wwwlicious / ServiceStack.Api.Postman

A ServiceStack plugin providing auto-generated Postman collections

ServiceStack.Api.Postman

Postman is a HTTP client designed to help test web services, and I have found it to be extremely helpful when developing REST based APIs. One of its nicest features is the ability to save requests into 'collections', and the ability to import and export these collections for sharing with others. I have written a simple ServiceStack plugin to enable the automatic generation of these collections.

Installation

Install the NuGet package (https://www.nuget.org/packages/ServiceStack.Api.Postman/) or reference the library directly.

Enable Postman plugin in AppHost.cs with:

    public override void Configure(Container container)
    {
        ...
        Plugins.Add(new PostmanFeature());
	
        // Add the CORS feature to allow direct import from the Postman app.
        Plugins.Add(new CorsFeature()); 
        ...
    }

Compile it. Now you can access the Postman endpoint at: (Assuming service hosted at /api)

http://localhost:port/api/postman

Use this url when importing the collection into Postman.

Configuration

By default, the postman service is only available when running locally. To enable access from remote machines, turn off the LocalOnly flag.

    public override void Configure(Container container)
    {
        ...
        Plugins.Add(new PostmanFeature { LocalOnly = false });
        ...
    }

Custom Labels

The generated label for the postman request can be customized using a format string with {type} and {route} placeholders. These placeholders will be replaced with the request type and route and all other characters willl be left as-is. The label format can be set either on the postman endpoint: /postman?label={type}+{route} or the PostmanFeature:

    public override void Configure(Container container)
    {
        ...
        Plugins.Add(new PostmanFeature { DefaultLabel = "{type} {route}" });
        ...
    }

Custom Headers

Like custom labels, custom headers can be supplied for all postman requests. By default, Accept: text/json is set on all requests, but this can be overridden on the postman endpoint or the PostmanFeature:

    public override void Configure(Container container)
    {
        ...
        Plugins.Add(new PostmanFeature
        {
    	    DefaultHeaders = new[] { "Accept: text/json", "Authorization: Basic eDpwYXNzd29yZA==" },
        });
        ...
    }

or

/postman?headers=Accept:+text/json,Authorization:+Basic+eDpwYXNzd29yZA==