server.postman_collection.json

   

Run a Test Collection

1. Create a new empty environment in Postman in the top right corner via Add

   

2. Start your backend server in the terminal via npm run dev

3. Run the collection

   

4. Select your empty environment and click Run server

   

Export Test Collection

1. In the extended menu ... of your collection, click Export

   

2. Choose the latest export format (v2.1)

   

3. Overwrite the file tests/server.postman_collection.json

   

4. Run npm test in your terminal

   

Test script assertions

• Test script examples

Chaining Requests via Postman Variables

Make sure your test collection works on an empty database!

Whenever you create an object that you want to use later (e.g., to retrieve, update, delete), you need to save its _id to a Postman environment variable for later re-use:

1. Save the _id of created objects for later request via pm.environment.set("camel_id", jsonData._id);

   

2. Use variables in later requests in Postman via {{camel_id}} or in Postman scripts or via pm.variables.get("camel_id");

   

Check out the following documentation for more info:

• Extracting data from responses and chaining requests
  • NOTE: Uses the deprecated environment variable syntax. Replace postman.setEnvironmentVariable(...) with pm.environment.set(...)
• Example in the express-rest-api tutorial used in the lecture
• Postman detailed docs about variables