March 2017 Summaries

Clarifai, an artificial intelligence company founded in 2013 in New York, offers a visual recognition API that enables app developers to create and train their own machine learning models by analyzing images and videos. Using machine learning and deep neural networks, Clarifai's technology provides intelligent visual search capabilities, supported by a team of 25 engineers who focus on data science, research, and development. The company utilizes Postman for development and testing, where engineers create and test new endpoints before sharing them with the team for feedback. Communication within the team is facilitated through Postman's team library, allowing everyone, including non-engineers, to stay informed about API changes and address client issues effectively. To ensure the reliability of their services, Clarifai integrates Postman's command-line tool, Newman, with Jenkins for continuous testing of their endpoints, which runs every five minutes to maintain a healthy status code and promptly address any outages.

The post concludes a series on using Postman for music discovery with Spotify by demonstrating how to emulate Spotify's Discover Weekly and Daily Mix features through Postman Monitors and the Postman Pro API. Postman Monitors, a tool launched in January 2017, allows users to assess API performance, uptime, and accuracy by running Postman Collections on the cloud according to a set schedule. The Postman Pro API facilitates deeper integration with development toolchains by enabling users to create, update, and run collections and environments, while syncing actions with the Postman app. The post outlines a workflow that includes updating the environment and creating a monitor to automate the music discovery process, thereby expanding the list of artists. Through this process, users can discover new and obscure music genres, showcasing Postman Pro’s capabilities as a comprehensive toolchain for API developers.

Postman is focused on creating a robust API development toolchain that integrates seamlessly with developers' workflows, supporting an open ecosystem and collaborating with industry leaders to introduce features and integrations that enhance API development efficiency. Postman Pro users have access to numerous third-party integrations, including popular tools like GitHub and Slack, which are continually expanding to improve user productivity. These integrations allow users to streamline data sharing and functionality between Postman and other essential API development tools, such as synchronizing Postman Collections with GitHub repositories or creating a live activity feed in Slack. Additional tools like APIMatic's API transformer enable conversion of Postman API documentation into various formats, further supporting diverse development needs. Postman encourages users to explore the growing list of integrations and offers the flexibility to build custom integrations using Postman Pro's API, fostering a collaborative environment for ongoing improvement.

BigCommerce, a prominent SaaS provider for online merchants, has significantly expanded since its 2009 inception, now boasting a team of 100 engineers across global offices and managing over $9 billion in sales through its platform. The company utilizes a core PHP application alongside various auxiliary tools to address engineering challenges, with Postman being integral for both onboarding and collaboration among durable teams across different domain areas. Engineers and QA teams use Postman Collections to streamline onboarding, test APIs, and identify potential issues before the user interface is developed. The omnichannel team employs Postman for API integration with platforms like eBay and Amazon, creating spike tickets to preemptively address any API-related challenges. Furthermore, Postman aids in generating code snippets for API documentation, facilitating ease of use across multiple programming languages, which enhances the onboarding process for developers. Beyond developers, Postman is utilized by product managers, strategic business development teams, and client success teams at BigCommerce to access customer databases, query production data, and troubleshoot API issues, thereby supporting broader business functions and improving operational efficiency.

Postman has introduced a new mock service that allows teams to simulate backend servers, enabling front-end, back-end, and API developers to work in parallel without the delays caused by dependencies on each other. This mock service lets front-end developers simulate each endpoint in a Postman Collection, view potential responses, and test for different response codes without needing to set up an actual backend. By saving desired responses and using the collectionId and environmentId retrieved from the Postman Pro API, developers can create and verify mocks to enhance workflow efficiency. The mock service requires an x-api-key header for authentication and supports an x-mock-response-code header to specify response codes, allowing for flexible simulation of various scenarios. This feature aims to improve team collaboration and streamline development processes.

Postman, initially available as a Chrome app, has introduced native apps for Mac, Windows, and Linux, which offer enhanced features and functionality compared to the Chrome app. The native apps, built on Electron, provide advantages such as integrated cookie management, a built-in proxy for capturing network traffic, and the ability to send restricted headers like Origin and User-Agent, which were previously limited in the Chrome app. Additionally, the native apps feature a built-in console for viewing network request details and a more flexible menu bar not restricted by Chrome standards. With Google's plan to end support for Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux, users are encouraged to transition to the native apps, which offer a seamless migration of data through account sync or manual data export and import. Despite the native apps' similar appearance to the Chrome app, users can differentiate between them by checking the menu options or the About tab under Settings.

GitHub, the world's largest host of source code, now offers an integration with Postman Pro, allowing users to easily back up and synchronize their Postman Collections on GitHub. This integration enables users to log into their Postman Dashboard, navigate to the Integrations page, and select GitHub from the list of third-party integrations. By authorizing Postman to access their GitHub account, users can back up their Postman Collections to an existing GitHub repository as a JSON file, with options to specify custom directory names and branches for committing changes. Once set up, any changes made to a Postman Collection will automatically be committed to the specified GitHub repository in real time. This integration aims to harmonize the storage of Collections and code within the same repository, encouraging users to explore other integrations available in the Postman Integrations directory.

Postman has introduced two new features that enhance the usability of variables within the app, addressing long-standing user requests. These features include an autocomplete menu that can be activated by typing an open curly bracket in most areas of the request builder or by entering the first letter of a variable in the pre-request script and tests sections. The menu displays a list of variables with their current values, scope, and any notes on overridden variables, while unresolved variables are prominently highlighted. Additionally, hovering over a variable provides a tooltip with its details. These updates, available now on the Canary build and set to release in stable builds by early March, are part of Postman's ongoing commitment to maintaining a user-friendly interface while incorporating valuable user feedback. Users are encouraged to try these features on available platforms and provide feedback through various channels, reflecting Postman's dedication to being a developer-first product.

Postman has introduced a new data editor to address user concerns about handling large data sets, particularly large JSON responses and key-value pairs, by enhancing usability and efficiency. Inspired by the familiar framework of spreadsheets, this editor allows users to view and manipulate data more effectively, with optimized space usage and features that reduce interface clutter by displaying relevant row-specific features on hover. Users can now select and copy multiple rows for pasting elsewhere, and the UI auto-expands to show complete information for data-heavy areas. The editor, currently available in Postman's Canary build and set for stable release in early March, allows column width adjustment and aims to facilitate improved workflows, with additional spreadsheet-inspired features planned for future updates. Postman is actively seeking user feedback through Twitter, GitHub, and support channels to refine the tool further.