1. Introduction
Postman is a popular tool for API development and testing, which allows you to create, organize, and execute requests to various endpoints. Postman also lets you save your requests and responses in collections, which are groups of related requests that can be run together or individually.
But what if you want to share postman collections with other developers or testers, or collaborate on postman collections with your team members? How can you ensure that everyone is working on the same version of the collection, and that the changes are synced across different devices and platforms?
In this tutorial, you will learn how to use postman workspaces and postman teams to share and collaborate on your postman collections with others. You will learn how to create, manage, and sync postman collections across devices and platforms, and how to use postman collection runner and monitors for automation and testing.
By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:
- Create and manage postman workspaces
- Invite and join postman teams
- Share postman collections with your team members
- Collaborate on postman collections using comments, forks, and merges
- Sync postman collections across devices and platforms
- Use postman collection runner and monitors for automation and testing
Ready to get started? Let’s dive in!
2. What are Postman collections and why are they useful?
A Postman collection is a group of related requests that can be saved, organized, and executed in Postman. A collection can contain any number of requests, and each request can have its own parameters, headers, body, tests, and scripts. You can also add variables, environments, and pre-request scripts to your collection to make it more dynamic and reusable.
Postman collections are useful for several reasons:
- They help you share postman collections with other developers or testers, either by exporting them as JSON files, or by using Postman workspaces and teams.
- They allow you to collaborate on postman collections with your team members, by using comments, forks, and merges to communicate and resolve conflicts.
- They enable you to sync postman collections across different devices and platforms, by using Postman cloud or Postman desktop agent.
- They let you use postman collection runner and monitors for automation and testing, by running your requests in a sequence and setting up schedules and triggers.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to create and manage Postman collections, and how to use them for sharing, collaboration, synchronization, and automation.
But first, how do you create a Postman collection? Let’s find out in the next section.
3. How to create and manage Postman workspaces
A Postman workspace is a shared space where you can organize and access your Postman collections, environments, variables, monitors, mocks, and integrations. You can create multiple workspaces for different purposes, such as personal, team, or project-based workspaces.
Creating and managing Postman workspaces is easy and intuitive. Here are the steps to follow:
- Open Postman and click on the Workspaces icon on the top left corner of the app.
- Click on the Create New button and choose the type of workspace you want to create: Personal, Team, or My Workspace.
- Enter a name and a description for your workspace, and optionally add a summary and an image.
- Click on the Create Workspace button and wait for the workspace to be created.
- You can now see your workspace in the list of workspaces, and switch between them by clicking on their names.
- You can also edit, delete, or share your workspaces by clicking on the … icon next to each workspace name.
By creating and managing Postman workspaces, you can share postman collections and other resources with your team members, and keep them organized and accessible.
But how do you invite and join Postman teams? That’s what we will learn in the next section.
4. How to invite and join Postman teams
A Postman team is a group of Postman users who can access and collaborate on the same Postman resources, such as collections, environments, variables, monitors, mocks, and integrations. You can create or join multiple teams, depending on your needs and preferences.
Inviting and joining Postman teams is simple and convenient. Here are the steps to follow:
- To invite someone to your Postman team, go to the Team tab on the top right corner of the app, and click on the Invite Users button.
- Enter the email address of the person you want to invite, and optionally assign them a role and a workspace.
- Click on the Send Invitations button and wait for the person to accept your invitation.
- To join a Postman team, check your email for the invitation link, and click on it to accept the invitation.
- You will be redirected to the Postman app, where you can see the team name, the role, and the workspace assigned to you.
- Click on the Join Team button and start collaborating with your team members.
By inviting and joining Postman teams, you can share postman collections and other resources with your team members, and benefit from their feedback and contributions.
But how do you share Postman collections with your team members? That’s what we will explore in the next section.
5. How to share Postman collections with your team members
Once you have created or joined a Postman team, you can share postman collections with your team members and access the collections they have shared with you. Sharing Postman collections is a great way to collaborate on your API development and testing projects, and to ensure that everyone is working on the same version of the collection.
Sharing Postman collections is quick and easy. Here are the steps to follow:
- Select the collection you want to share from the Collections tab on the left sidebar of the app.
- Click on the Share icon next to the collection name, and choose the Share Collection option.
- Select the team or the workspace you want to share the collection with, and optionally assign permissions and roles to the team members.
- Click on the Share Collection button and wait for the collection to be shared.
- You can now see the shared collection in the Workspaces tab, and access it from any device or platform.
- You can also unshare, update, or delete the shared collection by clicking on the … icon next to the collection name.
By sharing Postman collections with your team members, you can collaborate on postman collections and benefit from their feedback and contributions.
But how do you collaborate on Postman collections using comments, forks, and merges? That’s what we will discover in the next section.
