Serialize a request into JSON?

[banezaklan]

Hey there, have you already planned for serializing entire request into JSON? I'm looking for a simple way to document a REST API, and make it "interactable" in the same time.
Like postman has these "Collections" but simpler I think...

[AndrewBastin]

Hey....

That seems dope, I will work on a PR for that...

But can you clarify what you want ?

Do you want the ability to export the entire request config for a single request or for multiple requests ?

[brandonros]

One idea is to store some state in the hash or query string of the URL, which would make sharing a request with other teammates a simple copy + paste away.

[AndrewBastin]

@brandonros I like this suggestion, can you open this as a separate issue ?

I will start working on the PR.

[NBTX]

The problem with that though is that the state would, for some more advanced queries be massive.

[AndrewBastin]

The problem with that though is that the state would, for some more advanced queries be massive.

We can introduce support for basic queries only (ie method, url, path) for now.

I think that would still be pretty helpful.

We could flush it out as we go...

[liyasthomas]

Appending on hash or query string of the URL is the easiest way to do this, but in a long run, this would be painful. But as @brandonros said, this could be the easiest way to sahe it to others with copy/paste. #72 does the same approach.

Alternate option is export and import JSON. Which solves the case of complex or large queries but need further dependencies I suppose.

[brandonros]

We can introduce support for basic queries only (ie method, url, path) for now.

I'd argue for including headers too because of how important they are for authentication and how potentially useless requests are if you can't pass auth headers, etc. :)

I'd imagine you would only start running into grossness when you pass probably, the 16kb - 64kb range? Everything below that is probably fine.

https://postwoman.foo/?state={"model":{ ... }} or hash, if you prefer

[jgroom33]

postman uses the concept of environment to store state. this works ok, but is limited because it is a string by default.
the cache should be a combination of responses, requests, and user defined vars
The UI should present each of these objects.
To reference any of these objects, a templating engine should be implemented. This would allow the following behavior:

1. define a var of: foo={"model":{"foo":"bar"}}
2. use var in a request: https://postwoman.foo/?state={{foo}}
3. use response in subsequent request: https://postwoman.foo/blog/{{request1label.response.items[0].id}}

[TheHollidayInn]

I think that with my new collections PR, I could solve this issue since the requests are stored in vuex now. I could add a copy button to the requests that are saved and allow the user to get the json

[liyasthomas]

#176 #209 fixes this. Hence closing.