April 2020 Summaries

Postman v7.23 introduces several noteworthy enhancements, including PKCE support for OAuth 2.0, which enhances security during the OAuth exchange by allowing users to select the Authorization Code with PKCE as the grant type. This update also allows users to track their monitoring calls directly within the app, offering visibility into usage limits, particularly for those on free plans restricted to 1,000 calls per month. Additionally, performance improvements have been made to the listing of collections in the sidebar, providing a more efficient experience for users working with numerous collections. These updates aim to enhance overall user experience and security, encouraging users to explore the new features and share feedback.

Postman, often referred to as a REST client, is capable of handling any HTTP-based calls, including SOAP and GraphQL requests, due to their transport protocol agnosticism. Despite REST's popularity, many developers still maintain legacy systems that use SOAP, which relies on XML formatting. To make SOAP requests using Postman, users should enter the SOAP endpoint as the request URL, set the method to POST, and configure the body type to raw XML. Users must adjust the Content-Type header to "text/xml" to match the endpoint's requirements and define the SOAP envelope, body, and headers in the request body. An example provided illustrates converting 75 degrees Fahrenheit to Celsius using a SOAP API. Postman proves to be a versatile tool for managing APIs across different protocols, including REST, SOAP, and GraphQL.

Postman v7.22 introduces several new features and enhancements aimed at improving user experience and functionality. Key highlights include support for RAML 1.0, which enhances API declaration capabilities with new data types and security schema improvements, and a guided tour of the API Builder to help users navigate its features. The update also introduces a "presence" feature in team workspaces, allowing team members to see who is active and collaborating on APIs in real-time. Additionally, users can now write GraphQL schemas in JSON format, providing flexibility for those accustomed to JSON. Performance improvements have been made for tasks such as typing URLs with autocomplete suggestions, opening multiple tabs, downloading large responses, and using the environment quicklook menu, enhancing the overall efficiency of the application.

HTTP headers play a critical role in facilitating communication between clients and servers on the web, and their importance extends to APIs, which often utilize HTTP as a transport mechanism. Traditionally hidden from both web users and developers, HTTP headers have been made more accessible and understandable with tools like Postman. The latest release of Postman introduces a new HTTP header live preview feature that enhances visibility into both request and response headers of API requests. This feature allows developers to view all headers, including those automatically generated by Postman for purposes like authorization and cookies, without editing them directly in the live preview. Users can navigate to the origin of each header to understand its configuration and function better, thus gaining a deeper understanding of API request mechanics. This capability aids in troubleshooting and debugging API requests by providing comprehensive insight into the headers involved, ultimately making developers more efficient and precise in their work while demystifying the inner workings of the web and APIs.

Amid the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Postman team has played a vital role by developing a crowdsourced COVID-19 API Resource Center, aimed at providing easier access to and understanding of public data. This initiative includes a tutorial on using Postman Visualizer to create visual representations of COVID time series data within the Postman app, which guides users through importing an example collection and using JavaScript and HTML to enhance data visualization. By employing the Handlebars templating engine and integrating Chart.js, users can transform raw API data into interactive and informative visualizations, such as line graphs, to better comprehend trends over time. The tutorial encourages further exploration and customization by suggesting enhancements like styling with CSS, adding interactivity, and comparing datasets, thereby empowering users to leverage data visualization for deeper insights and effective communication.

Postman's next-generation URL processor is designed to tackle the complex challenges associated with parsing and encoding URLs, which are fundamental to API requests. The new processor enhances flexibility and accuracy by using a non-regex parser, allowing path-specific, query-specific, and user-info-specific encoding, and offering improved handling of unsafe characters, trailing white spaces, and Postman variables. It supports IPv6, IP shorthand, double slashes for Windows compatibility, and better management of newlines and whitespace, aligning with the latest web standards while addressing numerous GitHub issues identified by the community. With configurable settings, this update aims to provide developers with greater control and visibility, although its impact on legacy systems remains to be fully assessed.