.http file and REST Client

A .http file is used to describe what will be send to a HTTP service, it's more convenient than cURL command, vscode has a great plugin named REST Client, it extend .http file with addition features, such as

• variable repalce
• named request
• reference value from named request
• and more ...

with these features, user can express more complex business logic, for example

1. user login
2. refer the auth information after step 1, to check the user's profile

# @name login
POST {{server}}/login
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "name": "",
    "password": "",
}


###

POST {{server}}/profile
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "auth": "{{login.response.body.$.auth}}",
    "kind": "all"
}

more information can be found in REST Client

test cases

usually, in service development state, we write .http files to test our service, after development stage, these files can also be used as test cases, test cases should be executed by machine instead human round by round, ftab is a tool to execute the .http file.

benchmark is also important for serivce, ftab can execute .http file with requests and currency like ab do with URL. for example

> ftab -i order.http -n 10000 -c 200
Total Requests      : 10,000
Currency            : 200
Successed           : 10,000
Failed              : 0

Time Used           : 19.0007ms
Reqeusts Per Second : 1,223/S
Send Speed          : 111.941K/S
Recv Speed          : 29.758K/S

Avg Time Used       : 19.0007ms
Min Time Used       : 19.0007ms
Max Time Used       : 19.0007ms

P50 Time Used       : 19.0007ms
P75 Time Used       : 19.0007ms
P90 Time Used       : 19.0007ms
P95 Time Used       : 19.0007ms
P99 Time Used       : 19.0007ms

usage

1. get the prebuilt binary from [Release] or just comiple it by yourself
2. move the ftab executable file to a folder within PATH
3. type ftab see it's args

by default, ftab execute the .http named test.http in current folder once, output result in human readable format.

REST Client compatible

REST Client have lots of features, supported features is list below

• Send/Cancel/Rerun HTTP request
• Send GraphQL query and author GraphQL variables
• Organize MULTIPLE requests in the same file (separated by ### delimiter)
• Save raw response and response body only to local disk
• Authentication
• Environments and custom/system variables support
• Remember Cookies for subsequent requests
• Proxy support
• Send SOAP requests, as well as snippet support to build SOAP envelope easily
• HTTP language support

ftab enhance

• reality mock variable with localization (current only chinese supported )
  • human name
  • ID card NO
  • mobile number
  • email address