March 2021 Summaries

Postman public profiles enable users to showcase their Postman Collections and their presence within the Postman community, allowing for easy sharing and attribution. By creating a public profile, users can include personal details, social network links, and a bio, alongside their public collections, which can be personalized with a cover image. Setting the profile to "public" facilitates the sharing of workspaces and collections, encouraging feedback and interaction from the community. This interaction not only fosters personal growth through suggestions and recognition but also aims to enhance the overall community experience. Users can learn to create their profiles through a brief Postman Level Up video tutorial.

During the Postman Galaxy virtual conference, a Postman developer advocate devised a method to automatically collect tweets with the #PostmanGalaxy hashtag and send them to a Slack channel by creatively using a combination of the Twitter API, Postman API, and Slack Incoming Webhooks. The challenge involved working within the limitations of Twitter's Standard API track, which necessitated chaining requests to pair user IDs with Twitter handles. The process also involved overcoming Slack's character limit by looping through tweets and sending them individually. Automation was achieved using Postman's monitoring feature to regularly fetch new tweets and update the Slack channel without manual intervention, ensuring continuous updates throughout the conference. The advocate shared insights and instructions for replicating this automated Twitter hashtag search bot, encouraging others to adapt it for tracking their favorite hashtagged tweets.

Software bugs, which cause unexpected behavior in computer programs, are often debugged using tools like Postman, especially when dealing with APIs. The term "debugging" is attributed to Grace Hopper, a pioneering computer programmer and the Navy's first female admiral, who in 1947 reportedly removed a moth from her Mark II computer, resolving its malfunction. This anecdote highlights Hopper's significant contributions to technology and serves as a notable story during Women's History Month, with resources available to explore her and other influential women in technology through the Women in Technology public workspace by API Evangelist, where users can engage and provide feedback.

Over the past seven years, Postman has emerged as a leading software company with a global community of over 17 million developers, fostering collaboration and open-source development within the API landscape. Emphasizing the open-source philosophy, Postman has released core modules like Postman Runtime, Collection SDK, and Newman, and has partnered with AsyncAPI to enhance its platform for working with event-driven architectures. As part of its commitment to open-source contributions, Postman participated in Google Summer of Code (GSoC) for the first time in 2020 and has been selected again for 2021 to mentor global student developers. The GSoC program aims to integrate students into open-source software development through a 10-week project, with Postman offering 13 project ideas under categories like Newman, the OpenAPI Initiative, and the AsyncAPI Initiative. Students interested in collaborating with Postman during GSoC 2021 can engage with mentors and submit project proposals, contributing to a wide range of projects from small tasks to major features.

The Postman Games challenge is an engaging public workspace designed to test users' Postman IQ by sending requests to receive trivia questions, initially launched at the Postman Galaxy global conference. The game quickly gained popularity, receiving over 300 forks and two pull requests within a day, and became a lively discussion topic among conference attendees. The success of this interactive game highlights its potential applicability to any developer community, conference, or meetup. The process involves making the game visually appealing using Postman Visualizer, collaborating for early feedback, and eventually sharing it in a public workspace to encourage forking and contributions. Despite initial imperfections, which prompted user contributions and improvements, the focus remains on community building over achieving perfection. The initiative encourages participants to contribute to the Postman Games public workspace and explore the postman-quiz GitHub repository for recreating the quiz with different themes, emphasizing the importance of fun and collaboration in the process.

Postman has developed an innovative framework called "Learn by API" to facilitate API literacy at scale, leveraging tools like Postman Echo and Glitch to create APIs specifically designed for educational purposes. The initiative began in 2020 as a way to enhance Postman's documentation with interactive learning experiences, utilizing the Postman Visualizer to transform API responses into engaging tutorials complete with instructional elements. The approach was expanded through the Postman Student Program, which offers a structured learning pathway culminating in certification and recognition via platforms like Badgr. The framework has been incorporated into various educational events, such as the Postman Galaxy conference, and is now accessible through public workspaces that provide resources on core API concepts. The program encourages community participation, allowing users to remix and extend the learning pathways, with ongoing efforts to enhance automation and integration for a more robust educational experience.

