Hoppscotch - Open Source API Development EcoSystem
Posted in Recipe on July 29, 2022 by Venkatesh S ‐ 2 min read
I have been a regular user of Postman when it comes to building and using APIs. It has always helped me build the APIs faster by providing API tools, workspaces, API repository support and many other features. It also has a huge community of over 20 million as of today while I am writing this article.
However I came across a tool called Hoppscotch. Hoppscotch caught my attention because of what it promises (as they say on their github repo).
- ❤️ Lightweight: Crafted with minimalistic UI design.
- ⚡️ Fast: Send requests and get/copy responses in real-time.
I put it to test on various parameters for a few weeks now and it has not disappointed me in any of the regards.
How to setup hoppscotch?
You can directly try hoppscotch on https://hoppscotch.io/
If you can run your own hoppscotch docker container, you can bring it up using this command.
docker run --rm --name hoppscotch -p 3000:3000 hoppscotch/hoppscotch:latest
Once your container is up and running you can access hoppscotch at http://127.0.0.0:3000
What all did I test?
I tested it across all these use cases.
REST ( all Http methods - GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, CONNECT, OPTIONS, TRACE) with various Parameters, Request Types, Headers, Authorization, pre-request scripts which are scripts in javascript that are executed before requests are sent and a special feature where we can write tests with nice assertions using javascript.
GraphQL queries with variables, headers and authorization.
Real time requests with websockers, SSE, socket.io and MQTT.
Manage histories of requests, collections, save collections on servers, collaborations among team members (teams feature)
Create Multiple Environments (Dev, QE, Staging, Prod) with parameter varying for each of these environments.
API documentation for the collections that were created.
My Summary
I do not have any different opinion than what hoppscotch promises in terms of being lightweight with minimalistic design and also provide lighting fast request and responses in real time. I see that the minimalism is truly present in this tool. After using it for a while you can realise that it has enough for you to build and collaborate building APIs faster and none of the features in the tool are useless. I strongly recommend it for anyone who wants to give it a try.