6. How to collaborate on Postman collections using comments, forks, and merges
Sharing Postman collections with your team members is not enough to ensure effective collaboration. You also need to communicate and coordinate with them, and resolve any conflicts that may arise from different versions of the collection. That’s where comments, forks, and merges come in handy.
Comments are a way to add feedback, suggestions, or questions to your Postman collections, requests, or responses. You can use comments to communicate with your team members, and to keep track of the changes and issues in your collection.
Adding and viewing comments is simple and convenient. Here are the steps to follow:
- Select the collection, request, or response you want to comment on from the Collections tab on the left sidebar of the app.
- Click on the Comments icon on the top right corner of the app, and choose the Add Comment option.
- Enter your comment in the text box, and optionally mention a team member by using the @ symbol followed by their name.
- Click on the Post button and wait for the comment to be added.
- You can now see your comment and any other comments in the Comments tab, and reply, edit, or delete them as needed.
- You can also view the comments from the Workspaces tab, and filter them by collection, request, or response.
By using comments, you can collaborate on postman collections and improve your communication and feedback with your team members.
But what if you want to make changes to a shared collection without affecting the original version? That’s where forks come in handy.
7. How to sync Postman collections across devices and platforms
One of the challenges of working on Postman collections with your team members is to keep them updated and consistent across different devices and platforms. You don’t want to lose your changes or overwrite someone else’s work by mistake. That’s why you need to sync postman collections using Postman cloud or Postman desktop agent.
Postman cloud is a service that allows you to sync your Postman collections and other resources with your Postman account, and access them from any device or platform. You can use Postman cloud to backup, restore, and share your Postman collections with your team members.
Syncing Postman collections with Postman cloud is automatic and seamless. Here are the steps to follow:
- Sign in to your Postman account using your email and password, or using your Google or GitHub account.
- Make sure that the Sync icon on the top right corner of the app is green, indicating that the sync is enabled and active.
- Whenever you make any changes to your Postman collections or other resources, they will be automatically synced with your Postman account and stored in the Postman cloud.
- You can also manually sync your Postman collections by clicking on the Sync icon and choosing the Force Sync option.
- You can now access your Postman collections from any device or platform by signing in to your Postman account.
- You can also view, edit, or delete your Postman collections from the Postman web dashboard, which you can access from any browser.
By syncing Postman collections with Postman cloud, you can share postman collections and other resources with your team members, and keep them updated and consistent across different devices and platforms.
But what if you don’t want to use Postman cloud, or you want to work offline? That’s where Postman desktop agent comes in handy.
8. How to use Postman collection runner and monitors for automation and testing
One of the benefits of using Postman collections is that you can use them for automation and testing, which can save you time and effort, and improve the quality and reliability of your API development and testing projects. You can use two features of Postman to achieve this: Postman collection runner and Postman monitors.
Postman collection runner is a tool that allows you to run your Postman collections in a sequence, and view the results and logs of each request. You can use Postman collection runner to automate your API testing, and to perform tasks such as data-driven testing, load testing, or regression testing.
Using Postman collection runner is easy and convenient. Here are the steps to follow:
- Select the collection you want to run from the Collections tab on the left sidebar of the app.
- Click on the Run icon next to the collection name, and choose the Run Collection option.
- A new window will open, where you can configure the settings for your collection run, such as the iteration count, the delay time, the environment, the data file, and the log level.
- Click on the Run button and wait for the collection run to finish.
- You can now see the results and logs of each request in the Collection Runner window, and analyze the performance and errors of your collection.
- You can also export the results and logs as JSON or HTML files, or save them as a run report for future reference.
By using Postman collection runner, you can use postman collection runner and monitors for automation and testing, and improve the efficiency and accuracy of your API development and testing projects.
But what if you want to schedule and trigger your collection runs automatically, or monitor the health and performance of your APIs over time? That’s where Postman monitors come in handy.
9. Conclusion
In this tutorial, you have learned how to share and collaborate on your Postman collections using workspaces and teams. You have learned how to:
- Create and manage Postman workspaces
- Invite and join Postman teams
- Share Postman collections with your team members
- Collaborate on Postman collections using comments, forks, and merges
- Sync Postman collections across devices and platforms
- Use Postman collection runner and monitors for automation and testing
By following these steps, you can improve your API development and testing workflow, and benefit from the feedback and contributions of your team members. You can also ensure that your Postman collections are updated and consistent across different devices and platforms, and that they meet the quality and reliability standards of your API projects.
We hope you have enjoyed this tutorial, and that you have found it useful and informative. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please feel free to leave them in the comments section below. We would love to hear from you!
Thank you for reading, and happy Postman collection sharing and collaboration!