Running Batch Requests In Postman

#api #tutorial #node

I recently faced a situation where I had to run bulk/batch requests in postman. There are other ways to seed data like a custom script, but let's just focus on how to do it with postman.

Making Batch Requests in Postman

We will need some setup to demonstrate so let's create one.

1. Setup
I created a simple express server with 2 endpoints for creating and returning data. We will store the data in a variable and run the server at port 3000.



const express = require("express");
const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
const app = express();
const port = 3000;

// parse request data
app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

let data = [];

app.get("/", (req, res) => res.json(data).status(200));

app.post("/", (req, res) => {
  data = [...data, req.body];
  res.json(req.body).status(201);
});

app.listen(port, () => console.log(`App listening on port ${port}`));

Now, let's move to postman and create a collection (I am calling it Data Endpoints)

Now let's create 2 requests in the collection (for the 2 endpoints from express server).

Get Data
Insert Data

We will be inserting this data. Let's save it in a file (seedData.json).



[
  {
    "id": 1,
    "first_name": "Gary",
    "last_name": "Ortiz"
  },
  {
    "id": 2,
    "first_name": "Albert",
    "last_name": "Williamson"
  },
  {
    "id": 3,
    "first_name": "Mildred",
    "last_name": "Fuller"
  },
  {
    "id": 4,
    "first_name": "Russell",
    "last_name": "Robinson"
  },
  {
    "id": 5,
    "first_name": "Laura",
    "last_name": "Harper"
  },
  {
    "id": 6,
    "first_name": "Larry",
    "last_name": "Sanders"
  },
  {
    "id": 7,
    "first_name": "Michael",
    "last_name": "Rice"
  },
  {
    "id": 8,
    "first_name": "Sara",
    "last_name": "Harris"
  },
  {
    "id": 9,
    "first_name": "Phyllis",
    "last_name": "Webb"
  },
  {
    "id": 10,
    "first_name": "Roger",
    "last_name": "Alvarez"
  }
]

Now, our setup is complete. Next we will run the actual batch requests.

2. Running Batch Requests
We will be inserting data, so we will need to modify our 'Insert Data' request to allow dynamic data. Something like this