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Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

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Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you comment on the I/O of documentation from it? Ie, I hate how Postman and friends want to be the nexus / saas of my products API documentation. I want to work with something in a common format, like OpenAPI, RAML or BlueprintAPI. These HTTP clients are nice, but I want them to be a tool, not required. Thoughts?

I've used them all: Postman, Insomnia, Paw, and other online web apps. Unfortunately none come close to being usable for large APIs imo. Some of the problems I faced off the top of my head (it's almost 2 years ago now since I tried them all though, but I haven't seen much change to be honest): Insomnia: doesn't really have any support for documentation stuff. It is just an HTTP client that if you share your workspace…

It's always surprising to me that something so central, api documentation, is so abandoned in the industry. It's.. weird.

I guess it shows how little devs prioritize documentation.

Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If performances are a concern I would build it in QT, not Javascript. Just opening Firefox eats like 400 MB ram on my PC !

It makes me question, is there any way to run a slim browser for these kind of tools? It would be cool to have a tool that would: * run a very slim browser tab for each tool * I cloud load/save sites into tools (So I can really run them offline) * Could have a shortcut or a starting page that's just links to my saved tools

Saw this on Hacker News a short while back and it was pretty easy to set up. Might be pretty close to what you're looking for. It aims to be a sort of a replacement for what Electron does, without embedding a full browser.

https://wails.app/

Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#73
post #64

Don't forget to paste your auth tokens into a random website today.

Everyone: don't use existing please make new, unique keys for services like this. Time-box and revoke!

How does that stop the operator from watching the logs, and stealing all my data?

Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious to know what gives you the confidence that Insomnia won't lose your saved data? Are you paying the premium for the data sync?

Not OP, but since Insomnia is a native app, it'll probably store its data and preferences in ~/Library. That is of course backed up via Time Machine.

It is not nattive , very hard to find native apps https://github.com/getinsomnia/insomnia

Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've used them all: Postman, Insomnia, Paw, and other online web apps. Unfortunately none come close to being usable for large APIs imo. Some of the problems I faced off the top of my head (it's almost 2 years ago now since I tried them all though, but I haven't seen much change to be honest): Insomnia: doesn't really have any support for documentation stuff. It is just an HTTP client that if you share your workspace…

It's always surprising to me that something so central, api documentation, is so abandoned in the industry. It's.. weird. I guess it shows how little devs prioritize documentation.

Not sure about open source projects, but in corporate settings it is often driven by short term thinking in priorities, sometimes driven by short term incentives that reward features over usability/support.

Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#78

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Insomnia. https://insomnia.rest/ It's an excellent tool that allows defining workspaces and even sharing sets of routes with members of your team. It's one of my favourite tools.

Personally using Nightingale when on Windows and couldn't be happier. I don't need or want another electron app running on my machine and currently all the cool kids in the space of API clients seem to be using just that, including Insomnia.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/nightingale-rest-api-clien...

Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#79
post #5
post #2

Don't CORS restrictions basically render this whole tool useless?

I suppose it's useful for APIs with permissive CORS headers. Maybe there's also some way to run it locally as a separate app with SOP disabled? Maybe something like: $ chromium-browser --disable-web-security --user-data-dir="/tmp" --kiosk https://liyasthomas.github.io/postwoman/ Unrelated, meta note: why does indiehackers need a separate interstitial splash screen, visible for ~4-5 seconds to load a simple article pa…

Then you're launching a second chromium instance and practically recreating Electron.

Re: Show HN: I created Postwoman, an online, open-source API request builder

#80

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Insomnia. https://insomnia.rest/ It's an excellent tool that allows defining workspaces and even sharing sets of routes with members of your team. It's one of my favourite tools.

I have been using Insomnia since it was shown in HN. One of my recent favorite features is request chaining introduced in v6.4.2.
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