How to Retrieve Response Data and store it in variables?

How to Retrieve Response Data and store it in variables?

While working with Postman, sometimes we come across some situations where we need to use the Response data of say Request 1 as an input to Request 2 and so on. This process of reusing the data in other requests is called as Chaining.

To get started with Chaining. first thing to know is how to store the re-usable response data in variables.

Have a look at the screenshot below:

In the above screenshot, I have used a dummy API request for testing purpose. Here while hitting "/posts" we will get all the posts data as a response for the request we have made.

Now, suppose we have an another API where we need to pass a particular posts "id" as an input to get the details of the same. Let's see how to achieve this.

Here, we have written some tests in "Test Scripts" tab. Let's see what these lines of code is doing:

pm.environment.clear() - This clears all the environment variables of the specific environment say we are using "QA" environment, so this line of code will clear all the variables from the "QA" environment.

var response = JSON.parse(responseBody) - Here, we are declaring a variable name "response" and we're storing the response of the API in this variable.

pm.environment.set("id", response[0].id) - This line of code is setting an environment variable with name i.e variable key as "id" and as the response is in the form of array, we're getting the post id from the "0th" index and storing in the id variable here.

API Testing via Postman

API Testing via Postman

Introduction

In my previous post, we have seen some few things to know before starting API testing. It's recommended to go though my previous post before proceeding with this article. Here is the link for your quick reference. https://bit.ly/2KjFqYN

Postman is a popular API Development and testing tool. It is available for Windows, Mac OS , Linux. Postman can be downloaded as a chrome plugin (which is deprecated now) hence its recommended to switch to the Native Postman App. You can download the native app from Postman Website.


Initial Steps

• Download latest version of Postman native app and Launch the application.
• Once you Launch the application, you'll see a window having an option to login / signup.

• Or if you are thinking to skip this signup step, then at the bottom of the page you'll see an option "Skip signing in and take me straight to the app", by choosing this option you can continue using the app without creating an account with Postman.
• But, it's good to create an account / sign in initially so that all your work progress can be synced to your account and you'll not loose anything.
• Once you sign in you'll taken straight to the application. 

• Here you'll see many options and you can de-select the checkbox at the bottom left corner (shown in the image above) so that this window will not appear again when you launch the Postman app.

Making our First Request

Once you close the pop-up you'll see a screen similar to a one you see below.

In the above image, there are some areas marked with numbers. The area which is marked as "1." there we can give a "Name to the request". "2." is where we need to enter the "Request URL" and "3." is the "Send" button which will help to build the request.

For testing purpose, we have used https://httpbin.org/ to make request.

Here we have made a GET request and after clicking on Send the request has been built and we got the response back from the server i.e the user-agnet in this particular case.

In next article we'll learn about more HTTP requests and related information.