APITestTool and You! - Looking for feedback and use cases
Hey folks,
As the we zoom through April and May approaches, I hope this finds everyone doing well.
Let's have an a focused conversation within the group around if / how you leverage our legacy API Test Tool (
) as part of your API development process. As many of you know, this tool only supports our legacy ID/Key API auth framework. We have provide basic Postman Collections built around OAuth2.0 API auth.
Some things I'd like to learn from all of you:
- How do you use this tool today?
- What can't you do with the API Test Tool (or postman) that you wish you could?
- If you don't use this tool today, are you using another tool (e.g. postman) to achieve similar goals?
- If you are using other API tools out there, what are they, and what do you like / dislike about them?
As we continue to focus on our Oauth2.0 API auth framework, we've seen a shift towards using tools like Postman with our Postman collections (https://github.com/Brightspace/Postman-Collections), and I'd like to better understand if the legacy API Test Tool is a valuable tool, or if moving towards a more robust, and well maintained Postman collection would be preferred.
Thanks!
Comments
-
We integrated via Valence back in 2016. The services that we developed connect our SIS with Brightspace and use the ID/Key auth.
I use a local version of the API Test Tool to debug any issues should they come up.
-
How do you use this tool today?
I don't. In my specific situation I don't have access to any of the credentials this tool accept because I authenticate with the JWT that brightspace generates. (which yes is a pain in the ass).
What can't you do with the API Test Tool (or postman) that you wish you could?
Well for one it can't accept tons of authentication but also it doesn't hold the list of all routes, seen here
It's not much more than a glorified curl. The good thing about Postman is it hold the documentation and allows you to test at the same time.
If you don't use this tool today, are you using another tool (e.g. postman) to achieve similar goals?
curl / typescript
If you are using other API tools out there, what are they, and what do you like / dislike about them?
I get to configure it exactly how I want and can work much faster than with postman.
if moving towards a more robust, and well maintained Postman collection would be preferred.
Yes, please.
-
I use the online version of the api test tool. Its quicker to test out api calls and grasp what functionality is needed there since I am only using ID/Key auth. The limitation of the tool is testing upload functionality from it. I would like to be able to upload an image, file, or document via the api test tool. I find the tool very useful and straight to the point.
Also maybe a way to easily toggle between roles in this tool instead of having to login via that user id/password
-
I use this tool every few years to refresh my Valence access. The Valence codes I wrote and have been expanding on rely on the older Valence authentication method. This internal code was started around the time Valence debuted.
-
@Samson.C.778 , if we offered client credential grant type via OAuth2.0, would that encourage you to update your legacy applications to use OAuth2.0 authentication vs. our legacy proprietary API auth?
-
Would love to see more collections and resources added to the Brightspace Postman Collection regardless of what is decided with the future of the API test tool. I'm a developer by hobby, so Postman has been my gateway for learning & testing the various Brightspace API calls to automate or streamline various tasks. The test tool is nice, but after getting things going in Postman, I haven't used it more than a couple of times since.
-
From our Software Dev team:
I've used the tool a couple of times to test very basic things but mostly use the API library we have built in conjunction with a simple console app. When testing a new endpoint we have a generic bit of code that we use that can call any endpoint and return the raw data. we then use the raw data along with the valence doco to build up objects.
We also use Postman and SoapUI for testing -
Since 2017, we have used D2L API with ID/Key pair authentication. We did use the API test tool to start, very helpful. It's easy to understand the API process.
Later we use Postman to try API calls to see what the results look like. Or Use Postman to test some functionality before we make automation program.
