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REST APIs with Express

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Using Postman to Test Routes

2:11 with Treasure Porth

Postman is an application that will allow us to send a variety of requests to our API so that we can write endpoints to create, update and delete quotes.

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    [MUSIC] 0:00
    By default, browsers send GET requests, which makes them easy to test. 0:05
    Just hop into a browser and send a request to an endpoint. 0:08
    If you get back the information you were expecting, 0:12
    you know the route is working as intended. 0:14
    Sending other types of request from the browser, like POST or DELETE, 0:17
    can be a little trickier. 0:20
    Postman is an application that will allow us to send a variety of requests 0:21
    to our API so that we can write endpoints to create, update, and delete quotes. 0:25
    And then make sure our application is functioning as we expect. 0:29
    Visit the link in the teacher's notes and 0:33
    follow the instructions to download Postman. 0:35
    After you've done that, open up Postman, and let's take a look. 0:38
    If you get any pop-ups when you first open the app, go ahead and 0:41
    close them out for now. 0:44
    Notice here on the left side, 0:46
    we have a drop-down menu containing many types of requests. 0:48
    Let's stay on GET for now. 0:52
    And here we type the URL that we want to send a request to. 0:53
    Make sure your server is running, so I'll go back to my terminal and type npm start. 0:57
    My server is already running, so that's great. 1:03
    Now that the server is running, can return to Postman. 1:06
    And we'll send a GET request to our application's 1:09
    /quotes route, localhost:3000/quotes. 1:14
    Click Send, and this area here on the bottom shows our server's response. 1:18
    We've sent a GET request and we've received an array of quote objects. 1:24
    Now let's try sending a GET request to a URL containing a quote ID. 1:29
    Send a GET request to localhost:3000/quotes/8721. 1:33
    And we receive just that specific quote object back. 1:40
    Notice the status code here. 1:44
    These are status codes sent by our server to inform the client of the status of 1:46
    the request. 1:50
    When a request is successful, Express sends a status code of 200 automatically. 1:51
    We'll learn more about status codes and how to set them later on in the course. 1:56
    We'll use Postman for the rest of the course to test our routes. 1:59
    In the next video, 2:03
    we'll write a POST route to add a new quote to our data store. 2:03
    And use Postman to send data and make sure our API is working as expected. 2:07

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