API 101 Sharpen API basics with Postman.
Tags: postmanstudent, apiweek
Published: 2023-04-11 15:42:19

Hello coders!!!
I Learned about API, Postman, Request-Response pattern, and status codes. Well, the part I most enjoyed was the hands-on practice part, where we practiced different methods - Get, Put, Post, and Delete.

Thanks to #PostmanStudent

**My learning experience of Postman API 101 Workshop:**

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**API - Application Programming Interface :**

_**Introduction:**_
Recently, I attended a Postman API 101 workshop, and I would like to share my learning experience with you. Postman is a popular API development tool used to create, test, and document APIs. In this blog, I will give you an overview of API, what is Postman, different status code families, and share my learning experience by explaining the steps we followed during the workshop.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/kndrlyjx3wvdd4phovj8.png)

_**API - Application Programming Interface:**_
API stands for Application Programming Interface. It is a set of protocols, routines, and tools used to build software applications. APIs allow different applications to interact and communicate with each other. For example, when you use Google Maps on your phone to navigate, the application sends a request to the Google Maps API to fetch the required information.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/e01ip28iqu786wo3log8.png)

_**What is Postman?**_
Postman is an API development tool used to create, test, and document APIs. It allows developers to send HTTP requests, test APIs, and see responses in real-time. Postman provides an easy-to-use interface and supports a variety of request methods such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc. With Postman, you can also create and save collections of API requests, share them with your team, and collaborate on API development.

_**1. Creating fork to your workspace:**_

Go to this link and fork [this basics of API workspace link](https://www.postman.com/postman/workspace/postman-student-api-101-workshop/collection/13935790-3246e804-99c9-444e-8248-59da3f9f6122?ctx=documentation)
Link for [Documentation](https://documenter.getpostman.com/view/13935790/TzK2YtWD)

**_2. We worked with the Joke API:_**
path -> "{base_url}: http://postman-student.herokuapp.com/"
By default, we have 4 jokes with id [0-3]
To get a random joke: {base_url}/joke
To get a specific joke: {base_url}/joke/{id of joke}

Different Request methods Implementation:
a. Get Method: To retrieve information

_**Different Status Code Families:**_
HTTP status codes are a part of the HTTP protocol, which is used to exchange data between a server and a client. Status codes provide information about the request's success or failure and help in troubleshooting issues. There are five status code families in HTTP:

Informational (100-199)
Successful (200-299)
Redirection (300-399)
Client Error (400-499)
Server Error (500-599)
Follow These Steps:

_**Creating a fork to your workspace:**_
In the workshop, we were given a GitHub repository link containing the API we were going to test. The first step was to fork the repository to our workspace so that we could modify it as per our requirements.

_**We worked with the Joke API:**_
We used the Joke API, which provides random jokes based on different categories such as programming, miscellaneous, etc. We created a request to the API and set the category parameter to "programming." We then sent the request and received a response from the API in JSON format.

_**Conclusion:**_
Overall, the Postman API 101 workshop was a great learning experience for me. It provided me with an in-depth understanding of APIs and how to use Postman to test and document them. I hope this blog has given you an idea of what to expect in a Postman workshop and how to get started with API testing using Postman.


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