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Activity - Use methods with curl

This is an activity from the Documenting APIs online course. For this activity, we will be using curl and the Swagger Petstore.

Create a new pet

We will create a new pet by passing a JSON file with a curl command.

  1. Insert the following JSON code into a text file:

{
   "id":555,
   "category":{
      "id":0,
      "name":"string"
   },
   "name":"doctordog",
   "photoUrls":[
      "string"
   ],
   "tags":[
      {
         "id":0,
         "name":"string"
      }
   ],
   "status":"available"
}
Note: This information comes from the Swagger Petstore and will be passed in the -d (send data) parameter of the curl request.

  1. Change the first id value to another integer and change the name value to another name.
  2. Save the the file as mypet.json in a local directory.
  3. Open a command prompt from the directory.
  4. After your terminal or command prompt is in the same directory as your JSON file, create the new pet with the following curl request:
curl -X POST --header "Content-Type: application/json" --header "Accept: application/json" -d @mypet.json "https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet"
  • X POST: create (POST) a new resource.
  • --header: include extra or custom headers.
  • Content-Type: the type of content to submit with the request.
  • Accept: the type of content we will accept in the response.
  • -d @mypet.json: send data/file.

The response should look like this and contain the name of the newly created pet:

{"id":555,"category":{"id":0,"name":"string"},"name":"doctordog","photoUrls":["string"],"tags":[{"id":0,"name":"string"}],"status":"available"}

Update the name of your pet

We will change our pet's name with the update pet method.

  1. Open the mypet.json file and change the name value.
  2. Use the PUT (update) method instead of the POST (create) method.
  3. Update the name of the pet with the following curl request:
curl -X PUT --header "Content-Type: application/json" --header "Accept: application/json" -d @mypet.json "https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet"

The response should look like this and contain the updated pet name:

{"id":555,"category":{"id":0,"name":"string"},"name":"misterdog","photoUrls":["string"],"tags":[{"id":0,"name":"string"}],"status":"available"}

Get your pet's name by ID

We will search for our pet by passing the id into the /pet/{petID} endpoint:

  1. Copy the first id value from the mypet.json file.
  2. Use this curl command to get information about the pet:
curl -X GET --header "Accept: application/json" "https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/555"

The response should look like this and contain the name of the pet:

{"id":555,"category":{"id":0,"name":"string"},"name":"misterdog","photoUrls":["string"],"tags":[{"id":0,"name":"string"}],"status":"available"}

Delete your pet

We will delete our pet from the registry.

  1. Delete the pet from the registry with following curl request:
curl -X DELETE --header "Accept: application/json" "https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/555"
  1. The response should look like this:
{"code":200,"type":"unknown","message":"555"}
  1. Confirm the pet has been deleted from the registry with this curl command:
curl -X GET --header "Accept: application/json" "https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/555"

The response should look like this:

{"code":1,"type":"error","message":"Pet not found"}

This activity demonstrates how to perform CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations with curl requests.

How import a curl request into Postman

We will confirm our pet has been deleted from the petstore registry by importing our previous curl request into Postman.

  1. Open Postman.
  2. Click Import.
  3. Click Raw text.

  4. Copy and paste the following curl request from the previous activity (Delete your pet).

    curl -X GET --header "Accept: application/json" "https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/555"

  5. Click Continue.

  6. The Import Entities tab will open.
  7. Click Import.

  8. The curl request has been converted to the following GET request in Postman:

    https://petstore.swagger.io/v2/pet/555

  9. Click Send to complete the process.

    You should see the same message from Step 4 of the previous activity (Delete your pet).

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