The API lifecycle involves various personas such as developers, architects, testers, and technical writers, each contributing at different stages to develop an API. Postman offers features to streamline this process, enabling teams to work collaboratively and asynchronously on APIs using version control through forks and pull requests. For example, a backend developer can create a fork to add a new endpoint and experiment without altering the original collection, while QA and technical writers can add tests and documentation. Changes can be merged back into the original collection using pull requests, which allow for systematic reviews and discussions. Service owners can enforce governance by approving changes before they are merged, ensuring that all modifications meet predefined conditions. This collaborative workflow is supported by Postman's version control features, which facilitate efficient communication and integration among team members.

Subho Halder, co-founder and chief information security officer at Appknox, explores the increasing reliance on APIs due to the rapid expansion of application functionalities and microservices. APIs, acting as intermediaries, enable seamless communication between dependent applications and come in various types like REST, SOAP, GraphQL, XML-RPC, and WebSocket, each with distinct features and advantages. REST-based APIs are highlighted for their simplicity and scalability, making them suitable for beginners, while SOAP-based APIs are noted for their complexity and enhanced security. GraphQL offers advanced query capabilities, and XML-RPC provides ease of use with minimal bandwidth, whereas WebSocket facilitates interactive communication without server polling. APIs are now integral to modern applications, accelerating development, enhancing business value, and reducing time-to-market, indicating a promising future for API-centered development.

At the Postman Galaxy virtual API conference in February 2021, panelists discussed the pivotal role of people over technology in successful automation projects, emphasizing the importance of cultural shifts in DevOps and the necessity for effective communication and collaboration across teams. Alla Lazareva pointed out that showcasing the value of automation through demos and frequent releases can help secure buy-in from stakeholders, while Angel Rivera highlighted that DevOps requires breaking down barriers between teams to foster a culture of innovation and collaboration. Kevin Harris noted the efficiency gains from reducing repetitive tasks in API testing, and the importance of streamlining client communication channels to avoid unnecessary efforts. The panel also addressed the need for standardization in the API space to enhance user experience and developer accessibility, with large companies particularly valuing predictability and well-documented APIs. Additionally, the conversation touched on career pathways into tech roles, advocating for practical experience through coding bootcamps and hackathons, and underscoring the importance of lifelong learning and mentorship in adapting to the evolving tech landscape.

Postman boasts a vibrant and supportive global community of over 14 million users, characterized by collaboration and mutual assistance. As the technical community manager highlights, this community engages through forums, conferences, and various events, fostering knowledge sharing and cross-cultural interactions. The Postman Supernova program recognizes the most active members who contribute to this ecosystem by organizing and participating in events like workshops, hackathons, and meetups, thereby spreading awareness and understanding of Postman. These Supernovas, such as Valentin Despa, Carson Hunter, and Orest Danylewycz, are driven by a desire to give back to the community that supported their professional growth, and in return, they receive sponsorship, support, and opportunities to further their impact. Through their efforts, Postman aims to expand resources and connections for API professionals, ensuring a thriving environment for API development and collaboration.

At Postman Galaxy 2021, industry leaders gathered to share insights on technology adoption, addressing topics such as developer documentation, virtual community management, and education strategies. The panel featured experts like Alex Walling, Mary Thengvall, John Bohannon, Tina Huang, Elmer Thomas, and Gigi Zanolli, who discussed challenges and strategies for onboarding, engaging virtual communities, and utilizing analytics for feedback. Key takeaways included lowering entry barriers to APIs, empowering developers through no-code platforms, actively listening to community needs, and amplifying underrepresented voices. The session emphasized the importance of inclusivity and community engagement in adopting new technologies, with panelists highlighting the significance of understanding community dynamics and fostering collaboration.

