May 2020 Summaries

Postman has introduced a new role-based access control (RBAC) feature for environments, enhancing enterprises' ability to manage their API infrastructure by distinguishing between environment editors and viewers. This addition complements Postman's existing RBAC system, which includes roles for teams, workspaces, APIs, and collections, providing a comprehensive framework for defining and stabilizing the API lifecycle. The environment RBAC allows for a more collaborative and organized approach to API development by enabling teams to manage environment roles thoughtfully, ensuring clarity in API operations. This feature encourages enterprises to develop a formal strategy for environment usage, helping them understand current adoption levels, define the purpose of each environment, and conduct regular audits to maintain effective access control. The expanded RBAC toolbox aims to bring order to the dynamic world of API development, allowing organizations to better manage their API infrastructure and address challenges associated with its growth and evolution.

Postman co-hosted a virtual hackathon, hack:now, with Cal Hacks, where over 2,000 students globally participated to address COVID-19-related issues in healthcare, community, and productivity. The event featured a keynote by Steve Wozniak and highlighted the growing importance of API-first development, with Postman sponsoring a category for the Best Use of APIs. The winning project, Pac-Maps, is a mobile app that encourages physical distancing by simulating a Pac Man game in real life, with people represented as ghosts to avoid. Developed by Avikam Chauhan, Mihir Chauhan, and Mathew Joseph, the app not only met technical challenges but also aimed to enhance community health. The creators, experienced in hackathons, leveraged their skills to deepen their understanding of APIs and plan to release Pac-Maps on the iOS App Store, with the potential for contact tracing and understanding COVID-19 exposure. They encourage others to pursue projects with just a computer and ideas, emphasizing accessible online resources for learning technical skills.

Postman v7.24 introduces several significant updates aimed at enhancing user experience and functionality. The release includes an API Builder update that allows for generating and creating API elements more efficiently, as well as the ability to use a default web browser for generating OAuth2 tokens, thus improving security and user convenience. Users will also benefit from real-time status updates when syncing API schemas with GitHub and an added security layer for the Interceptor extension, which now supports a custom encryption key. Additionally, a new option simplifies moving APIs or collections to different workspaces, and improvements to code and description editors offer better syntax highlighting and variable suggestions. The update also brings additional import configurations for OpenAPI, RAML, and GraphQL schemas, providing more control over naming, indentation, and parameter generation during imports.