Postman

Postman is an application for the development, testing, and documentation of application programming interfaces. The platform centralizes work with APIs through a unified environment.

★★★★★

5.0(1 ratings)

• HTTP Request Builder. Generation of GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH, and other requests. Configuration of headers, bodies, parameters, and authentication. The builder presents the elements of a request in a structured way.
• Collections and Environments. Organization of requests into reusable groups called collections. Creation of variable sets for different environments (development, production). Variables are referenced in requests, allowing context switching without manually modifying each URL or data point.
• Automated Testing. Writing JavaScript scripts to verify API responses. Validation of HTTP status codes, response times, body contents, and data structures. Tests are executed after receiving a response or in sequences.
• Automatic Documentation. Generation of interactive documentation from collections. Includes descriptions, request examples, and responses. The documentation updates when the collection is modified and can be published online.
• API Monitoring. Scheduling periodic runs of collections from Postman's cloud servers. Obtaining reports on availability, performance, and correct operation. Configurable alerts for failures.
• Server Simulation (Mock). Creation of mock servers that respond with predefined data. Frontend development without depending on the real backend. Configuration of routes, HTTP methods, and example responses.
• Workflows (Flows). Visual design of API request sequences. Connecting steps where the output of one request is the input for the next. Automation of complex scenarios involving multiple endpoints.
• CI/CD Integration. Execution of test collections in continuous integration pipelines. Use of Newman (CLI) or the Postman API. Test results can fail a build process.
• Version Control and Collaboration. Synchronization of changes in collections through an integrated version control system. Modification history, branching, and merging. Shared workspaces for teams.
• Public API Exploration. Access to a repository of public APIs and collection templates. Searching for and cloning collections for well-known services. Reducing the time to start working with an external API.
• Code Generation. Production of code snippets in multiple languages (JavaScript, Python, cURL, etc.) from a configured request. The snippets facilitate integrating the API call into an application.
• Performance Analysis. Load testing by running a collection with multiple iterations and virtual users. Measurement of response times, throughput, and stability under load.
• Schema Management. Definition and validation of data schemas in formats like JSON Schema or OpenAPI. Linking schemas to requests to automatically validate the structure of responses.
• Security and Governance. Analysis of collections to detect potential security issues in APIs. Auditing of practices like authentication, sensitive data usage, and HTTP methods. Customizable governance rules.
• GraphQL Graphical Interface. Performing GraphQL queries and mutations from a specialized interface. Exploration of GraphQL schemas with autocomplete. Sending query variables and headers.

Postman was created in 2012 by Abhinav Asthana as a personal project to simplify the API workflow during his time working in Bangalore. Initially, it was a Google Chrome extension. The first version was developed using web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, leveraging the Chrome extension environment. In 2014, the native application for macOS and Windows was launched, built on the Electron framework, which allows creating desktop applications with web technologies. The company Postman Inc. was formally founded, and the product evolved from an API testing tool into a comprehensive collaboration platform for the API lifecycle. Postman's backend and cloud services use Node.js and other modern stack technologies.

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