As a performance engineer, we use a variety of tools and utilities for performance testing, scripting, debugging, automation and more. In my last article, I mentioned HTTPie for Performance Engineers. Recently, HTTPie team released its web and desktop flavors of HTTPie. It is currently in beta. In this blog article, we are going to deep-dive into HTTPie for Web and Desktop.
What is HTTPie?
HTTPie (pronounced aitch-tee-tee-pie) is a command-line HTTP client. Its goal is to make CLI interaction with web services as human-friendly as possible. HTTPie is designed for testing, debugging, and generally interacting with APIs & HTTP servers.
Download HTTPie for Desktop
To download HTTPie for desktop, you need to sign up for beta access. You can sign up at https://httpie.io/product. Once you get the access, you can access HTTPie for Web and download HTTPie for the Desktop.
HTTPie for desktop helps to test the APIs behind the corporate proxy. Here is how it looks when you launch the HTTPie for the desktop version.
HTTPie for the desktop is built using the Electron - a framework to build cross-platform desktop apps using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
Look and Feel of HTTPie for Desktop
The minimal design looks sleek and intuitive. You will get built-in dark and light themes at this moment: dark background with green and purple font colors. On full screen, it looks gorgeous.
By default, the HTTP method is GET. To change, click on GET to select the methods.
The user interface is self-explanatory. I have just pointed out where you can find the details.
You can add the headers easily. Keep typing, it will auto-populate.
Only two authentication methods are now supported: Basic and Bearer.
Payload supports text, file, and form.
The response pane displays the vitals such as response size, duration, and timestamp. It also supports various formats such as JSON, YAML, XML, HTML, and RAW.
To view the request preview, you can toggle the eye icon.
For each send, the request will be saved automatically. If you close the HTTPie, the next time launch will restore your view.
You don't get the developer tools even if you press Ctrl + Shift + I. Also, there is no way to organize the requests at this moment.
No proxy support either. Since this is a beta version, more features will be released eventually.
Conclusion
HTTPie is a great utility for debugging, testing, and more for developers, automation engineers, security professionals, and performance engineers. With the cross-platform feature, it is now seamless to work in multiple environments.
Top comments (3)
thanks bra
how it is better than Postman, which already has all the features described plus much more than that with a great supporting community ?
I agree that Postman is more matured product. HTTPie is more friendly in terminal.