- [Instructor] Because we're not using any front end
and this course is about building a back end,
we need to be able to test
and use the API endpoints we'll create in this course.
This is where Postman will be used to allow us to get data,
post new items, update, or delete them.
So go to getpostman.com and once you get to this page
click on the Download the App and install the application.
Just a little tip, you need to register
to be able to use the application,
or use a login from Google or sign in.
Once you have the application installed,
it's going to look something like this.
So you may have the sidebar open,
I'm not going to let it open
so we can focus on our methods here.
So what you're seeing on the screen
is where we're going to enter the RequestUtil from our API.
So in this case, we're going to enter something like
local host port 4,000 and forward slash contact
and then you use one of the four methods
that we're going to add to our API.
So GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.
There's other methods that you can use
based on what type of API you're using,
but in this case we're going to use those four.
Typically what you're going to do in this same platform,
you're going to enter headers.
So you're going to make sure you enter the headers,
and we'll take a look at that later on.
And then in the body is where you enter
the form that we're going to enter.
The key and value pair and enter.
For example, first name and then the value
and so on and so fourth.
When we click Send were going to get a response
and then basically, we'll know if our request
to the API has been successful.
There's a lot of other tools inside of Postman
and feel free to explore them,
but one that I would recommend
to take a look at from time to time,
especially if you're building a front end,
is as you build your GET request,
so for example if we enter the local host contact here
and then use, for example, a POST method.
If you want to know what is the actual code
that you need to enter or build your front end with,
you can actually take a look at the code here.
So whatever is the value you entered here.
So let's go ahead and enter for this value
and click on code.
Then have snippets of code depending on what
is the language order protocol you're using.
So if you want to use HTTP you can take a look at what is
the actual code that you can use and so on and so fourth.
So if you're a JAVA developer,
you can take a look at union request
and so on and so fourth.
And what this POST request would look like.
So for most people taking this course
I'm assuming you're in JavaScript
so you can take a jQuery AJAX or XHR and know JS.
So for example, native, this is the kind of script which is
legacy JavaScript that you can use to create the front end.
So as you can see this tool offers many tools
to help us test our API and we'll learn more
about these different tools as we use them in future videos.
So we know have Postman set up and ready to go for our APIs.