Where is API tooling lacking ?
from dhruv3006@lemmy.world to selfhosted@lemmy.world on 28 May 05:52
https://lemmy.world/post/47441189

The default API tooling that comes to your mind is Postman.

Postman is cloud based - the other offline alternatives are on their way to enshittification.

Is there any solution to the problem or we should all default to curl.

#selfhosted

threaded - newest

littleomid@feddit.org on 28 May 06:16 next collapse

No, the default API tooling that comes to my mind is curl.

Obligatory: justuse.org/curl/

dhruv3006@lemmy.world on 28 May 07:05 next collapse

But then how did Postman became so popular - we can’t deny it became the default.

dyathinkhesaurus@lemmy.world on 28 May 07:31 next collapse

Point and drool as opposed to learning cli commands.

Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org on 28 May 08:15 next collapse

But that was a good while ago. And it was not a cloud thing at the time it was popular.

There are many alternatives now.

slazer2au@lemmy.world on 28 May 08:23 collapse

So did windows in the business world. Just because it’s default doesn’t mean it’s the best option. People will take a pile of poop with a pretty veneer that does 90% of the work over the correct tool with a leaning curve.

mlg@lemmy.world on 28 May 08:37 next collapse

It’s been downloaded over 20 billion times. It supports 25+ protocols. It’s in cars, refrigerators, TV sets, routers, printers, phones, and every goddamn server on the planet.

Everything except my random podman container I need to test something on, but for some reason will have wget lmao.

Also a good time to mention you can use Ctrl+x Ctrl+e to edit your multi line commands in your default terminal editor so you can keep a clean, line separated command which is easy to read and follow.

Badabinski@kbin.earth on 28 May 11:26 next collapse

Is your container using BusyBox? if so, then it's not even real wget, it's just the disgusting awful busybox version.

God I hate BusyBox.

captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world on 28 May 13:22 collapse

Okey, Ctrl+x Ctrl+e is super cool. I did not know about that! Thanks!

captcha_incorrect@lemmy.world on 28 May 13:25 collapse

I’ve used Postman et al. but I often default to PowerShell (because Windows) and a text file. It gives me everything I need from Postman without having to install or learn new tools.

Curl is nice but I miss the object orientation in my shell when I use *sh.

Nester@feddit.uk on 28 May 06:45 next collapse

There are a few other options, such as Bruno.

www.usebruno.com

But if you can spare the time to learn curl it’s probably the most versatile.

dhruv3006@lemmy.world on 28 May 06:51 next collapse

subscription based right?

Nester@feddit.uk on 28 May 07:46 collapse

It’s free for a single user, but you pay a subscription per user for collaborative use.

I’m just a solo enthusiast so it’s free for what I’d use it for.

Edit: I guess to your earlier point perhaps this a step towards enshitification and they might well put more and more tools behind a paywall.

Undaunted@feddit.org on 28 May 07:00 next collapse

Bruno is pretty decent, though I don’t like that it’s not fully FOSS. The whole premium feature stuff is closed source, if I’m not mistaken.

Breezy@sopuli.xyz on 28 May 08:14 collapse

Yup, Bruno is my choice as well coming from Insomnia and Postman. I was lucky enough to purchase the early supporter lifetime license when it was available, so I’ll be using it for the foreseeable future. Hopefully it doesn’t enshittify as another commenter pointed out.

While I still use curl for simple requests, I really do like having a GUI. Features like prettifying requests and responses, being able to fold code, saving requests, shared authorization across multiple requests, etc. Are the reasons why I don’t think I could ever really use CLI options.

Undaunted@feddit.org on 28 May 06:53 next collapse

I’ve been searching for alternatives as well, especially since Insomnia introduced mandatory account creation.

I think Yaak is pretty good and I recently found out about Voiden, though I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.

Edit: I forgot to mention that if you’re using IntelliJ Ultimate for what you’re doing, it has a built-in HTTP client too. We use that a lot at work, because then you can have the requests directly together with your application’s source code inside your repository, which is kinda handy.

statelesz@slrpnk.net on 28 May 07:05 next collapse

What about Hoppscotch? hoppscotch.io

EarMaster@lemmy.world on 28 May 09:18 next collapse

I still use Insomnia as I think it offers the better experience over Postman, but I wouldn’t recommend it as it gets shifted more and more into a forced subscription model.

I have installed Hopscotch, but Insomnia still works so I never felt the need to switch - but I am ready to do so.

OpenAltFinder@lemmy.world on 28 May 09:27 next collapse

Bruno and Yaak are both pretty decent, I use Yaak on a daily basis. There’s also HTTPie, Hoppscotch, Insomnia and Scalar.

AnotherPenguin@programming.dev on 28 May 09:42 collapse

There’s also hurl.dev for those that like curl

OpenAltFinder@lemmy.world on 28 May 09:47 collapse

That looks cool, I also just discovered github.com/VoidenHQ/voiden, which seems similar but uses Markdown instead.

clif@lemmy.world on 28 May 13:43 collapse

Postman locked all my locally saved requests away after an update unless I created an account with them. I wasn’t updating very often because every update made it shittier.

Fuck postman.

I’ve been all in on Bruno ever since.