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Nick Taylor Subscriber for VS Code Tips

Posted on • Originally published at community.vscodetips.com

VS Code Tip of the Week: The Thunder Client Extension

This week's VS Code Tip off the Week is the Thunder Client extension.

Thunder Client is a lightweight Rest API Client Extension for Visual Studio Code

There's amazing tools out there like Postman, Postwoman (now Hoppscotch), etc. but I like the fact that I can use this directly within VS Code.

Typing thund in the VS Code Command Palette

Select Thunder Client New Request from the available items in the list.

The Thunder Client New Request window open in VS Code

The New Request window opens with a test GET request to https://www.thunderclient.com/welcome.

Click the SEND button to make the GET request. A response from thunderclient.com is returned.

The response from the GET request to https://www.thunderclient.com/welcome. The value is the following JSON: {<br>
  "about": "Thunder Client is a hand-crafted lightweight Rest API Client extension for VS Code.",
"createdBy": "Ranga Vadhineni",
"github": "github.com/rangav/thunder-client-support",
"twitter": "twitter.com/thunder_client",
"auth": "Supported Authentication methods Basic Auth, Bearer Token & OAuth 2.0",
"graphql": "The client supports Graphql Query & Variables",
"support": "For Bugs & Feature requests please submit on github",
"share": "Please spread the word about Thunder Client"
}"/>

There's a lot more you can do with the extension, so I encourage you to check out their repository on GitHub!

GitHub logo thunderclient / thunder-client-support

Thunder Client is a lightweight Rest API Client Extension for VS Code.

Thunder Client

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Thunder Client is a lightweight Rest API Client Extension for Visual Studio Code, hand-crafted by Ranga Vadhineni with a focus on simplicity, clean design and local storage. The source code is not open source. You can report any Bugs Or Feature requests here.

Story behind Thunder Client

  • Read Launch Blog Post on Medium

Milestones

  • The extension was launched on March 31st, 2021
  • 500K downloads on Dec 20th, 2021
  • 1 Million downloads on July 13th, 2022
  • View All Milestones

Innovations

  • First to introduce GUI based API Client for VS Code.
  • First to introduce 100% local storage API Client.
  • First to introduce Scriptless Testing.
  • First to introduce an advanced CLI that runs Requests, Collections and cURL commands.
  • More to come...

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How to Use

  • Install the…

Happy VS Coding!

Top comments (16)

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drsimplegraffiti profile image
Abayomi Ogunnusi

Can thunder client publish the end points as documents?

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ranga_vadhineni profile image
Ranga Vadhineni

Hi, I am creator of Thunder Client

can you please provide more details what you meant by end points as documents?

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drsimplegraffiti profile image
Abayomi Ogunnusi • Edited

Kindly refer to the image link below...
dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

For example, In postman you can publish all endpoints as collections that can be shared between developers....

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ranga_vadhineni profile image
Ranga Vadhineni • Edited

You can save requests to collections in Thunder Client also, you can share with your team by saving the requests data to git(see documentation on GitHub)

also you export a collection to json file.

You can generate code snippet too.

dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

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drsimplegraffiti profile image
Abayomi Ogunnusi

Thanks for the reply... I will definitely check Thunder Client

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cavo789 profile image
Christophe Avonture

Hi Ranga
Just to say: Thanks ! Your extension is a must have.

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ranga_vadhineni profile image
Ranga Vadhineni

Glad you like the extension, let me know if you have any questions.

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cavo789 profile image
Christophe Avonture

Did you know if there is any good tutorials on how to use it with OAuth2 authentication ?

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ranga_vadhineni profile image
Ranga Vadhineni
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cavo789 profile image
Christophe Avonture

Thanks Ranga! I think it's not my use case: the tutorial is using "Client Credentials" for the Grant type while, I think, I need to use "Authorization Code".

The app I'm trying to use is indeed using such code that I, then, need to pass back to the calling application. My redirect URL is using a "/saveCode" URI and, I think, I need to give him the generated code (once logged in).

I continue to try / search on Google...

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ranga_vadhineni profile image
Ranga Vadhineni • Edited

OAuth2 - Authorization Code is also easy to test.

Can you create a new issue on our Github page, I will share some screenshots that might be helpful.

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor

Hmm, I’m not sure. Maybe @ranga_vadhineni, the creator of Thunder Client, can chime in. 😎

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mooktar profile image
mooktar

Basically, thunder client satisfy my need right now.

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nickytonline profile image
Nick Taylor • Edited

Jane Foster as Thor in Thor Love and Thunder

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pdfreviewer profile image
pdfreviewer • Edited

I've been long for such an extension for VSCode. A great tool to use to test web APIs.

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ranga_vadhineni profile image
Ranga Vadhineni

Hi All, just want to post an update.

  • Our Code Snippet feature now supports more languages including Flutter Dart & Php Laravel
  • The code snippet is updated in real-time as you make changes to request Image description