Postman Essential Features for Testers

4 min readApr 18, 2022

As we know there are a lot of features are available in Postman, which helps us to test the APIs

In that we have some essential features which help in testers day to day activity, let see the features one by one below

1. Importing and Exporting data

Postman can import and export Postman data, including

· Collections

· Environments

· Data dumps

· Globals

Postman can also import non-Postman data in the form of API schemas to help you consolidate your API development workflow.

1.1 Importing data into Postman

You can import collections or your API specifications directly into Postman.

Import Options:

· File (OpenAPI, GraphQL, cURL, WSDL, HAR)

· Folder

· Link

· Raw text

· Code repository (GitHub, Bitbucket)

To import your data into Postman, select Import in the upper left

1.2 Exporting data into Postman

You can also export your environments from Postman.

1. Select the Environments tab from the left navigation menu.

2. Select an environment to export.

3. In the top right corner, select ***

4. Select Export to download your newly generated JSON file.

Exporting data dumps:

You can export a data dump of all your collections, environments, globals, and header presets in Postman.

Select the gear icon in the upper-right corner to open Settings.

The Export page shows information about your export request, including the file size, the expiration date, and the statuses of your requested data exports. Possible statuses are:

· Scheduled: The export request has been placed.

· Transferring: The data transfer process has started.

· Transferred: The data transfer process has been completed.

· Zipping: The process of zipping the file has started.

· Zipped: The file has been zipped.

· Download: The zipped file is ready to be downloaded.

When the export is ready, you will receive an email with a link to download a zipped file with the data dump. You can also download the file using the Download button on the Export page.

2. Dynamic Variables

Postman uses the faker library to generate sample data, including random names, addresses, email addresses, and much more. You can use these pre-defined variables multiple times to return different values per request.

You can use these variables like any other variable in Postman. Their values are generated at the time of execution and their names start with a $ symbol

Eg: $guid, $timestamp

And we can use this dynamic variable as per our needs, by setting it as variables or directly we can use them in request — pm.variables.set(‘{{randomFirstName}}’)

Reference — https://learning.postman.com/docs/writing-scripts/script-references/variables-list/

3. Generating Client Code

You can generate code snippets in various languages and frameworks within Postman.

3.1 Generating code snippets in Postman

In Postman, select the request under your collection and click the Code icon on the right panel to open the Code snippet tab.