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What is cURL and why is it important in API testing?πŸ€–

Maria 🍦 Marshmallow on January 04, 2023

Today’s post is devoted to one of the inevitable parts of API testing – cURL. cURL (client URL) – is a command line tool and library for transfer...
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jonrandy profile image
Jon Randy πŸŽ–οΈ β€’

Another tip - you can get the equivalent cURL command for any request your browser makes by selecting 'Copy > Copy as cURL' from the context menu of any request in the network tab

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

Thanks for the advice, I believe it will help someone 😍

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Michael Mroz β€’ β€’ Edited

I know some people who still use curl, but most have gravitated to higher-level tools.

I'm personally a fan of the HTTPie CLI for anything ad hoc, which is much less verbose than curl for most tasks. Every now and then I use curl directly, but it's very rare.

The GUI space is more saturated and mostly geared around reusable definitions and chaining requests to build workflows. Postman is probably the most established player there, but Swagger, Insomnia and plenty others exist. The makers of HTTPie recently launched their own too, resulting in the original CLI tool being rebranded "HTTPie for Terminal".

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

It all depends on the preferences of each of us πŸ™ƒ
By the way, API Tester mobile app supports import from Postman and Swagger that you mentioned 😏

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Lucas Perez β€’

I've been using curl for so long, but somehow I have never associated its name with URL wtf, even having read the manual. πŸ˜‚

Love it, great tool!

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

Haha it's funny 😝
Thank you Lucas❀️

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Conor Gibson β€’

Thanks for the article, it's a great explanation.

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Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

It's my pleasure, thank you Conor😘

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leob profile image
leob β€’

Yes!

Curl, I've always loved it as a simple command line tool to do some quick API testing :)

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

Take a look at the API Tester mobile app at your leisure. I think you will appreciate its use when there is no laptop at hand at the right time.πŸ˜‰

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itsahsanmangal profile image
Ahsan Mangal πŸ‘¨πŸ»β€πŸ’» β€’

cURL is a command-line tool that allows you to transfer data from or to a server. It supports various protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and more. cURL is often used to troubleshoot network issues, test APIs, and automate tasks.

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

Thanks for your interest and clarification😊

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magicwalter15 profile image
magicwalter15 β€’

I will definitely try this, It looks very useful.

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

I'm glad to helpπŸ’–
Let me know how it goes.

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alessioferrine profile image
alessioferrine β€’

Import is a quite simple but really useful thing πŸ‘
Thanks for writing about it!

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

Nice to hear that 😌

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classx profile image
classx β€’
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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

Thanks for the recommendation πŸ™Œ
This is also an interesting tool, I will explore it in more detail and make a personal comparison with cURL. If I'll dind it fascinating, maybe I will write a post about it πŸ€”

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Liviu Lupei β€’

Just dropping a shameless plug here.
You can also use Endtest to perform API testing.

Documentation for that:
app.endtest.io/guides/docs/send-ap...

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll explore it and form my own opinionπŸ€“

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mariamarsh profile image
Maria 🍦 Marshmallow β€’

As for this, I can recommend this post about top tools, maybe someone will find something useful 😌
Thunder Client is also there 😏

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