REST API testing tools¶

REST API testing tools are software applications used to send requests to RESTful web services and inspect the responses. Common tools for this purpose include the REST Client extension for Visual Studio Code and the standalone application Postman^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].

REST Client (VS Code)¶

The REST Client extension allows developers to send HTTP requests directly from within the Visual Studio Code editor^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md]. It supports defining requests in standard .rest or .http files.

Key Features¶

Environment Variables: Users can define variables for hosts, headers, or content types to reuse across requests (e.g., @localhostBWS = http://localhost:8080)[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].
Request Chaining: It supports chaining requests using the # @name syntax. Variables can be extracted from a response and used in subsequent requests^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].
Syntax: Requests are written in a natural syntax, allowing for the specification of methods (GET, POST), headers, and body content directly in text files^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].

Postman¶

Postman is a dedicated API testing tool that provides a graphical user interface for constructing requests, but also supports scripting for handling response data^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].

Handling Response Data¶

Postman allows the use of JavaScript to parse response bodies and automate the extraction of data^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].

Parsing: The responseBody can be parsed into a JSON object for data access^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].
Variables: Extracted values (such as tokens or IDs) can be set as environment variables for use in other tests^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md].

[[Postman]]
[[Visual Studio Code]]

Sources¶

^[600-developer-tools-vscode-restclient-postman.md]