![]() The REST Client extension is simply another tool in our toolbox. Each of these tools has its merits and developers should use whatever tool works best for them and their team(s). To list a few of the tools I find myself using most often (in addition to the REST Client extension, of course): cURL (□), PowerShell (usually Invoke-WebRequest or Invoke-RestMethod), one-off console applications written in C#, Python, etc., and yes, Postman. ![]() I’ve only noticed it happening when my response payloads are quite large, say, ~1 MB (and, in fairness, this could be a Visual Studio Code thing), but I have experienced occasional crashes of Visual Studio Code while attempting to send subsequent requests.ĭevelopers have plenty of options (and preferences) when it comes to writing and executing HTTP requests for development or testing purposes.Developers must share environment variables (especially sensitive ones) outside of the extension (and outside of Visual Studio Code entirely).rest files to source control, other developers on your team will need the extension installed, too. At the time of writing, to my knowledge, there isn’t a way to execute several requests in sequence by just executing the “first” request–requests have to be executed one at a time (and in the correct order, depending on upstream dependencies).If you’re not using Visual Studio Code, then this extension won’t be too useful. ![]() Hotkey support can boost developer productivity.The extension supports different variable types: environment (including shared), file, and prompt (meaning the extension asks the user to enter a value when the request is executed).Responses are displayed in a separate, side-by-side window and include all the headers and the response payload, if applicable (with collapsible sections ✨).The extension displays “red squiggles” under variables it can’t resolve in a request file (which usually means the variable isn’t defined or you have the wrong environment selected).Defining and swapping between environments is quick and easy.rest files can be safely committed to source control and shared with your development team. The ability to dynamically set variables based on responses and use those variables in downstream requests allows for powerful request chaining.The clean, Markdown-like syntax for building requests is intuitive and developer-friendly.If Visual Studio Code is already your editor of choice, then the REST Client extension is just a few clicks away–no need to install and use an external application to send your HTTP requests.That said, here are some additional thoughts (both positive and negative) after having used the extension on a few projects now: For full documentation of the REST Client extension, please see the project’s GitHub page here. ![]() I can’t cover all the features of this extension in a single blog post–there are just too many □. When run sequentially, the first request sets the content_hub_token variable and the second request gets the variable and uses the value in its Authorization header to authenticate against Content Hub to pull the assets. Here’s an excerpt from a sample Visual Studio Code settings.json file that defines a few variables in three different environments: For sensitive values, that should be something like Azure Key Vault, CyberArk, etc. Granted, there’s a convenience tradeoff: developers must share their variables and secrets using an external tool or service. Unlike Postman, the REST Client extension doesn’t concern itself with the handling, storing, or transmission of variables. The extension pulls environments and variables from Visual Studio Code settings (read: the settings.json file) which, upshot, is never (er…at least shouldn’t ever be) under source control developers need not worry about committing secrets to the repository. The REST Client extension handles environment variables (secret or otherwise) in a way that I consider to be elegant, which is to say it doesn’t handle them at all (and that’s a good thing!) □. The first thing you’ll want to do after installing the extension is set up your environments and variables.
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