Saving HTTP requests

This recipe is only if you are using a JetBrains product as your IDE

When just starting out writing an API, you might write a little of the API code and test that the API works by placing a request via Postman or Insomnia HTTP clients manually, if not writing tests first.

A better approach to track all the requests that can be made via the API is to create and git track an *.http file. In JetBrains Rider (and other JetBrains IDEs), http files can be executed in place, so you’re able to write requests and save them for later.

Here’s an example api.http:

GET {{host}}/api/projects

GET {{host}}/api/projects/1

An adjoining http-client-env.json next to the http file can be used to denote an environment to run the http requests against. That is what the {{host}} placeholder is for.

An example of an http-client-env.json file:

{
  "local": {
    "host": "http://localhost:5000"
  },
  "dev": {
    "host": "some-remote-address"
  }
}

Highlights

• You can save and track all types of HTTP requests and payloads.
• Each of the requests can be executed separately.
• Requests can be piped from one to another.

Learn more about Http client