August 2017 Summaries

Utilizing inbound webhooks to send information from Postman to a Slack channel for scheduled collection runs can be highly beneficial, and logging data to the Postman console is also useful during development. However, exporting data from a Postman collection run to CSV or JSON can be accomplished by running a local server and using scripts in Postman to send requests to that server. This process involves setting up a local server using Node.js, listening for POST requests, and writing data to the file system. By running a local instance of the Postman app, users can execute a Postman collection that sends a POST request to the local server, which then writes the data to a file like spaceReport.json. Although this method is effective when using a local setup, it is not applicable for scheduled runs on the Postman cloud due to network restrictions, but it can be performed locally using Newman.

Sikka API connects to over 96% of retail healthcare providers, such as dental and veterinary offices, processing billions of transactions daily and supporting 8 million monthly calls via partner apps. With 210 APIs linked to 24,000 U.S. healthcare practices, Sikka offers a marketplace for app development partners to create services for healthcare providers, like payment management and appointment scheduling. The company, headquartered in San Jose with additional offices in Fresno and India, utilizes Postman to publish and synchronize API documentation, facilitating easy access for developers to build secure apps aligned with HIPAA compliance. The Sikka team conducts smoke tests using over 200 Postman test cases to ensure the reliability of their API endpoints, having transitioned from Jenkins to Postman for more efficient testing and integration processes. Additionally, they use Postman monitors to ensure API availability, tracking performance and addressing any issues promptly to maintain service quality for their partners.

Hotelbeds Group, headquartered in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, is the leading bedbank and B2B provider in the global travel industry, utilizing proprietary technology to book over 27 million rooms annually across 120,000 properties in more than 185 countries. With a workforce of 6,150 employees spread across key locations like Shanghai, Singapore, Hamburg, and Palma de Mallorca, the company offers a robust API platform that facilitates the distribution of travel services, enhancing reach and revenue for providers and sellers. The team heavily relies on Postman Pro for API development, utilizing its Team Library to sync updates and manage environments throughout development stages, ensuring efficient collaboration and testing. The APItude developer portal streamlines partner onboarding with a 'Run in Postman' button, while the support team uses Postman for bug resolution, maintaining a comprehensive history of resolved issues for quick reference.

API testing can be challenging, but Postman simplifies the process by providing tools to write and execute tests and integrate them into Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines. Developers increasingly use Postman in CI/CD workflows, allowing for early detection of issues through frequent code integration and automated testing. Postman offers a testing sandbox and a command-line tool called Newman to run tests and log results. Integrating Postman tests with CI services like Travis CI involves setting up a GitHub repository, exporting Postman collections as JSON files, and configuring a .travis.yml file to automate testing with Newman. The process ensures that tests are run automatically with each code commit, and developers can monitor results on the Travis CI build status page. For streamlined updates, Postman collections can be synced with GitHub or updated using the Postman API, enhancing efficiency during development.

Postman addresses API latency challenges with its multi-region support feature, allowing users to monitor and measure network latency from various global locations, including the US East, US West, Canada Central, Europe, Asia Pacific, and South America. If desired regions are unavailable, users are encouraged to contact Postman's Customer Success team, as the platform can provide any region supported by Amazon Web Services (AWS) within a day. Setting up a geographic API monitor involves accessing the Postman dashboard, selecting monitors, and configuring settings such as the collection to monitor, schedule, naming, environment, and preferred testing region, with options for email notifications, request timeouts, and SSL validation. Once established, users can view test results, which detail the collection's name, status, success rate, and average response time, through the Postman dashboard for both team and private collections.

Shopify, a leading commerce platform since 2006, provides robust tools and resources for developers through its API, which supports custom storefronts and apps for its App Store. With over 500 engineers across various locations, Shopify serves more than 500,000 merchants and handles extensive operations from product listings to secure transactions, processing over $40 billion in sales. Integral to its development ecosystem are the Polaris design system and Liquid templating language, along with the use of Postman, which is favored by developers for API testing, debugging, and documentation. Postman plays a critical role in Shopify's workflow, particularly for troubleshooting and supporting partner developers who utilize Shopify's comprehensive API documentation and shared Postman collections. These resources enhance the developer experience, facilitate seamless integration, and help high-volume merchants transition to Shopify’s platform efficiently.

Postman has implemented a system using a Postman collection and monitor to efficiently track and address issues submitted by the community on their GitHub support page, ensuring that each issue is assigned, labeled, and replied to within 24 hours. By leveraging the GitHub API and a Slack webhook, the system retrieves issues, checks for team responses, and sends daily reports to a Slack channel to identify any missed issues. This automated process involves setting environment variables, using recursive requests to handle issue comments, and scheduling a daily Postman Monitor to run the collection at 6 pm. Users can customize this setup for their own repositories by importing the GitHub Support sample collection into their Postman app, updating environment variables with personal credentials, and configuring the monitor to maintain oversight of their organizational issues.

As a Software Engineer on the Monitors product team at Postman, you collaborate with colleagues like James to focus daily on developing and enhancing the Monitors feature, which plays a crucial role in monitoring API performance and reliability. Having been with Postman for nearly two years, you have had the opportunity to work with various technologies and contribute to exciting projects that push the boundaries of what's possible with the Postman app, a platform known for its robust API development capabilities. Although your work is demanding, you manage to balance it with personal time, including vacations, and you encourage others to consider joining the team as Postman is actively hiring.