Postman

In an increasingly advanced software ecosystem, no app is an island. Getting the most out of your software development often means connecting your existing applications to other third party services. This minimizes your team's need to create whole features from scratch and allows developers to create more robust and useful applications for their clients. The simplest way to accomplish this is through the use of RESTful APIs, but the semantics of working with these kinds of tools can be complicated even for experienced developers. Postman can help you with the process of developing APIs, testing them in the field, and making sure everything runs smoothly in your software environment. The core of the Postman experience is their Collections. This allows you to track all of your APIs and see how well they work in conjunction with one another. This serves as the central hub of your Postman experience. Publishing an API is as simple as hitting the "Run in Postman" button, at which point it will be integrated into your software. From here, you can run monitoring services that keep track of how well the service functions in the real world or create a mock server before you implement the API into your running program. Through the use of mock servers, you can make sure that everything works seamlessly before you ever introduce it to your users. Full debugging features are also included as a way to stress test APIs, and documentation helps understand how each API in your ecosystem functions. There's also an automated testing function that helps you get the results you need without having to deal with the process of testing and debugging manually. Workspaces make sure that everyone involved in the API development and testing process is fully engaged. Anyone on your team with access to a Postman account gets their own workspace, and inviting new members to a workspace is a simple affair that can be handled directly through the Postman app. From here, users have control over administrative access to their own workspaces and can use them to collaborate simply with their peers. This ability to transition from team to personal workspaces allows for a more fluid development style that lets users pull in assistance from specialized members or expand labor as demands require. Digging deeper into the tools available through Postman reveals a satisfyingly complex range of options available. The ability for split stack development in both the design and mock server stages facilitates the ability for both front end and back end developers to work seamlessly with one another, while the debugging function allows the ability to pre-request snippets, scripts, and tests so that you can identify and test potential problems before they ever become an issue. Debugging and automated tests can even be saved as their own collections to make reports that are easily accessible and digestible.