Atlas › 14 API Testing Fundamentals › Postman Exploration☰ Read as one page
Postman Exploration
1.1OverviewBefore you automate, understand the API. Postman is the universal tool for manual API exploration — it lets you send requests, inspect…1.2Getting Started with PostmanMost APIs provide an OpenAPI (Swagger) specification. Importing it into Postman auto-generates a collection with every endpoint, request…1.3Writing Test ScriptsPostman's test scripts run after each request, validating responses inline.1.4Pre-Request ScriptsPre-request scripts run before the request is sent — useful for generating dynamic data or calculating signatures.1.5Collection RunnerThe Collection Runner executes all requests in a collection sequentially, with test assertions.1.6Postman Monitors and WorkspacesSchedule collections to run automatically (e.g., every hour) and receive alerts when tests fail. Useful for production health checks.1.7Postman LimitationsPostman excels at exploration and prototyping. For production CI/CD pipelines, transition to code-based automation.1.8Practical Exercise1. Find a public API with an OpenAPI spec (e.g., Petstore, JSONPlaceholder, or your company's API) 2. Import the spec into Postman 3…1.9Key Takeaways- Use Postman for API exploration before writing automated tests - Set up environments to switch between dev/staging/production easily…