Understanding Postman, the app that has become the darling of code testers around the world
Any given app in this day and age may employ a number of different APIs from various services such as Google Analytics, Salesforce CRM, Paypal, Shopify etc. This complex combination of multiple APIs which interact seamlessly with each other through a common application codebase is what has freed us from the need to be bound to our desks. Thanks to APIs, people today can choose to even run entire businesses on the move.
However, while there is no doubt that the task of imparting various functionalities into an app has been made easier thanks to APIs, these very APIs also complicate the job of a Quality Assurance engineer in many ways, the most obvious being that every time the core codebase is modified for any reason, the APIs must also be tested for compatibility with the new code. Naturally, testing several APIs over and over again is quickly going to get tedious.
This is where Postman comes in, to help with the tedious task of API testing. API testing involves testing the collection of APIs and checking if they meet expectations for functionality, reliability, performance, and security and returns the correct response.
Postman is an API client which can be used to develop, test, share and document APIs and is currently one of the most popular tools used in API testing. Its features allow code testers to speed up their workflow while reaping the benefits of automation as much as possible. Postman’s sleek user interface is a boon to testers, who don’t have to go through the hassle of writing lots of code to test the functionality of an API.
Postman also has the following features on offer:
Accessibility
Once installed, Postman allows users to create an account which then syncs their files to the cloud. Once complete, users can access their files from any computer which has the Postman application installed.
In addition, it is also possible for users to share collections of testing requests via a unique URL or even by generating a JSON file.
Workspaces & Collections
Postman’s interface is built around workspaces and collections. Think of a workspace as an isolated container within which a tester can store, group, and manage all their code test requests. Workspaces are further divided into Personal and Team workspaces. As their names indicate, personal workspaces are visible only to a user, while team workspaces can be made available to a team. Each team gets one common workspace by default, with the option to create an unlimited number of new workspaces.
Collections are simply a collection of pre-built requests that can be organized into folders, and they can be easily exported and shared with others.
Ability to create Environments
In Postman, environments allow users to run requests and collections against different data sets. For example, users can create different environments, one for development, one for testing, and another for production. In such a scenario, authentication parameters such as usernames and passwords can change from environment to environment. Postman remedies this by allowing users to create a staging environment and assign a staging URL, staging username, and password. These variables can be then be passed between requests and tests allowing users to easily switch between different environments.
Parameterization
Postman allows users to parameterize requests as variables, thus granting users the ability to store frequently used parameters in test requests and scripts. Postman supports 5 different types of variable scopes namely Global, Collection, Environment, Data, and Local.
Scopes can be thought of as different “buckets” in which values reside. If a variable is in multiple “buckets”, 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.
Creation of Tests
It is also possible for users to create custom tests which can be added to each API call. For instance, a 200 OK request test can be created to check if an API successfully returns a given request.
Postman also contains a very helpful Snippets section which contains a set of pre-written tests which can be deployed with a single click.
Testing each field of a JSON RESTful service manually every time there is a change can be very time consuming, therefore the best way to do this is by validating the structure using a schema. Given below are the steps to follow to validate the schema using Postman.
Step 1: Assuming that we already have a JSON structure we will start with the Schema Generation. We will use https://jsonschema.net/#/ for generating the schema where we can copy and paste the JSON doc into the JSON Instance and it will generate the schema for us
Step 2: After generating the schema we will go to the tests tab of the postman and declare a variable Schema and paste the schema as follows
Var schema = { <Insert Schema here>
}
Step 3: After that we will write the test as follows to do the validation process.
pm.test('Schema is valid', function() {
pm.expect(tv4.validate(pm.response.json(), schema)).to.be.true;
});
Automation Testing
Postman has a complementary command-line interface known as Newman which can be installed separately. Newman can then be used to run tests for multiple iterations.
Consider a situation where there is a need to run a selected collection of written tests automatically without opening Postman and manually triggering those tests. This is where Newman comes in. Thanks to its ability to collaborate with any program that can trigger a command, such as Jenkins or Azure DevOps. For example, with the help of Newman our tests can be integrated with CI, and if any code change is pushed, CI will run the Postman collections which will in turn help developers obtain quick feedback on how their APIs perform after code changes.
Postman can be used to automate many types of tests including unit tests, functional tests, and integration tests, thus helping to reduce the amount of human error involved.
Newman is also special in that it allows users to deploy collections on computers which may not be running Postman. Collections can be fetched through the CLI of a host computer, by running a few commands.
For the uninitiated, here’s quick tutorial on how to install Newman:
Note: Installing Newman requires the prior installation of Node.js as well as NPM (Node Package Manager).
- Open the command prompt (Terminal for mac)
- Type
npm install -g newman
Now Newman is installed in your system. - Export the collection you want to run as a json file. (For instance, collectionFile.json)
- On command prompt go to the location of the collection json file & run the command
newman run collectionFile.json - If you want to run the test with environment variables you can export the environment as a json file.(For instance, environmentFile.json)
- You can run the test with the environment variables using the command
newman run collectionFile.json -e environmentFile.json
Following are some of the other options that can be used to customize the tests
-d, --data [file] Specify a data file to use either json or csv
-g, --global [file] Specify a Postman globals file as JSON [file]
-n, --iteration-count [number] Define the number of iterations to run
--delay-request [number] Specify a delay (in ms) between requests [number]
--timeout-request [number] Specify a request timeout (in ms) for a request
--bail Stops the runner when a test case fails
Easier Debugging
The consoles contained within Postman can be used to debug any errors that may arise. Postman contains two debugging tools. One is the console itself, which records any errors which take place while testing an API. Second is the DevTools console, which helps debug any errors occuring with respect to the Postman app itself. For instance, if Postman crashes while executing a test, the DevTools console is where you would look to diagnose the problem.
Support for Continuous Integration
By virtue of being open source, Postman supports a wide variety of Continuous Integration (CI) tools such as Jenkins and Bamboo. This helps ensure that development practices are kept consistent across various teams.
With so many features on offer to make life easier for code testers, it is not surprising that in the world of code testing, Postman is heralded as the best thing since sliced bread.