Postman has embarked on an iterative design process to reimagine its search function, aiming to enhance user experience by creating a universal search feature for its API platform. Initially, Postman designers started with a blank slate, focusing on enabling users to efficiently find relevant API resources, which is crucial for both navigation and discovery within the platform. The design journey began by establishing a minimum viable product (MVP) to validate and refine through user feedback and iterative improvements. Key challenges included balancing functionality with user-friendliness and addressing constraints such as filtering and contextual signals, which led to significant design changes like defining search scope, filtering by element type, and enhancing metadata visibility. The process emphasized cross-functional collaboration and experimentation, ensuring alignment with broader product goals. Postman's ongoing commitment to collecting real user feedback through various channels ensures that the universal search continues to evolve, with the recent Postman v8 desktop app making the feature accessible to millions of users.

GraphQL enthusiasts from various sectors gathered at Postman Galaxy 2021 to discuss the current landscape and future of GraphQL, highlighting its adoption across industries, limitations, security considerations, and circumstances where it might not be suitable. The panel, featuring experts like Sara Du, Evan Weaver, Pragati Sharma, Roy Derks, and Tanmai Gopal, explored the integration of REST and GraphQL in hybrid architectures, the challenges and pitfalls in adopting GraphQL, and the significance of role-based schemas and attribute-based access control. Participants expressed optimism about GraphQL's potential to become a ubiquitous API access language due to its ability to decouple front-end and back-end systems, offering device-agnostic and platform-agnostic solutions suitable for the evolving demands of more responsive and efficient interfaces. The discussion underscored GraphQL's promising future, particularly for new projects, as it addresses core API exploration issues and integrates complex APIs more seamlessly than traditional methods like REST.

In response to the pressing need for modern improvements in the healthcare industry, Commure, a San Francisco-based healthcare technology startup, is leveraging its Developer Platform to enhance data interoperability by utilizing Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards and APIs. Despite advancements in medical research and clinical practice, legacy systems complicate data exchange between patients, providers, and insurers. Commure addresses this challenge by educating developers on using its FHIR APIs for common clinical scenarios through the Postman API development platform, which simplifies API usage and fosters collaboration. Commure's Postman Collections facilitate the development of modern healthcare applications by offering practical use cases like telehealth visits, care team collaboration, inpatient medication workflows, and data capture from forms. By maximizing the accessibility of its APIs and enabling developers to create FHIR-native apps, Commure aims to enhance healthcare experiences and outcomes, addressing the industry's agility and data transfer issues exacerbated by the global pandemic.

Postman has updated its API to enhance how workspaces are handled when creating collections, APIs, environments, mock servers, and monitors. If users do not specify a workspace using the optional workspace parameter, Postman will automatically select one, prioritizing the oldest personal workspace if available. If no personal workspace exists, the system will now create a new one named "New Workspace" and provide its ID in the response. This improvement avoids breaking changes that would result from making the workspace parameter mandatory and serves as a safety net, though users are still encouraged to specify a workspace explicitly. For further details, users are advised to consult the official Postman API documentation, and feedback can be shared through Postman's Community forum and GitHub repository.

Postman has transitioned its public workspaces from beta to general availability, with over 10,000 public workspaces now accessible on the Postman API Network, a global resource for discovering top public workspaces, APIs, and collections curated by Postman. Notable companies like Mercedes-Benz, Salesforce, and Microsoft are leveraging these public workspaces to share their innovations. Mercedes-Benz offers 14 collections in its workspace, supporting developers with vehicle-related data products and APIs. Salesforce's workspace helps developers innovate on the Salesforce platform with two collections that include quality requests like SOAP Login Metadata. Microsoft Graph's workspace provides a collection for experimenting with API calls related to Microsoft 365 services. Postman users can engage with these workspaces by watching for updates, forking collections, and joining conversations, enhancing collaboration among millions of developers.