How to use Postman for your POST Request

What is a Postman? It is another popular tool for testing APIs. Postman can be used to send API requests to any REST API, and also can be used to receive responses to your requests. What is a POST Request? This happens when a client is posting data on a specific endpoint and this method is always used to send some information into the body of the request and to the server. When we send a POST request what this means is that we want to make some modification at the server level like Updating and Deleting. One good example is the sign-up process, where you are sending your details to the server for keep and for subsequent access. POST requests are always used in sending some sensitive information through the submission of a form to the server.

In this guide, I will be showing you different features of POST Requests. I will also explore how we can use them in Postman.

POST Request in Postman

If an endpoint requires a POST method, clients must use that method as specified for calling the endpoint. I’ll demonstrate the outcomes of using GET instead of POST and making a POST Request without a body.

Using GET instead of POST

Attempting a GET Request on the image’s POST Endpoint triggers an error because GET doesn’t function for POST requests. The request was a login request which is a POST request.

Check the HTTP status showing 405 Method not allowed. This indicates that we’re using the wrong method type to access the endpoint, resulting in this error message being displayed. “The GET method is not supported for this route. Supported methods: POST.”. The below image shows the details.

The above reveals an invalid method type usage, demanding a different method type for proper functionality. Now let us change it to POST Method and see the response. The response below demonstrates a Status: 200 OK, confirming the use of the correct method this time.

Making a POST Request without a body

Let’s test a POST Login Request without a Body or with incorrect details. The image displays a 400 Bad Request with the message “Validation failed,” indicating either empty Body or wrong information.

HTTP status showing 400 Bad Request — Status 400

Now let us pass all the required login details into the body and see the response. The below response rightly show a Status: 200 OK

So the above examples clearly show that anytime we are sending a POST request, it should be accompanied by the Body and the body should be in the correct format and details for you to get a correct response from the server.

We just discussed that sending a POST request involves sending a request with required data wrapped inside the body of the request. Just as there are different types of data, there are also different ways of sending data.

Other features of Post request in Postman

But now we are going to discuss other features of Post request in Postman.

Now select the method request type as POST in drop-down.

select the method request type as POST in drop-down. — Method Drop-down

As soon as you choose POST from the dropdown, you’ll notice the Body becomes active, offering various data-sending options. These options are:

Form-data
X-www-form-urlencoded
Raw
Binary
GraphQL

the Body is enabled with different options to send the data inside the body — Body options

Now let me explain some of these options.

Form Data

This feature sends wrapped data, such as required form information, effectively using the form structure. Usually, these details are sent as KEY and VALUE pairs, with the key representing the entry’s “name” and the value as its value.

Assuming you need to enter First name and Last name into the form-data, it will look like the below:

First name: Christian
Last name: Joshua

How the form date will look like after you have input your name and first name — Form field and data

In this case, the fields consist of First name and Last name, with Christian and Joshua entered as the corresponding values.

x-www-form-urlencoded

Both the form-data and x-www-form-urlencoded work the same way except that the URL will be encoded when x-www-form-urlencoded is used. Encoded implies that the sent data is transformed using various characters, ensuring that even if an attacker intercepts the request, the data remains unrecognizable and unintelligible.

Raw

This part is mostly used when sending the body in the POST method. It can contain anything and whatever is in the text area gets sent with the request. The raw editor lets you set the formatting type along with the correct header that you should send with the raw body.

Binary

This part is designed to send data in a format that cannot be entered or written manually like image file since everything in a computer is converted to binary.

You should always know that your server is always waiting for only request it can entertain in a desired format so there is no way you can send another format than what your server is expecting, otherwise there will be no response or incorrect response as shown through the Status codes earlier.

To utilize or test any API collection, import it into Postman by clicking “import,” selecting the API file, and enabling its usage.

I hope you found this blog post on How to use Postman for your POST Request very interesting and helpful. In case you have any questions do not hesitate to ask in the comment section.